by Meghan Edwards
Wherever you’re off to this season–be it poolside, beachfront, or some far-flung exotic locale–you’re seeking out inspiration in the nature, art, and design of your surroundings. To fuel relaxation, a roundup of new and upcoming photography titles does the footwork for you. Jump right in, from the comfort of your preferred lounge spot.
Calm, Cool, and Collected
Long before they became the medium of choice for site-specific land artists like Andy Goldsworthy beginning in the 1960s and 70s, walls built in dry stone (meaning without mortar) have been a fundamental part of human civilization for centuries. Due out in October, Stone Walls: Personal Boundaries by artist Mariana Cook chronicles both majestic and humble incarnations, all shot in black and white during her recent eight years of travel to farms, towns, and temples in Ireland, the Mediterranean, Peru, the United Kingdom, and the United States. The images are somehow soothing, yet the book is as much a rumination on their beauty as a call to action to preserve walls that are falling into disrepair or being replaced by concrete, wire, or wooden fences. A portion of the book’s proceeds will benefit the Dry Stone Conservancy, a non-profit organization in Lexington, Kentucky. $50; Damiani, available through Amazon.
Ice Crush
New York musician, artist, and writer Paul D. Miller, aka DJ Spooky, offers a unique manifesto on one of the most inherently fascinating geographic locations known to man: Antarctica. The Book of Ice fuses a range of sources for phenomenal graphic design that incorporates photographs, essays, music – the book includes QR codes for linking to free multimedia content, such as the author’s film North/South – interviews, architectural plans, and propaganda. Miller envisions the uninhabited, nationless continent through the lens of his own travel photography mixed with artwork and re-appropriated archival materials. All media combine to consider the continent’s history of exploration, its connection with art, and ultimately suggest a greater meditation on humanity’s relationship with the natural world. $29.95; Mark Batty Publisher, available through Amazon.
Fresh Footprints
Deep Sea Diver: An American Photographer’s Journey in Shanxi, China is exactly what it calls itself, compiling 85 black-and-white Leica shots by pioneering documentary photographer Danny Lyon, known for creating the style known as “New Journalism” via his raw images of American subcultures beginning in the 1960’s. This latest book, released in a limited edition of 3,000, grants Westerners access to China’s northwest Shanxi Province where Lyon traveled six times between 2005 and 2009 (with the help of a translator) to experience and document a region rarely visited by Americans and still untouched by many elements of the modern world. Candid yet nostalgic images of laborers, soldiers, children, and students are accompanied by the photographer’s personal travel writings, annotations, and ephemera to capture an intimate portrait of Shanxi’s rapidly changing culture. $200; Phaidon Press, available through Amazon.
