When I visited the Phoenix Art Museum in March, I decided to buy a membership instead of just a single admission. I like to have memberships at museums I want to support even if they aren’t local. One benefit of that is a discount in the Museum Shop which I used to add three more titles to my library. I encourage anyone interested in these titles to purchase from the museum shop to help support the Phoenix Art Museum.
Richard Avedon - Relationships
Released in conjunction with Avedon’s 2022 retrospective exhibition in Milan, this book was published by Skira Publishers in Italy and edited by the Center for Creative Photography’s Rebecca Senf. The book is beautiful, it was printed and bound in Italy and the edit is outstanding. It was nice to finally get a signed copy of one of Becky’s books, I still need to get my copy of her Ansel Adams book, Making a Photographer: The Early Work of Ansel Adams autographed. The Center for Creative Photography houses Avedon’s archives and Becky was also involved with curating the exhibition as well as editing this book. You can see examples of the images in the book on Avedon's website.
Bill Cunningham -
Published by the New York Times in 2019 this retrospective of Bill Cunningham’s fifty-year career is a nice document of fashion during that time. Bill was a fashion columnist and photographer who worked for the New York Times. What I love about this book is all of these images were taken on the street, these photographs aren’t of models on a runway, they are all of people on the street. It is a better documentation of what fashion really was because it accurately shows what people were wearing during this period. Bill Cunningham referred to himself as a Fashion Historian more than a photographer. I agree with him 100% on his title but I also acknowledge he made interesting images and is more than worthy to also be called a photographer. Bill’s work is about the fashion not the frame or the interaction, but in this format it absolutely works. I wasn’t familiar with his work before seeing the exhibition Fashioning Self: The Photography of Everyday Expression at the Phoenix Art Museum but it was a perfect fit, and I purchased the book because I enjoyed how it was a different approach to document people on the street. If you are a fan of fashion photography you need to add this to your library.
Lee Friedlander - Prayer Pilgrimage for Freedom
This very unique book, published in 2015 by Eakins Press, only documents the events of one day, May 17th, 1957 when Dr. Martin Luther King spoke at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington DC during the Prayer Pilgrimage for Freedom. I wrongly first assumed this book documented the famed day when King gave his “I Have a Dream” speech but that would not occur until 1963. I researched the events and learned the Prayer Pilgrimage for Freedom was actually the first time Martin Luther King addressed a national audience. It makes sense now why photographs of Dr. King were not more prominent in the book since he was the last speaker of the day. The book is an outstanding document plus Friedlander’s photographic style is amazing, I always love looking at his images. I found it ironic I discovered this book a couple months before Fraenkel Gallery’s Friedlander exhibition opened this past weekend. The most incredible thing is Friedlander was 22 years old when he photographed the event. The book is a nice reference point to examine how Friedlander’s vision and career developed. He obviously knew early on how to be at the right place at the right time.
One more shout out to the wonderful people at the Phoenix Art Museum and their Museum Store, please purchase directly from them if you want any of these titles.
