Recent Books of Interest: 1

Introduction: In the next few days I'm going to be covering a motley of recently encountered or recently released books, some of which I've seen, some of which I haven't. This post began as a simple listing of a few titles, and since then has been growing like the Blob that ate Brooklyn. Every day it's gotten a little bit larger, a little bit longer. So, rather than delay and delay until it's "finished" and publish it as one great big huge endless sprawling post, I thought I'd break it into pieces. That way, you actually get to see it.

And away we go. —Mike

William Albert Allard: Five Decades (Focal Point, an imprint of the National Geographic Society). (Here's the U.K. link.) Just published last week.

The work of the great Bill Allard stands in a complex relationship to National Geographic magazine, which since 1962 has published much of that work. He is at once the quintessential NG photographer, and also a standout NG photographer, and also, it must be admitted, something of an anomaly as an NG photographer, in that he is really a reportorial photojournalist and a complex formalist photographer with a distinctive, influential style. And there's a further tension: many of his essentially investigative stories have been done of notoriously picturesque subjects, a few of which (cowboys, the Amish/Hutterites etc., bullfighting) can almost be seen as fish-in-a-barrel in this era in which all subjects get covered unto saturation.

I suppose you might have noticed that many retrospectives can be the best books by the artists so treated, because they gather together far-flung work, fill in missing ligatures, reveal rarities, and make a comprehensive, unified case for that person's vision and concerns. Others are more like samplers, bringing to mind the larger, more complete, more nuanced bodies of work from which the selections are drawn. Five Decades, oddly, is both: it conjures wholer sets of pictures and presents new material in about equal measure. I had never seen the Polaroids, for instance, or the intimate pictures of women. (And I'd never seen the picture from Junior Wells' funeral.)

William Albert Allard, Minor League Spring Training, Phoenix, Arizona, 1990

Allard, son of a Swedish immigrant, Minnesota-raised, will go down as a major figure in the history of color photography, transitional to whatever period of the history of photography we're in now. He's one of the few photographers of his generation (born 1937) whose entire body of work is in color. And you just keep coming back to the one overriding salient characteristic of this retrospective: there's a photographic masterpiece on just about every single page.

I'll have more to say about this one in a bit, as the physical book is being sent to me as we speak.

Bill Allard

But it seems clear that for most of us followers of the art, this 'un will be a must-have this Christmas season.

[To be continued....]

Mike

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Original contents copyright 2010 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved.

Featured Comment by Bill Mitchell: "Mine came yesterday. Definitely one of the Great Books of photography."

Featured Comment by JK: "Yes, a must-have, even for some of us who have had to cut way back on buying photo books due to lack of space and itinerant lifestyles. (This might be a good time to also mention William Albert Allard: The Photographic Essay [OoP but available used. —Ed.]. It’s a small book that gives a real insight into his way of working.)"

Featured Comment by Stuart Hamilton: "There are others I admire of course but Bill Allard is pretty much everything I'd like to be as a photographer. Vanishing Breed changed my life. Thank you Bill."

Comments

[Mike Beatty]

I just love Allard's work so I can't wait to see this book. He seems to be one of those photographers that fly under the radar of the general public but deserves to be more widely known.
As an antidote to the more "picturesque" subject matter he is known for, I highly recommend his book "Time At The Lake" a collection of photos taken at lake resorts in Minnesota.

[Steve Willard]

My copy of William Allard's; The Photographic Essay is well worn. I keep going back to it for inspiration(it's currently by the bed). I really appreciate the unassuming clarity of his images. He's a long time hero of mine.

[Paul]

Here is his blog.
http://www.williamalbertallard.com/blog/
There was an interesting article in American Photographer on Allard trying out digital in 2004.
"I love doing street photography in limited-light conditions, but the films today aren´t giving me what I want-a dark, muted colour palette" It seems he was appalled with post-production effort required to turn an image from his camera into a print, work that slide (Kodachrome), at least in the savvy way Allard used it, didn´t require.
A Leica and also and a longtime Kodachrome user should feel quite comfy with us round here.
Paul

[Photography Art Cafe]

I only quite recently discovered Allard and have become a big fan already; 'Vanishing Breed' is just an amazing collection. I'm at the stage where I just want to devour more of his images! So thanks a lot for this suggestion.

[Alan]

Yes. Allard is the "quintessential NG photographer". Enter Allard in the NG web site search and it limits you to 999 results.

Thanks Mike, I just ordered my copy.

[Clive Evans]

I spent a week with Bill in Tuscany when I was geteting back into photography after a 20 year break, he'd been one of my heroes when I stopped shooting professionally in the early 80s.
By his own admission a slightly "difficult" guy with in my case another, it turned into a great week and a real turning point for me.
Along with David Alan Harvey and Alex Webb [both of whom I've also been lucky enough to work with] he remains the biggest influence on my own [and I suspect many others] style which looosely equates to Leica, kodachrome, one lens probably 35mm,look for the light and shoot shoot shoot.
I have all his other books , all signed, but this will also be added to the collection.
Thanks for the HU Mike, as ever a good tip!
Clive
www.clive-evans.com

[Joe]

A large selection of fine art prints by William Albert Allard are available on the National Geographic Prints website. This one has always been a favorite.

[David Bennett]

Until now I did not know that 'motley' existed as a noun {a heterogeneous, often incongruous mixture of elements}

[albert erickson]

I met Bill at the Santa Fe workshop last spring, he is a great photographer, and also a good writer. I just asked my son for the book for my birthday. In the small world category my son is also a Gris i.e. a graduate from the University of Montana.

[Mike Johnston]

Albert,
I think Allard went to the University of Minnesota, not Montana...at least according to his NG bio page.

Mike

[hugh crawford]

So when you fill in the missing ligatures you end up with a more Æsthetly pleasing encyclopædia of the artist's œuvre?

[Ken Tanaka]

Mike,
Thank you so much for highlighting this book, which I might very well have missed. I must admit that although I've been a NG subscriber for 33 years I just was not familiar with William Allard. (Red faced.)

I've just spent a couple of hours with the book. Wow.

As you know, in one of my capacities I must be broad-minded about photographic work, rarely condemning even the most laughable of presentations. But, as a photographer, I cannot escape the knowledge of how really butt-stupid-simple a lot of touted and exhibited stuff really is. (Yes, like the BJP winner...it's crap.)

But in the case of Allard's work I am awed by just seeing the work of someone so talented at a type of photography I personally enjoy. It simultaneously inspires me and puts me in my place by showing me how high the bar really is. It's hypnotic to look through this book, particularly with his accompanying notes and essays. (I enjoy accompanying comments by the photographer when they're well written, which Allard's certainly are.)

Allard's work also inadvertently further diminishes the mountains of hailed-but-craftless crap we see so much today.

I know that this story has rolled off, but thank you for the heads-up on this book. It's instantly become one of my personal favorites.

[Ray Hunter]

Mike,
Thanks for recommending William Albert Allard, whose work we all admire. I want to add that I just bought a remaindered copy of his 2001 book, Portraits of America, via Amazon.com for the princely sum of $4.98 With $3.99 for media USPS, the best $10 I've ever spent. Others may want to take advantage of that deal, too.