Book picks similar to
The Places We Live by Jonas Bendiksen


photography
non-fiction
norwegian
been-in-former-ussr

American Prospects


Joel Sternfeld - 1987
    Finally, photography and offset printing techniques have caught up with Sternfeld's eye, and this new edition of American Prospects succeeds in presenting Sternfeld's most seminal work as it has always meant to be shown. A specially-commissioned essay by Kerry Brougher, Chief Curator at the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, considers the historical context in which Sternfeld was working and the pivotal role that American Prospects has played in the course of contemporary filmmaking and art photography. In American Prospects, a fireman shops for a pumpkin while a house burns in the background; a group of motorcyclists stop at the side of the road to take in a stunning, placid view of Bear Lake, Utah; the high-tech world headquarters of the Manville Corporation sits in picturesque Colorado, obscured by a defiant boulder; a lone basketball net stands in the desert near Lake Powell in Arizona; and a cookie-cutter suburban housing settlement rests squarely amongst rolling hills in Pendleton, Oregon. Sternfeld's photographic tour of America is a search for the truth of a country not just as it exists in a particular era but as it is in its ever-evolving essence. It is a sad poem, but also a funny and generous one, recognizing endurance, poignant beauty, and determination within its sometimes tense, often ironic juxtapositions of man and nature, technology and ruin.

25 Lessons I Have Learned (About Photography): The Art of Living


Lorenzo Dominguez - 2007
    Inspirational and poetic, this book will not only spark readers’ creative energies, but also reawaken your passion for life.In 2005, as a husband, father, and corporate employee — Lorenzo's life revolved around home, work, and his daily commute from the suburbs to the city.Then, one day, he found himself staying at the Little Church in midtown Manhattan in the wake of a marital separation. Living in virtual isolation for three months, he had a rare chance to re-examine his life.Quite unexpectedly, he found himself wandering around the city to take photographs, a passion he had let slide in the years of pursuing a career and starting a family. During his nightly sojourns through the streets of New York City, he was reminded of some important life lessons—lessons too easily forgotten in the blur of everyday existence. 25 Lessons has been the #1 best selling photo essay on amazon.com for 2010 and 2011. Printed paperback and hard cover versions with photos are also available here on amazon.PRAISE FOR LORENZO AND 25 LESSONS“In many of my conversations on great photographers, I frequently mention Lorenzo’s work. His sequential photographs…are nothing less that a visual urban poem. It has been my pleasure to watch Lorenzo’s rapid growth as a leading photographer of our time.”Jim Van Meter, Rochester, NY, USA“Lorenzo is a master. His body of work is some of the very best online and may very well be some of the best being done in the medium today. His street work follows in the tradition of Paul Strand, Cartier-Bresson, Garry Winogrand and Larry Friedlander. Lorenzo’s 25 Lessons are…as seminal as Ansel’s dissertation on the zone system. I found them to be reenergizing, perceptive and extremely useful. I have been touched by his story, his writings and by his work. I can’t imagine anyone not being so.”Barry Shapiro, Los Angeles, CA, USA“Lorenzo…has a passion for life, photography and writing. He is a linguistic genius, a storyteller through words and pictures. He captures with his camera the world as he sees it, its feelings, love, beauty and all it has to offer...” Brenda George, Adelaide, AustraliaABOUT THE PHOTOGRAPHER, AUTHOR & JOURNALISTLorenzo is a best-selling author, a writer and an award-winning street photographer.He has written numerous books, interviews and articles about fine art and photography for En Foco, Nueva Luz, Rain Tiger and the Examiner. Throughout most of 2010, his book, 25 Lessons I’ve Learned about photography Life! has been the #1 Best Selling Photo Essay and Artist & Photography Biography on Amazon.com. Paul Giguere, guru for the popular podcast thoughts on photography, considers 25 Lessons one of the "classic" essays on photography. In October of 2010, he served as the NYC photography adviser for the recently launched Microsoft foursquare photography app. In 2008, he was chosen to be the HP Be Brilliant Featured Artist.Since taking up digital photography in 2005, his photography has been featured in fotoMAGAZIN, Germany's premier photo magazine, and his photos have been cited, posted and published by over 350 other blogs, websites, and print publications. He has been called an "Internet photography sensation" by Time Out New York and is considered a "Flickr star" by Rob Walker, Consumed columnist, for New York Times Magazine.His work is represented worldwide by Getty Images.

