Synopses & Reviews
Phaidon’s iconic
The Photobook: A History series has been hailed as "the most important contribution to the field since modern histories of photography began" (photo‐eye). In the third and final volume, legendary photographer Martin Parr and co‐author Gerry Badger bring the series fully up to date with a curated selection of more than 200 photobooks dating from World War II to the present day.
With the fresh eye to curation that fans of the series have come to appreciate, Parr and Badger present classics of the medium, such as Ryan McGinley’s The Kids are Alright and Paul Graham’s A Shimmer of Possibility, alongside new discoveries and lesser–known works, such as Tano d’Amico’s E Il ’77 and Mao Ishikawa’s Hot Nights in Camp Hansen.
Richly illustrated with more than 800 color photographs, The Photobook: A History, Volume III completes the series’ unprecedented visual timeline of photography in its published form.
Review
"a wealth of previously undiscovered books. . . Parr and Badger’s text describing each book and placing it in its historical context is what makes this an invaluable resource." –
photo‐eye"With this series of books, Parr and Badger have produced a tremendous contribution to the photobook medium. Anyone even remotely connected to the photobook has already benefited from it, whether it’s publishers or photographers making photo books, anyone interested in what the medium has to offer, or educators teaching classes about the history of the photobook." – Conscientious Photography Magazine
"And this, of course, is part of the Parr/Badger enterprise, not to hold some banal discussion about what is and isn’t art, but rather to reevaluate what is and isn’t worthy of attention, whether it’s art or not. The authors have benefited from a growing appreciation of (and demand for) photobooks, something for which they themselves are to a considerable extent responsible. . . And this is perhaps the authors’ greatest achievement. Photographic high art could always take care of itself. It was the eccentric and the ephemeral that most needed to be preserved, cherished, and celebrated." – Geoff Nicholson, Los Angeles Review of Books
"Who better than Parr and Badger to lead us expertly through the field? Parr has collected 12,000 photography books over the past 35 years, while no one writes quite so succinctly and knowledgeably on photography as Badger. The third volume will no doubt become as much of a bible in the photobook world as the first two." ‐ Anny Shaw, The Art Newspaper
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Synopsis
The third volume in an authoritative and comprehensive series, The Photobook: A History volume III provides a unique perspective on the story of contemporary photography through the genre of the photobook. Continuing in the vein of the first two volumes, Volume III is a study of the major trends and movements that have shaped the photobook genre globally since the birth of photography in the early nineteenth century. Volume III pays particular attention to photobooks published after World War II, covering contemporary themes of modern life, from diaristic photography of place and people to twentieth‐century propaganda books and some of the finest works to emerge from the recent self‐publishing boom. The Photobook volumes represent a valuable catalogue of rare and important photobooks, and since Phaidon published Volume I in 2004, are now regarded by academics, students and photobook bibliophiles as the definitive works on this subject.
About the Author
Gerry Badger is a critic, architect, curator and photographer. His published books include
Collecting Photography (2003) and
John Gossage: Berlin in the Time of the Wall (2005), as well as Phaidon’s
55s on Chris Killip (2001) and
Eugene Atget (2001). In 2007, he published
The Genius of Photography, the book of the BBC Television series of the same name, and
The Pleasures of Good Photographs (2010), an anthology of his essays on photography, which was awarded the 2011 Infinity Writers’ Award from the International Center of Photography, New York.
The work of Martin Parr bridges the divide between art and documentary photography. His studies of the idiosyncrasies of mass culture and consumerism around the world, his innovative imagery and his prolific output have placed him firmly at the forefront of contemporary art. A member of the international photo agency Magnum, Parr is an avid collector of books and a world authority on the photobook.