"Goin' Home with The Rolling Stones '66" by Gered Mankowitz -Review by Tosh Berman for Pleas Kill Me Website

 Tosh Berman on "Goin' Home with The Rolling Stones

"Godlis Streets" Photographs by David Godlis with Foreword by Luc Sante & Afterword by Chris Stein (Reel Art Press)

ISBN: 9781909526730

There have been hand-painted landscapes for centuries, but what the 19th and 20th centuries brought us is street photography. Like a drawing or painting, photography can capture the psychology or emotion of people in the picture. The difference between the two mediums of paintings/drawings and photography is that one is considered real, and the other is a representation by an artist. It can take days or even years to complete an oil painting, but snapping a photo can take seconds. Perhaps in the darkroom, another process occurs, where the photographer can manipulate the images or the darkness/lightness of that photo. Still, the immediate recording of an activity or history documented is a significant aspect of still photography. It's a medium that is like making punk rock music. One can know three-cords to write a song, and it takes an instant to capture an image with one's camera. It takes talent for sounds or an eye to making that image or song into art. Photographer David Godlis spent a great deal of time in 1970s New York to take pictures of musicians and fans in such punk locations such as CBGB's. 

 The urgency to capture a music scene as it happens also is a close relative to street photography. One sets the viewer's mind to photograph a poetic or surreal activity as it happens. Do photos lie? Perhaps, but the photographer's essence is to capture time at its most beautiful, profound, or at the very least, for amusement purposes. Godlis is not a Weegee type of street photographer. He is not out there to capture crime and murder scenes for the tabloid press. Godlis sets out to find images that one is pleasing to the eye. It gives some weight or presence to everyday people reflecting their inspirations and practices in an urban landscape that happens to be Manhattan and Boston. 

 In many of the images in this book, people look directly into Godlis's camera as he quickly snaps a shot. They have no time to react to the picture taken, and in fact, some look like they make contact with their eyes, but maybe they're thinking about their day as well. Or they have to keep a necessary appointment. The viewer of this book can make their narratives of who these people are. Still, all of them have that hardcore essence of living in a large and cosmopolitan landscape. 

 The juxtaposition of what looks like a businessman going to work but carrying a Playboy magazine or the two young women are approaching or going by an entrance that says "Service Gate." In that photo, a can and bottle of an empty beer bring up all sorts of narrations in these pictures. The black and white images are sharp, crisp, and I can feel the weather that day due to the clothing and the photographs themselves' mood. These photos essence sticks to one's mind. An awe-inspiring book of images that captures urban life as it happened.

BOOK MUSIK 17: Tony Nourmand & Dave Brolan (Reel Art Press)

Tosh and Kimley discuss the books of Reel Art Press with special guests Tony Nourmand (the founder and editor in chief) and Dave Brolan (the music editor.) Reel Art Press publishes stunning books on an eclectic array of subjects usually with a music, film or pop-culture foundation. Tony and Dave, both enormously passionate about what they do, regale us with some fantastic and often amusing stories about running an independent press and working with the likes of Led Zeppelin and some of the most iconic music/rock photographers in the biz. Each of their books brings a unique perspective and is a piece of art in and of itself.

Reel Art Press with Tony & Dave

French New Wave: A Revolution in Design" Edited by Tony Nourmand. Introduction by Christopher Frayling. Design by Graham Marsh. Text by Alison Elangasinghe.

The French New Wave, of course, has a presence as cinema, but also, and equally important is how the international graphic arts contributed to these markable films. I believe most of us who were touched by the French New Wave was first seduced to its greatness by its movie posters. In an obsessive (and love is always obsessive) manner, we look at the graphic genius of Jean-Michel Folon, Boris Grinsson, Waldemar Swierzy, Christian Broutin, Tomasz Ruminski, Hans Hillman, Georges Allard, René Ferracci, Bruno Rehak, Zdenek Ziegler, Miroslav Vystrcil, Peter Strausfeld, Maciej Hibner, Andrzej Krajewski, Maciej Zbikowski, Josef Vylet’al, Sandro Simeoni, Averardo Ciriello, Marcello Colizzi and many more. From France to the U.S. to Poland, Japan, and elsewhere, The French New Wave was a foundation where graphic art was made and equally as important as the actual films.

