Ed Templeton – “Hairdos of Defiance”

Back in High School, and for some time thereafter, off and on, I sported a sort of abbreviated version of Liberty Spikes, colored in a shade of purply-red called “Bodacious Burgundy.” The effect was somewhat subtle, alternating between preppy and mildly punk, just enough to get occasional looks of curiosity or disdain, but not enough …

Someone gave me a Canon EOS Elan

The Canon EOS Elan (EOS 100) is more than 30 years old now. This one was given to me by a buddy who gave up film for digital and left this great 1990s marvel to get all sticky in a box in his closet or something. I protested. “I’ll give you a roll or two …

Luigi Ghirri – ‘It’s beautiful here, isn’t it…’

It’s beautiful here, isn’t it… was the first book published on Ghirri in the United States. It appeared in 2008, and I found my way to Ghirri in 2016, I think, maybe thanks to Teju Cole’s article in the New York Times Magazine, following an interview I heard with him on the Magic Hour podcast (and saved for later …

Luigi Ghirri – ‘Kodachrome’ and ‘The Complete Essays 1973-1991’

By all rights, these two books should be reviewed separately. Sadly, though, they arrived in the same box and I unboxed them together, so here we are. Kodachrome is MACK’s 2013 reprint of Ghirri’s 1978 classic. From what I understand, it’s a facsimile of the original, albeit with the inclusion of a pamphlet containing a …

So I bought a Holga…

I don’t quite know why… I never bought one when they were still being made. I thought about buying one when they stopped being made, but the price of used ones skyrocketed (briefly). Then I was going to buy a new one, but heard that they were even less good than the originals. But then …

Joel Meyerowitz – ‘Where I Find Myself’

What can I say about the first lifetime retrospective of Joel Meyerowitz’s work, with comments throughout by Meyerowitz himself? If you’re the least bit aware of Meyerowitz and his practice, you probably know something about his trajectory, from 35mm street shooter to 8×10 landscape and still life, and Where I Find Myself has it all.

Khalik Allah – ‘Souls Against the Concrete’

Several years ago, I took a screengrab of a photo for my ‘Inspiration/To Try’ collection. I’ve returned to it many times, wondering how to get the light, the focus, the blur. I had no idea who took the photo, and at the time, I really didn’t care. It’s a portrait of an older man, close …