Of course, it’s not a competition! However, there were three SoFoBoMo books that I think bear mentioning. These are in no particular order. I just really liked them!
Presences
Kaspar Hauser: I’m a tree-lovin’, tree-huggin kinda guy and this book really hit the spot. The images are quite beautiful.
A Wonderful Emptiness
John Wolf: John took, what was in my eyes a very difficult subject, and made it into a beautiful celebration of the Illinois Prairie.
Sands of Namibia
Katie Bates: This was the first one that I saw that really impressed me. The photos and post processing are both wonderful. It makes me want to hang out in the desert for a while with my camera!
There may be more, but I only looked at about 50 or so books in the last two days! Care to share your favorites?
Paul
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6 Responses to “SoFoBoMo:Books that I really liked!”
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Hey Paul,
thank you ever so much for mentioning “Presences”! It is nice to hear that you liked it.
My personal favourite so far is Jeff Goggin’s “Superior after dark” – but of course there are still so many books to discover…
Best regards,
Kaspar
paul
I find it really interesting how much alike our tastes run. Call it perception, vision, appreciation, whatever, but it’s perhaps a major reason I enjoy your blog postings. Your choice of SoFoBoMo books is a carbon copy of mine. We have already exchanged short comments about “Wonderful Emptiness”, a marvelous piece of work. I particularly like the superb “Presences”, and consider it my favorite of the current offerings. Of course, the subject (woods) is pretty close to my heart, having been a forester in a former life. I did a series which I call “Tree Forms” (see my web site), though I don’t feel I even came close to capturing the emotion that Kaspar did in his portfolio.
I hadn’t really seen “Sands” before, but it’s an extraordinary collection as well, even though my preferences run more to the black and white.
Another that stands out to me is the “Superior After Dark” pair. I have shot Superior, AZ within the last year, though during the day time hours, and it’s an interesting place, with lots of character. Several of my images of Superior are on my web site under “misc”.
Nice blog, Paul; it’s peaceful, and I enjoy it each day. Cheez, even your images are much like mine!
adam
@Kaspar: You are very welcome. Your book was very much worth mentioning. I’ve already viewed it a few times and will probably be back for more.
@Adam: As they say, great minds think alike!
I viewed both Superior After Dark volumes and really liked the second one better. I’ll stop by your site and have a gander at Tree Forms. You can never get enough of those trees!
Paul,
Thanks so much for your kind words about my Namibia book. No false modesty intended, but I think Namibia is so photogenic that I think almost any level of photographer could come away with decent images. Thanks also for pointing me to the other two, and thanks to Adam and Kasper for the reference to Superior After Dark. I too love black and white and tried to convert some of my Namibia pics to grayscale, but the colors were just too beautiful to lose. Superior After Dark has given me the impetus to start on an alternate project that I was considering for SoFoBoMo based on a street in a small, rural, semi-agricultural neighborhood not far from home – most definitely a B & W project.
Again, may thanks,
Katie
Great minds do think alike, as your three favorites books are also mine (although I haven’t yet browsed through the last 40 or so books that were uploaded.) I have already told John and Kaspar how much I enjoyed their books, so I will take this opportunity to tell Katie that I enjoyed hers very much as well. Congratulations all around!
As for my Superior after dark books, I agree with Paul that the second of them is the stronger one. Although I didn’t realize it until this past weekend, when I was discussing my SoFoBoMo experience with some photographer friends over a Fourth of July dinner, my approach to this project changed somewhat after I had completed the first book.
My initial approach was intended to be more documentary than artistic. I was a detached, impartial observer and my goal was simply to document the town as it existed in May 2009. No more, no less.
However, over the course of my 16 trips, I made the acquaintance of more than a dozen Superior residents, each of whom claimed to have lived there since birth and each of whom was only too happy to tell me about their and/or their families’ relationship(s) to Superior. This proved to be an eye-opening experience for me.
As a result — and without me consciously realizing it — my focus on impartially documenting the town slowly morphed into telling the town’s story, which although outwardly similar, isn’t necessarily the same thing, and I believe this change is reflected in the photographs used in my second book.
Ultimately, I think a single book combining the best images from both books will be stronger than either book is on its own (or together, for that matter), but right now, I’m too busy working on my next project — Miami after dark, wherein I’m exploring the next town along US60 after Superior — to spend any time on it now.
Oh, and this past Monday — during the day, unfortunately — I took advantage of one of the connections I made in Superior and spent several hours photographing the abandoned mine facilities from inside the fence. Based upon the early results, I think I will make this the subject of my 2010 SoFoBoMo project, so stay tuned!
@Jeffrey: Thanks for sharing your experience. I didn’t even try to put a finger on the why I liked the second book better, but your explanation sealed it. I guess that you had become more intimate with the town and its history. It came through in your pictures. There was more of a story there. I actually viewed volume II first. I guess that I was working up the list in reverse order. Looking forward to seeing your next one. The title alone, Miami After Dark, ought to get you a lot of views.