Book Beat hours are Mon-Fri. 10 am-8 pm, Sat. 10 am-7pm, Sun. 12-5pm, closed Christmas Eve at 5 pm, closed Christmas and New Years Day. Support your local bookstores, schools, libraries and museums. *It matters. Book Beat is a locally owned metro-Detroit independent bookstore located here. Join the discussion on Facebook. Have a healthy & fun holiday season!
W. Eugene Smith
(three hardcovers in slipcase)
A landmark book begun in 1959, finally in print.
“The original book dummy consisted of such poor-quality reproductions that the images had an ethereal feel. Family photos and surrealistic scenes are mixed with his famous frames that are used out of context. The combination feels extremely modern and puts to rest any notion of Mr. Smith’s work being dated. It provides a glimpse into his sometimes disturbing — and occasionally drug-addled — mind.” -James Estrin, NY Times Lens Blog
Gregory Crewdson
(hardcover, slipcased)
“Since a photograph is frozen and mute, since there is no before and after, I don’t want there to be a conscious awareness of any kind of literal narrative. And that’s why I really try not to pump up motivation or plot or anything like that. I want to privilege the moment. That way, the viewer is more likely to project their own narrative onto the picture.” Gregory Crewdson, Interview The American Reader
With a narrative of short stories written specially to accompany each series by Jonathan Lethem, an introductory overview by Nancy Spector, and an essay by Melissa Harris on his unique process, this is the definitive monograph on the work of a true contemporary master of photography.
Genesis- Salgado (Hardcover)
In Genesis, my camera allowed nature to speak to me. And it was my privilege to listen.” —Sebastião Salgado
“It’s a stupendous enterprise, connecting the dark heat of the Brazilian rainforest to the icy light of Siberia, the dazzling dew of an Ecuadorian dawn with the spectral gloom of dusk in the Galápagos. The photographs run into hundreds, taking you soaring high above the Patagonian prairies and plunging deep into smoking volcanoes. They show the tiniest lemur in the world and the largest whale, filling the frame, and one’s imagination, as it heaves through the ocean.” — Laura Cumming, The Guardian
Self-Portraits- Vivian Maier
(hardcover)
“Vivian Maier’s self-portraits are mesmerizing.”
–CNN, Amanpour
“‘Self-Portraits’ meets the mystery head on, collecting the many pictures Maier took of herself. They are a mix of the spontaneous and the studied, as the photographer aimed her camera at mirrors and shop windows, capturing her reflection with careful detail and composition. They are among her most accomplished pictures and may be the most revealing artifacts she left behind.”
–LA Times
Emmet Gowin
(hardcover)
“Gowin’s artistic collaboration with his wife is at the root of all of his work. It was through Edith that he found his voice as an artist, and he had her in mind when he concluded the 1967 artist’s statement by writing, ” For me, pictures provide a means of holding, intensely, a moment of communication between one human and another.” (David Walker PDN 2013-12-01)
“These are not traditional pretty pictures, but they are exquisitely beautiful. All Gowin photos smolder with emotion and feel like they were snapped with a breath held, bated with desire.” – The Art blog
George Hurrell’s Hollywood
Hollywood history immortalized
“Years ago, writer-photographer Mark A. Vieira wrote and compiled a handsome book called Hurrell’s Hollywood Portraits.This enormous and elegant volume supersedes it, not only in the quantity and quality of photographs it presents, but in Vieira’s candid text, which expands on his earlier work and delves into the second part of Hurrell’s life… I think it’s fair to refer to this exquisite tome as definitive.”
–Leonard Maltin
Dennis Hopper On the Road
“I was born in Dodge City, Kansas, and am really just a middle class Farm boy at heart.” -Dennis Hopper
“Independent, rebellious and extreme, during his lifetime Dennis Hopper was recognized for his work as an actor and director of cult movies such as Easy Rider (1969), but his interests went beyond cinema into other realms of art, and he was especially prominent as a photographer…The display is arranged like chapters of a narrative about Hopper’s areas of interest as a photographer during that time: road journeys, abstract surfaces, celebrities, fashion, film shoots and street advertising.” –-ArtDaily.org DENNIS HOPPER:ON THE ROAD on Vimeo
Color: American Photography Transformed (Hardcover)
Color tells, for the first time, the fascinating story of color’s integration into American fine art photography and how its acceptance revolutionized the practice of art.
“…an important contribution to the fields of photohistory and cultural history. . . . You really get a sense of key players in the field: who had influence, how they exerted it, and what their agenda was (even if the agenda changed over time.) There is even a degree of suspense as the history unfolds.” –(Britt Salvesen, Curator and Head of the Photography Department, Los Angeles County Museum of Art)
Garry Winogrand (Hardcover)
“This major exhibition and catalog promise to provide a revelatory time trip.”—J. Hoberman, Artforum
“Winogrand reveals the inimitable rowdiness of real life in all its tragic and comic excess, establishing a whole new style of street shooting that is celebrated in this fine volume.” —Publishers Weekly
“The retrospective’s accompanying catalog, “Garry Winogrand,” edited by Leo Rubinfien, is an absorbing compendium offering dozens of rare and never-before-exhibited images.”—Chicago Tribune
Brassai Paris Nocturne
“Stunning . . . the authors have pieced together this incredible moment in history and give readers a glimpse into the world of one of the most celebrated photographers of the 20th century.” (Publishers Weekly)
“Much of Brassaï’s photographic career is a seamless rhapsody to Paris after dark . . . all of it, including previously unpublished pieces, celebrated in [this] newly released collection.” (Rangefinder)
“With unprecedented scope, this 312-page tome takes us from glistening rain-soaked streets to illicit houses of pleasure and back again.” (American Photo)
Detroit 1968
Street photography beautifully reproduced!
A collection of powerful and haunting photographs by Enrico Natali, a skilled street photographer shooting Detroit in the key year of 1968. Natali spent only a few years in Detroit, but displays an uncanny familiarity with the city and its citizens. His first major project was a brilliant 1960 collection of New York City subway riders –and a similar, deeply honest approach is seen at work in Detroit 1968. This finely reproduced book of images should find a home in any collection concerned with Detroit history, photography or the investigation of everyday reality. Natali is specially gifted at spontaneous portraiture –capturing the face of the city, during its most energized and revolutionary time. Detroit 1968 is an amazing achievement, coming at a time when Detroit needs to reassess its history, and it should help reaffirm and establish Natali’s reputation as one of the masters of contemporary street photography –an essential record.