With our book finally out, check my other blog, simbahan.net for more details including additional inside page images. Click here to view.

After finding the contemporary photography book Blink and Nan Goldin’s Devil’s Playground from a bargain book shop, here comes another big and rare (as far as Manila is concerned) find: Mary Ellen Mark: Exposure book!

When I found this one, I was just amazed and decided to get it right there and then. Just imagine, one of documentary photography’s respected artist with her compilation of 134 iconic and stunning images spanning 4 decades including known works especially Indian Circus, Falkland Road and Twins.

Mary Ellen Mark’s Exposure book includes an afterword written by the photographer and gives one a glimpse into her art and inspiration.

I have seen this book previously, in fact, a few years ago sold at one of the big bookstores in Metro Manila. However, I missed this one that time. Lately, I have found wonderful books at a bargain bookstore where I got my Nan Goldin and it was also the place where I bought Blink. (Photography).

Its a big book consisting of 100 up and coming photographers (circa 2002) from different styles from around the world chosen by 10 curators and gives a snapshot of the world of contemporary photography. From fashion to photojournalism. From art to digital photography, it showcases the different ideas, approaches and techniques. The curators also selected 10 writers whose work range from fiction to theory and have touched a chord with their experience.

A wonderful book that is still relevant today.

My first book of Nan Goldin was a handy 60-pager that introduced me to her mesmerizing work. I bought it in Hongkong in 2006 and has images from her various publications.

Last Saturday night, while looking at some photography books at a book sale, I never expected to find her The Devil’s Playground, published by Phaidon in 2003 that I immediately took hold of it! Even though the jacket was already gone, it’s so rare for these kind of books to be available here that I just have to get it and cost me just P980 (about $21).

I need inspiration and Anne-Celine Jaeger’s Image Makers, Image Takers book is just what I need. Rereading her interviews of noted photographers like Stephen Shore, Sebastiao Salgado, Mary Ellen Mark, Charles Freger, and 15 others talk about their beginnings, processes, and photography helps me in reassessing my own approach to come up with better ideas and fine tune my manner of working. It’s insightful and the photographers are from different disciplines: art, documentary, fashion and advertising, portraiture and what she calls, the next generation.

The author didn’t limit it to working photographers but also included photo editors as well as publishers, agency directors, curators and gallerists. In this way, you get to have an idea of how the business is and how these movers and shakers think, look and consider. The mix of 218 illustrations found in the book is interesting and the images by the different photographers gives you a good range of their work.

As what the blurb said, this is “the essential guide to Photography for those in the know.“