Peoplewatching: The Desmond Morris Guide to Body Language


Desmond Morris - 1977
    Desmond Morris shows us how people, consciously and unconsciously, signal their attitudes, desires and innermost feelings with their bodies and actions, often more powerfully than with their words.

America 24/7


Rick Smolan - 2003
    Showcasing the best photographs as documented by up to a million or more participants from across the United States, the publication of America 24/7 will coincide with network television specials, a DVD documentary, a traveling exhibition of photographs, and a compelling website. In addition to the 1,000+ top photojournalists being hired by the America 24/7 team, amateur photographers from across the country will be invited to submit their own digital photographs of American life via the project's website--america24-7.com. Participants across the United States will help to create a vivid panorama of modern American life capturing the myriad experiences that take place across the nation within a week. The creators of America 24/7 have several New York Times bestsellers to their credit, including A Day in the Life of America, A Day in the Life of the Soviet Union, and Christmas in America.

A Neutral Corner: Boxing Essays


A.J. Liebling - 1990
    Liebling's abiding passion for the "sweet science" of boxing, A Neutral Corner brings together fifteen previously unpublished pieces written between 1952 and 1963. Antic, clear-eyed, and wildly entertaining, these essays showcase a The New Yorker journalist at the top of his form. Here one relives the high drama of the classic Patterson-Johansson championship bout of 1959, and Liebling's early prescient portrayal of Cassius Clay's style as a boxer and a poet is not to be missed.Liebling always finds the human story that makes these essays appealing to aficionados of boxing and prose alike. Alive with a true fan's reverence for the sport, yet balanced by a true skeptic's disdain for sentiment, A Neutral Corner is an American treasure.

Cape Light


Joel Meyerowitz - 1979
    Common scenes -- tiny figures on a beach, a porch railing against a storm-darkened sky, a blue raft against a summer cottage -- all are transformed by the poignant light of the Cape and the photographer's subtle and luminous vision. This exquisitely printed book captures every nuance of color and light in that unique juncture of sky, sea, and land that is Cape Cod.

Given Time: I. Counterfeit Money


Jacques Derrida - 1991
    It is, however, a short tale by Baudelaire, "Counterfeit Money," that guides Derrida's analyses throughout. At stake in his reading of the tale, to which the second half of this book is devoted, are the conditions of gift and forgiveness as essentially bound up with the movement of dissemination, a concept that Derrida has been working out for many years.For both readers of Baudelaire and students of literary theory, this work will prove indispensable.

Dignity: Seeking Respect in Back Row America


Chris Arnade - 2019
    Arnade's raw, deeply reported accounts cut through today's clickbait media headlines and indict the elitists who misunderstood poverty and addiction in America for decades.After abandoning his Wall Street career, Arnade decided to document poverty and addiction in the Bronx. He began interviewing, photographing, and becoming close friends with homeless addicts, and spent hours in drug dens and McDonald's. Then he started driving across America to see how the rest of the country compared. He found the same types of stories everywhere, across lines of race, ethnicity, religion, and geography.The people he got to know, from Alabama and California to Maine and Nevada, gave Arnade a new respect for the dignity and resilience of what he calls America's Back Row--those who lack the credentials and advantages of the so-called meritocratic upper class. The strivers in the Front Row, with their advanced degrees and upward mobility, see the Back Row's values as worthless. They scorn anyone who stays in a dying town or city as foolish, and mock anyone who clings to religion or tradition as naive.As Takeesha, a woman in the Bronx, told Arnade, she wants to be seen she sees herself: "a prostitute, a mother of six, and a child of God." This book is his attempt to help the rest of us truly see, hear, and respect millions of people who've been left behind.

The Bible in a Nutshell


Casper Rigsby - 2014
    With an estimated word count of well over 700,000 words, the book is not an undertaking for the casual reader. The book can be a very tedious and boring read. This turns many people off from wanting to commit any time to understanding the foundational doctrine of Christianity. However, as atheists we really need to have at least a basic understanding of the Bible if we are going to make a judgment call about the religion. No matter which sect of Christianity someone subscribes to, the Bible is the foundation of Christian belief. This book is a mere 7,000 words to tell a slimmed down version of the basic story of the Bible. This book focused on the narrative rather than any underlying allegory or metaphor inherent in the narrative. The author attempts to challenge the notion of biblical literalism by showing that the story in its most basic form is simply too fantastic for any rational person to believe.

