Given that I just published a review of Stuart’s Into the Fire, I figured I should probably just go ahead and make this Matt Stuart week and slap up a quick review of his 2021 how-to guide, Think Like a Street Photographer.

Someone on YouTube alerted me to Matt Stuart‘s Into the Fire about two months before it came out. I can’t find the comment now, and if it’s you, thanks! I missed All that Life Can Afford by about 6 months, that is, it came out just around the time I started buying photobooks, I didn’t grab a copy when they were readily available, the book is now way too spendy for me. (A 2nd edition is available, with new images and a new edit, and I haven’t pulled the trigger on it just yet.) Anyway, I was sure to jump on Into the Fire just as soon as I heard about it.

‘Open’ is a set of 34 prints, made from 4×5 negatives exposed, in camera, in Palestine by Morgan Ashcom in 2009, then re-exposed to fluorescent light by Israeli border guards prior to development, housed in a recycled 4×5 negative box. Ashcom offered these as a sort of “Thank You” gift for donating to Human Supporters, which operates a summer camp for youth and offers dance and art classes, and various other workshops and programs for young people in Palestine.

Rebecca Norris Webb‘s Night Calls hit my Best List in a prime spot, sort of, clocking in as the “Best New Book that I Haven’t Reviewed (Yet)…” Well, now’s as good a time as any, and Night Calls is a great one with which to sort of kick of the 2022 review season.