Distant Horizons – The Books

Tim Parkin

Amateur Photographer who plays with big cameras and film when in between digital photographs.

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Beyond Words kindly added a paragraph to our article about the sea horizon meme and we ordered a few of these. As we've spent a few days getting our book photography perfected we thought we'd include the ones we purchased here.

Thanks to Neil McIlwraith from Beyond Words for the advice. Please purchase from Neil if you can.

Sea Change : The Seascape in Contemporary Art

Sea change is a compilation of images from various photographers who have all approached the sea in their own unique ways. An eclectic selection and worth a punt if you can get one at a reasonably cheap price.

Liquid Light 1983-2003 : Fabien Baron

Fabien Baron's work is almost monotone in it's lack of variety, the first few pages offer images where the subtle changes in wave or tone can be easily missed, but there is a gradual drift of subject throughout the book. Fabien gradually introduces new ideas at his own pace, eventually including a rock or a jetty. Outrageous!!

The book is beautifully printed though and if you like this genre of photo it's worth a punt.

Rothko/Sugimoto

The comparison between Sugimoto and Rothko is a fairly obvious one and Rothko's estate obviously thought it had merit as they approved this joint exhibition. The book is beautifully printed by Meridian in Rhode Island with tritone separations for the black and white (three black inks).

The book includes much of Rothko's later work and a nice cross section of Sugimoto's.

Waterproof : Water in Photography since 1852

This was recommended by Neil McIlwraith and is a brilliant book. Not all typical landscape, there is a good amount of social documentary style photography, but as a historical taster of approaches to the sea it is fascinating. 450 photographs from 250 photographers with names such as Arbus, Atget, Araki, Brandt, Brassai, Bresson and many more.

The book was produced in association with a massive exhibition at the '98 EXPO in Portugal during the International Year of the Ocean, the book is divided up into 17 sections as follows

• The States of Water
• The Path of Water
• The Oceans and the Waves
• Antarctica
• On the Beach
• Swimming
• Washing
• Sailing
• Bonjour Sécurité
• Fish
• Aquatic Cities
• Urban Water
• Water Works
• Dangerous Waters
• Human Waters
• Abstract Water
• The Wave

Each section has a narrative section at the start of the book with great information and the choice of images has obviously had great consideration as each is individually strong but fits the exhibition's narrative very well. The book is beautifully printed with what looks like duotones for the black and whites and CMYK for the colours.

Although this is a particularly difficult book to find I can heartily recommend it for the photographer with more catholic tastes and historic interest.

You can pick up a copy from Abebooks/Alibris/Book Repository for between £70 and £150.

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