As I continue to feel my way through the start of a couple of photography projects, I’ve been thinking about the passage of time and how photographs, by their very nature, stop and record a specific moment in time and also have the power to transport us somewhere else altogether.
I don’t claim to have a photographic memory, but I can tell you where nearly every picture I made was, with an almost absolute certainty, just by looking at it. Whatever moved me to make a picture left a remnant in my memory. I’ll be the first to admit that I’m not good with names, but places are another story - especially where I’ve made pictures.
Even in the early stages of a project, I think it’s important to print work and let it breathe. I have a small stack of prints on my desk to remind me that the physicality of photographs are important to me. Holding a picture, not as something precious, but to feel it, is valuable in my process. It also allows for moving pictures around and seeing what works (and doesn’t) and where.
It’s been a long time since I made a photobook (2014) and I miss that process. Without getting ahead of myself, I believe these two projects will find their way as books when their respective times are right. I believe books, prints, and exhibits are crucial in the process of photographs living in the world.
Speaking of books, read on to learn about a few books you don’t want to miss out on. Please check out these artists’ work and support them. Now, more than ever, art matters and supporting artists matters.
Last fall, my buddy Cengiz Yar, announced the launch of his Kickstarter for his first monograph, This Alabaster Grave. I have a special place in my heart for photobooks and especially ones shining light into and onto subjects that are too quickly and too often overlooked or forgotten.
As Cengiz’s website states, the book is “exploring the overwhelming destruction and pain faced by the Iraqi city of Mosul, within the context of its history and unique, now largely ruined, architecture. The book questions the cost of the fight against ISIS and global war on terror as told through the lives and city that bore the brunt of its destructive force. The photographs were made between 2015 and 2023 and fluctuate between reportage and moments of contemplation.”
The book is printed on uncoated paper and is beautifully bound. Its presentation reminds us that beauty and tragedy can, and often do, exist in the same space. If you are a collector of photobooks or a supporter of artists insisting that important history and stories be preserved, hop over to his website and order a copy before they’re gone.
Speaking of Kickstarter, my good friend Rich-Joseph Facun is continuing his great work in the world of documenting his corner of Appalachia. In addition to his third book, 1804, he’s launching his own imprint called LIARS CORNER. Here’s Rich’s publishers note:
LIARS CORNER invites you to support our growing effort to build more equitable platforms, spaces that reflect the full spectrum of lived experiences and elevate the storytellers who help us see the world more truthfully.
When Rich-Joseph Facun set out to publish his first monograph Black Diamonds, he approached the task with a clear sense of purpose. But as he researched publishers and explored the photography book landscape, two hard truths emerged: most published works came from a single, homogenous demographic—and that same group largely controlled the publishing houses, deciding which stories were elevated and which were excluded.
This realization struck Facun not just as an artist, but as a storyteller deeply invested in representation. Discovering that even the systems meant to showcase underrepresented narratives were themselves exclusionary raised urgent questions: Who decides what’s worth publishing? Whose voices are elevated?
Rather than simply navigate that system, Facun chose to challenge it. With the release of 1804, he will launch LIARS CORNER, a new publishing imprint dedicated to uplifting marginalized and underrepresented voices. He believes storytellers from these perspectives are vital to shaping culture and collective understanding. Their narratives carry memory, values, and lived experience—broadening awareness and fostering deeper connection.
This will undoubtedly be another beautifully powerful book. Head on over to Kickstarter and become a backer. I did!
While we’re talking photobooks, here’s a trip back to my late 2019 review of Sheron Rupp’s Taken From Memory.
One of the great gifts that books like Taken From Memory gives us is the opportunity to connect to something so beautiful, so tangible, and to be able to hold in our hands moments of inexplicable wonder and refined curiosity. It has the familiarity of a family photo album without a snapshot aesthetic. So much attention to detail is given that it’s hard to imagine making a handful of pictures like these much less the 75 included in the book. It is in every sense of the word, astounding.
If you can get a copy of this wonderful book, you will not regret it.
The title of this newsletter is from Robert Adams’s Why People Photograph chapter on Paul Strand:
Who can say what amalgam of memory, dreams, study, pain, and discipline brought Paul Strand to photograph Mr. Bennett and to record him so perfectly? The picture is almost as unaccountable as the fact of Mr. Bennett; we are left with our little cosmologies and the certainty that we will never fully know. But we continue to speculate, as we do with all great art, because the picture is clearer than life and in this consoling.
I’m reading Irene McKinney’s Unthinkable: Selected Poems 1976-2004.
I’m listening to Big Country Bluegrass.
I’m watching our garden grow.
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Roger
I’d love to start a photo book meetup in NYC. I even have a great meeting place scoped out. I’ve done a few inspired by a fellow here on @Substack and would love to make it a more regular thing. I am even carrying a new book haul in my tote as I write this.
Thanks for these book tips, Roger. That Sheron Rupp book is a stunner! I love that work. Cengiz and Rich emailed about their books, and I appreciate the reminder to study up on those projects. Love what you do!