LadyKflo’s Best Art and Photography Books
An exceptional coffee table book can change your life. In fact, the best art book in my collection did exactly that. Several of my photography books are life-changers too.
Red Jackson by Gordon Parks 1948
The Red Jackson photograph by Gordon Parks sent me into a whirlwind of reactions from the first time I saw it. Encountering this black and white masterpiece in the Metropolitan Museum of Art feels like a lucky break at first. It’s a thoughtful photographic version of a Vermeer that’s still fresh today, even though it’s from 1948. Podcast version of this post. When Parks took this picture he was working on a feature for Life magazine as a social documentarian. It was a piece about gangs in Harlem
Trolley New Orleans by Robert Frank, 1955
Why is the Robert Frank photograph Trolley New Orleans so important?
– Segregated seating in black and white
– A complex framework of composition
– Truth, hard work, and hope
The Falling Soldier (Photograph) by Robert Capa
Why is The Falling Soldier photograph by Robert Capa such a stunner?
– A spectacle and shadow of death
– Cropping with poignant purpose
– Controversy can’t kill a masterpiece
Woman Combing Her Hair 1915 – Aleksander Archipenko
What’s so special about the sculpture Woman Combing Her Hair 1915 by Aleksander Archipenko?
– A moving figural map
– The void within
– Futurist fundamentals in 3D
Nude Descending a Staircase No 2 – Marcel Duchamp
How did Duchamp’s painting Nude Descending a Staircase No 2 set the art world ablaze?
– Abhorred and adored all at once
– Nudity without critical comprehension
– Changing a turn of the century outlook