If you like photo books like I do, here's a site for you: Photo Book Guide.
Even if the web today provides an unprecedented opportunity to keep current with what happens in the photography world -- sometimes to a fault (as in too-much-information-too-little-time) -- books still provide a unique experience, physical, tactile, of a photographer's work. There is... at least for me... an undeniable fetish involved in leafing through the sumptuous pages of a book, the smell and feeling of paper and ink, less ephemeral than bits on a screen, that makes the enjoyment more real and permanent, sensuous and voluptuous in a way that the web rarely achieves.
In the words of the author, from PhotbookGuide itself: "Photobookguide.com aims to show the history of photography reflected through the photo book. [...] PhotobookGuide.com celebrates that long, rich history by presenting a web survey of landmark photo books."
I am a great fan of the Web and of the creative potential of digital photography, but it is good (and in a way humbling) to remind ourselves that photography was born of very corporeal processes, and that freedom of expression can't dispense from the discipline that comes from the established methods of the craft. Creating a book is a daunting job, and it is good that so many photographers still decide to make a book part of their work; that small batch printing makes them affordable for so many...
Not all of the reviews on PhotobookGuide.com are as insightful or interesting, but they are all well written and informative, and I definitely applaud the effort that goes into maintaining the site.
The site has good structure, a traditional layout (by which I mean, non-flashy and economic in its design -- non necessarily a bad thing these days), it is readable, with good a classification of its posts by Genre and Author. The posts are concise and the author does not make too much of an effort to push his point of view on his readers (one more positive trait in the din of the Internet.)
Some of its latest posts include:
• Deconstructing Osama
• Grace in mundanity
• A damaged box of possibilities
• Martin Parr's favourite photography books of 2007
• Photo Notes, and more
• Specimina Commercii
The site also contains links to many other good links related to photo books and photography in general, as well as a forum section.
All in all, a good solid site that everyone interested in photography should peruse. I have read its posts regularly in the past and referred it to others, but since its latest post seems to have been published in December 2007, it is unclear whether the site is still being actively supported. I have sent an inquiry out and will report back after I hear from the author.... hoping bearing positive news...
