TOP Photo Book of the Year 2017

I've had trouble writing this post—I'm not primarily a critic but rather a teacher at heart—so I guess I'm going to square up to it and say what I want to right up front: I think this book is Judy Dater's masterpiece, and I also think it solidifies her position among the major American photographers of the second half of the 20th century.

That's not entirely why I love it. It moves me. It moves me in many ways: at the basic level, I get a thrill from the wonderful black-and-white reproductions. I love the fact that it's about humans without being about humanity: it shows individuals, even when it's just a back or a pair of hands, never descending to the generic or the symbolic...and especially not to the objectified. The pictures are as gorgeous as fashion photography but they are the opposite of fashion photography; Dater is a respecter of souls. I love it that almost every photograph is individual, too...how does she do that? Every picture is fresh, as if newly seen, unlike all the others (mostly; there are a few classic portrait-style portraits, but that comes off as artistically purposeful in context). I love it that there's modulation to the arrangement of pictures on the pages, sometimes one to a spread, sometimes two, some large, some small, no rules. Even one (just one) that spans the gutter, a common no-no, but in context it's like Judy's saying I'll do that too, it'll be all right. I like the book's design.

You can't get this book from Amazon (yet, anyway, although I don't know if you'll ever be able to). And it's a little awkward that it's dated 2018...does that mean I should have waited till next Christmas to pick it? But it's available now and it's not 2018 yet. The only way you can get it is to go to the de Young Museum website and buy a signed copy from them. It costs $49.95. [See Update below also.] You can take my word for it that this is a good thing to do with fifty dollars.

Every band that's been around a while gets used to audiences calling out the name of their biggest hit at concerts. Legend has it that Ludwig von Beethoven got tired of the eternal popularity of the first movement of the Moonlight Sonata. I don't know Judy, but we've corresponded, and when this book was gestating she mentioned to me that she was considering not including "Imogen and Twinka, Yosemite, 1974," which is her Free Bird, her You're So Vain. I argued that she should include it, because people who aren't going to bother to grasp the whole project still need the handle to hold on to her with, some familiar handhold to get themselves oriented. Judy solved the problem perfectly neatly: the famous picture is there, page size, but it's included not in the plates, but in the elegantly written front matter by Marilyn Symmes. So if you will have only one Dater title in your library, it will have her most famous picture in it, peeking in from past the door frame.

A brief description of the book: it consists of 100 portraits and nudes, arranged not chronologically or thematically but "according to the artist’s psychological and artistic perspective over time" as the press release says. The pictures are of people of many races, young and old, male and female, famous and not (the famous ones include some photographers and curators, which is a bonus for us). It does contain genitalia, just so you know—maybe not the thing for the coffee table in all homes. But none of the nudes are of the lascivious sort.

But you want to know what moves me the most about this book? In concert with the photographs, of course. Because of my, and (most of) our, particular identity as people who love photography but don't get to be artists primarily. It's in the luminous, beautiful little artist's statement at the beginning of the book. Judy describes herself at age 23, living alone in an apartment on Haight Street in San Francisco, contemplating a group of photographs she had made for a photography class she was taking. One by one, all the pictures fell away for her but one—one which, for her, had the magic. In a brief sentence, Judy writes, "At that moment, my path in photography became clear to me."

It's called "Anna" and here it is:

It opens the portfolio section of the book. It's as good as any other picture in the book...as lovely as any portrait by anyone, honestly. By a 23-year-old taking a photo class.

It's the picture that told Judy Dater what to do with her life. The clarity, intention, self awareness, and purposefulness of that moment she describes just takes my breath away. Isn't that what we all wanted, my friends? Isn't that the best that could have happened to us? To be so clear about our artistic intention and promise from the very outset, and to continue along the chosen path of bravery and beauty for fifty-two years?

That's just plain wonderful, if you ask me. It's nothing less than artistic freedom the way I look at it. I will always cherish this book for the view it illuminates of that voyage.

In short, then, a must for the library of any one of us who does portraits and nudes; warmly recommended with heart and feeling for everyone else. A lovely book. One to enjoy in many ways. Our Book of the Year, in this season of one year ending and another beginning.

Mike
(Thanks to Judy)

UPDATE Friday a.m.: I've just learned that book can be ordered directly from the publisher, for a reasonable shipping cost at least to U.S. (I wasn't able to determine the rates for international shipping.) I assume Judy will get the most benefit this way, too. So my recommendation if you want a copy is to try this method first.

Original contents copyright 2017 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved. Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site.

