It’s hard to believe that it’s 5 years since I mentioned Pentti Sammallahti retrospective book Here Far Away on this blog So I’m delighted to see a new monograph Des Oiseaux (on birds) being published by the excellent Xavier Barral A true poet of the camera, this collection of bird photos comes in two language editions -French and English, because accompanying these photographs, the ornithologist Guilhem Lesaffre showcases the relationship to the seasons that is a fundamental aspect of the life of birds. I look forward to receiving this in the coming weeks. Write up from the publishers - Traveller-photographer Pentti Sammallahti captures the myste­ries of nature on his travels and among these, the world of birds. Coastlines, swamps, parks, endless plains, forest clearings, snowy landscapes… In these isolated areas, birds slyly reveal their pres­ence.

Like visual tales, his B&W photographs attest to his extraordinary eye for detail, to light that sculpts spaces, to silent expanses in which a human or animal presence suddenly appears. The experience of the image is twofold: beyond its narrative virtuosity, his use of a two-colour process, with immaculate whites (as in the plumage of his swans or pink flamingos) confronted with deep blacks, creates a play of textures and powerfully renders a world in which birds play a unique role.

Interview with Pentti Sammallahti

Tags:Pentti Sammallahti,Xavier Barral,Des Oiseaux

Henry Carroll is a UK author and studied photography at the Royal College of Art. In recent years he has produced a series of books with ‘Read This If…’ in the title. A full list can be found here on Amazon

Aimed at the new and intermediate photographer to get creative with their camera, I have been pleasantly surprised by their straight forward approach. In his latest book- Photographers on Photography, there is no mention of the mechanics of photography here but rather a collection of quotes and images by masters of the art, with accompanying text by Carroll, he tries to show what photography actually means to the giants of the genres and how they developed their distinctive visual styles.

As he says in the introduction..” this offers an introduction to the more philosophical. Expect different opinions ranging from the personal to the practical, the esoteric to the enlightening’.

So one is given an insight into the approach of very different photography artists. It is a slim book, but big on content. Mixed in with the approach shown above, he has placed some interviews, among them Alec Soth.

An inexpensive, finally printed, book that I can highly recommend. It’s published by Laurence King Publishing and costs approx €16 in hardback at time of writing.

Tags:Henry Carroll,Photographers on Photography,Laurence King Publishing

The 2018 ND award winners have just been announced and happy to be among them. I received two honourable mentions in fine art -Abstract and in Nature. Click on logos to see my entries.