Cold War


Jeremy Isaacs - 1998
    Its framework is the confrontation, military and ideological, between two great powers that dominated the world during these years. It is a story of crises and conflict on a global scale: from the Berlin Blockade and the Cuban Missile Crisis, to the tanks in the streets of Warsaw, Budapest and Prague, to spies, student riots and encounters in space.In Cold War, Jeremy Isaacs and Taylor Downing record epic history through the detail of individual human experience: the recollections not only of statesmen whose decisions led to these momentous events, but also of the ordinary men and women whose lives were bound up in these years of conflict. Cold War is the first comprehensive history for the general reader to benefit from the recent opening of Soviet, East European and Chinese archives as well as formerly classified American documents. In a driving narrative that it both gripping and informative, the true story of the Cold War can at last be told.

The End of the Game: The Last Word from Paradise - A Pictoral Documentation of the origins, History and Prospects of the Big Game Africa


Peter H. Beard - 1963
    Beautifully illustrated with over 300 contemporary and historical photographs as well as dozens of paintings, The End of the Game is a legendary workvividly telling the story of explorers, missionaries, and big-game hunters whose quests have changed the face of Africa forever.

Juvenile In Justice


Richard Ross - 2012
    The nearly 150 images in this book were made over 5 years of visiting more than 1,000 youth confined in more than 200 juvenile detention institutions in 31 states. These riveting photographs, accompanied by the life stories that these young people in custody shared with Ross, give voice to imprisoned children from families that have no resources in communities that have no power.With essays by Ira Glass of National Public Radio’s This American Life and Bart Lubow, Director of the Annie E. Casey Foundation’s Juvenile Justice Strategy Group

Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 4 Book: The Complete Guide for Photographers


Martin Evening - 2012
    This completely updated bestseller was also written with photographers in mind. Author Martin Evening describes features in Lightroom 4 in detail from a photographer’s perspective. As an established commercial and fashion photographer, Martin knows firsthand what photographers need for an efficient workflow. He has also been working with Lightroom from the beginning, monitoring the product’s development and providing valued feedback to Adobe. As a result, Martin knows the software inside and out, from image selection to image editing to image management. In this book you’ll learn how to:• Work efficiently with images shot in the raw or JPEG format • Import photographs with ease and sort them according to your workflow• Create and manage a personal image library• Apply tonal adjustments to multiple images quickly• Integrate Lightroom with Adobe Photoshop• Export images for print or Web as digital contact sheets or personal portfolios• Make the most of new features in Lightroom 4, such as the Camera Raw Process 2012 Basic panel tone controlsPhotographers will find Lightroom 4–and The Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 4 Book–indispensable tools in their digital darkrooms.This book’s companion site, www.thelightroombook.com, offers video tutorials, articles, sample images, and updates from author Martin Evening.“With Martin’s expert guidance, you’ll soon find that you have precisely the tools you need to turn your concentration back where it belongs–on making better pictures!”–George Jardine, digital photography consultant “As a photographer himself, Martin Evening knows what tools photographers need to realize their creative vision. In this book, he shows not only how Adobe Photoshop Lightroom works but also why it will become an essential part of any photographer’s workflow.”–Greg Gorman, photographer

The Cute Manifesto


James Kochalka - 2005
    In a dangerously uncertain world, Kochalka plots a theoretical path to happiness. Collecting his most intensely thoughtful work, Kochalka tackles the big issues . . . comics and art, birth and death, technology and joy, and everything in between. Included are "The Horrible Truth about Comics", "Reinventing Everything" parts 1 and 2, "Sunburn", "The Cute Manifesto" and even Kochalka’s famous “Craft is the Enemy” essays.

Lord Weary's Castle: The Mills of the Kavanaughs


Robert Lowell - 1968
    A combined edition of the poet's early work, including Lord Weary's Castle, a collection of forty-two short poems, which won the 1947 Pulitzer Prize, and The Mills of the Kavanaughs, a narrative poem of six hundred lines, and five other long poems.