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(To see all the comments, click on the "Comments" link below.)
Featured Comments from:

Del Bomberger: "Love Judy Dater, have for a very long time. Rushed to the website to order at what I consider a fair price only to be thwarted by the shipping cost. I'm just not going to pay 1/3 of the price of about anything significant for delivery in this day and age. Museum bookstores it seems to me need quit trying to squeeze every last cent from sale. On the other hand, I will certainly work the exhibition into my travels from where I am and will be able to get it there. I really have little interest in signed copies also. It remains the work that has the value to me. Bah, Humbug!"

Tom: "$67 to ship to the UK. Crikey."

Mike replies: Just posted an update about that. I'm afraid this one is going to be very hard for most people to get, and there's little that can be done about that. I'll keep on top of it and if a better way to get it opens up, I'll let people know.

To Del, it's not that the Museum bookstores are "trying to squeeze every last cent from a sale." It's just that they're not set up for mail order sales in any volume. Their main charter is to sell merchandise to in-person Museum-goers, and they only do mail order occasionally as a courtesy.

Comments

[Rodolfo Canet]

Tried to buy it on the spot but... shipping (by mail) was 110% the price of the book!!! Let's hope Amazon will eventualy stock it.

[James]

OK, it is ordered.
It will be interesting to see if I agree with you......

[Wolfgang Lonien]

Ordered - thanks for the tip.

[Steven Ralser]

Just looked at the website - and you're really looking into the future. I t says the anticipated ship date is Jan 2019.

[Steve Rosenbum]

Ordered it! I wish you could get some benefit from the link.

[Dave Levingston]

Placed my order immediately. The website said the book is backordered with shipping expected in January 2019. I hope that was a typo, but I'm willing to wait if I have to.

I have met Judy and was very impressed, both with her work and with her as a person.

[Richard Alan Fox]

Yes.
I was a few years behind Judy at San Francisco State, when I studied with Jack Welpott their marriage had recently ended and the book they did together a sacred tome.
Several years latter I studied with Judy at ICP in NYC, I can't remember too much about the workshop except that I had given up coffee for several months and brought a cup to the class and fully felt the intoxication of caffeine.
You mention the photo of Twinka and Imogene and I realized that I used to see Judy as Twinka but now as Imogene.

[Kenneth Tanaka]

Looks like an excellent, engaging, thoughtfully constructed book, Mike. (I think I met Judy at some even a few years back.)

I think every person with a serious interest in photography, whether or not they're a practicing photographer, should have a personal My Photo Book of the Year". We're in the midst of a photo book explosion. But one's personal BOY doesn't even have to be new or expensive. Just some discovery new to them that's caught their imagination and delight. It should be an annual goal.

[QT Luong]

The publication date is Dec 2017, so that's the right year. It makes the book fall into listmast, the period of the year in which books published fall in the cracks for the best-of lists (eg. my tallying of the 2016 photobook lists). The book is available via amazon, although for now via a third-party seller, the SoCal visual arts bookstore Hennessey + Ingalls, which appears to have inventory.

[Wolfgang Lonien]

To Rodolfo: same here - shipping to Germany with 'priority mail' (only option) costs more than the book itself, which is telling. Still I think the book will be worth it, so I had to order it...

[Andrew Kelley]

Ordered on your recommendation. I’m an outdoor photographer, but strangely or not, I most enjoy seeing what people I other areas are up to. It sure if it’s lack of photo jealousy (since I shoot other stuff) is what. Fingers crossed.

[Dan Khong]

I like B&W books. A signed copy is even better. The price of $49 is attractive enough. The shipping cost is $62. I am still scratching my head and dragging my feet.

[Greg Edwards]

It is now on Amazon, 13 copies left.

[Matt OBrien]

For me, shipping was nearly 60 dollars, plus tax and excise would mean a 100 dollar surcharge. No way.

[Steve Renwick]

April 6 through Sept 18 at the De Young.

[scott kirkpatrick]

OK, Ordered. The museum's price to ship to Israel was 2.5x the cost of the book, so I'm sending it to a safe place in the US to pick up later. And purchasing from the publisher. I hope they have some left for when the exhibit opens...

[BJ]

Unfortunately I can't buy every photo book I want and this one looks like it will be hard to obtain. I have "Judy Dater Twenty Years" so at least I can study her early work. There are some stunning portraits. I note that her subjects stare straight into the camera (occasionally with their eyes closed). And they are never smiling. I like that. I hate it when someone takes my picture and tells me to smile. I feel so silly smiling.

[Dan Khong]

Now not available at Amazon. I suppose all sold out. Seems to me TOP can make sales fly through the roof. Mike wields great power with his words.