Posts Tagged ‘books’

Roy DeCarava: The Sound I Saw

Posted by Danielle on Monday, January 10th, 2011

The Sound I Saw is easily one of the best photography books I had the pleasure of procuring in 2010. Many of the images and text within this book brought me to tears. Roy DeCarava, who passed away in 2009, is one of those artists I felt a kindred connection with when I was first introduced to him in 2005 in a history of photography class. His black-and-white images of his family, friends, and strangers in Harlem are made with a keen eye, painterly compositions, and love.

The love DeCarava had for his neighborhood and for its inhabitants shines through in every image. And, as weird as this sounds, I miss DeCarava as if he was a member of my own family, even though I never got the chance to meet him.

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Posted in Art, Photography | No Comments »

Flak Photo x Zwelethu Mthethwa book giveaway!

Posted by Danielle on Friday, July 30th, 2010

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Remember when I wrote about South African photographer Zwelethu Mthethwa’s new exhibit at the Studio Museum in Harlem last Friday? Well, in related news, the online photo magazine Flak Photo and the nonprofit photography foundation Aperture are teaming up to give away copies of Mthethwa’s eponymous monograph to three lucky readers via Facebook. The rules are fairly straight forward:

Step 1: Go to Flak Photo and pick your favorite photo from their archive of featured photographers.

Step 2: Copy and paste the link of the photo to the comments section of Flak Photo’s Facebook page by August 1 (that’s THIS Sunday).

Step 3: Wait with bated breath to see if you’re one of the randomly chosen winners.

Now go forth and browse. Good luck!

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Posted in Art, Contests, Photography | 1 Comment »

Andrew Dosunmu x The African Game

Posted by Danielle on Tuesday, June 15th, 2010

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Since we’re in the thick of the World Cup, I thought it would only be appropriate to highlight The African Game, a book dedicated to Africans’ passion for football (a.k.a. soccer) by Nigerian-born photographer and filmmaker Andrew Dosunmu. From the publishers:

The African Game is a unique vision of the continent as documented by Nigerian photographer and filmmaker Andrew Dosunmu. Punctuated with vivid essays by journalist Knox Robinson, The African Game looks to soccer as a way to explore modern African life, culture, and identity. A compelling, on-the-ground depiction of Africa’s passion for soccer, this book is the first look at the rich sporting culture that has produced some of professional soccer’s biggest and highest-paid stars. The African Game will be a definitive resource during this summer’s World Cup, which will show the continent’s players emerging as some of the game’s best—as we look to South Africa as the host of the 2010 World Cup. As these pioneers change the way the game is played—and the way we think about the sport itself—The African Game provides crucial back-story and documents the soccer mania that has gripped the entire continent.

Like a film artfully moving through its plot, The African Game follows a narrative of the sport in Cameroon, Senegal, Togo, Cote D’Ivoire, Angola, Ghana, Tunisia, and Egypt by exploring its resonance at all levels of the culture, from national team sponsorship to the unmistakable street style that Africa’s soccer mania inspires. The African Game mixes classic portraiture and gripping reportage-style photography to frame Africa, its sporting heritage, and its everyday vibrancy in a way that is rarely seen—Africa as it actually exists, not as we imagine it to be. With imagistic essays framed by vital facts and stats about each team, The African Game will not only be an indispensable resource in the months leading up to the 2010 World Cup—it will be an unprecedented document of the sport and its place at the center of African popular culture.

Pick up a copy here.

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Posted in Photography | 1 Comment »