The editor Tony Nourmand will be in conversation with Christopher Frayling. A book signing will follow. At Artbook @ Hauser & Wirth Los Angeles, 917 East 3rd Street. Sunday, February 9th at 3PM. - Tosh Berman

Two Artbook at Hauser & Wirth Los Angeles Events that Excite Me - Reel Art Press (RAP)

"The Beat Scene" Photographs by Burt Glinn, Essay by Jack Kerouac (Reel Art Press)

ISBN: 978-1-909526-26-6

A remarkable time machine of going back to the late 1950s to observe 'The Beat Scene' as it happened.  Burt Glinn was a classic photojournalist of the classic Life/Look/Esquire years.  Reel Art Press (RAP) not long ago put out a book of images by Glinn of the first day Castro obtained power in Cuba.   The images were raw but beautifully framed by Glinn's eye and his skill as a cameraman.  There are many images of the Beats in  New York and San Francisco, but the big difference from someone like Charles Brittin and Glinn is that Brittin was an intimate friend of his subject matters.  I feel Glinn was there as an assignment, and then moved on to another exciting location after the job was done.  Therefore these images of this generation were put in storage for over 50 years.  

Which actually gives an interesting texture or layer in his observations of the Beats.  He wrote the captions as well as these photographs, and it is geared toward the reader or viewer who knows nothing of this world but heard about it through the mainstream media.  And Glinn represented the mainstream world looking into the bohemian world.  Most images I have seen of The Beats either came from my father (Wallace Berman), Charles Brittin or Fred W. McDarrah in New York City.  The poet Allen Ginsberg is another great photographer who documented his social/work world as well.  But Glinn's work has a journalistic distance from his subject matter, and one can easily imagine these images being in LIFE Magazine in the late 1950s. 

The Beats generally don't have a high trust in the mainstream media world for many good reasons.  Exploitation is the most obvious reason, but Glinn also captures the inner glamor of such young people doing fun things.  Who doesn't want to go to a painter's party, or to a bar to hear poetry/jazz, and drink red wine?  Glinn's work is there to document a moment for the mainstream masses, which doesn't mean the photographs are not accurate, but still, there is a Hollywood cinematic touch to the color which makes the images very contemporary.   Glinn was a fantastic photographer, but in a very classical sense of picture and subject together.   There is no doubt that everyone in the Beat movement was extraordinarily handsome or beautiful. Even it's children, such as page 142, is at the very least, cute. 

Jack Kerouac's intro text is fantastic regarding an average night out in Beat-dom.  For those who even have the slightest interest in the counter-culture or the Beats should look at this book page-by-page.  An important document. 

"X-Rated: Adult Movie Posters of the 60s and 70s" by Tony Gourmand and Graham Marsh, Introduction by Peter Doggett (Reel Art Press)

"X-Rated: Adult Movie Posters of the 60s and 70s" by Tony Mourmand and Graham Marsh (Reel Art Press)

You can't overestimate the sexual urge even in the era of Trump. Still, a look back into the era when there were actual dirty movie theaters that showed dirty movies in one's neighborhood or more likely in the borderline between your 'safe' area and the 'bad' neighborhood. Usually, it's the folks from the 'good' area that frequents these type of theaters. For my generation, and I was a child/teenager in the 60/70s, the attraction of an X-rated movie theater was hard to avoid. Not only for the pleasures of seeing the flesh, but also the beautifully designed film posters that advertise these films. Reel Art Press publisher and editor Tony Nourmand has the largest collection of these posters from that era. With the great assistance of Graham Marsh, they have made a book that is essential to not only dirty movie lovers but also anyone who even has the flicker of interest in cinema practices as well as pop cultural history.

Russ Meyer is clearly the genius of the X-Rated film, that is more exploitative than sexual. Still, when one watches a Meyer film, you're clearly exposed to another version of a demented world away from your own surroundings. His film posters are pretty much an excellent representation of what you are going to see in his cinematic work. Beyond that, not that many other geniuses in this field of work, still, the graphic art aspect is brilliant and often witty. For me, I prefer the posters of the 60s because, for one, it was truly an underground landscape. There was something forbidden in that world, and these posters express the iconic naughtiness of those times. The 70s were a time of more openness and more self-aware of the issues of that era. Still, as the budget got bigger, the posters became more sophisticated in the sense of movies made for the mainstream. It's interesting to compare the two eras of dirty movie posters.

And sadly the book also exposes that the time of the dirty movie poster is now dead. There is no need, especially when the VHS and DVD world came into prominence. And even worse, streaming! Also a terrific introduction by Peter Doggett.

"Cuba 1959" by Burt Glinn (Reel Art Press) Edited by Michael Shulman and Tony Nourmand

ISBN: 978-1-909526-31-0 Reel Art Press

"Cuba 1959" by Burt Glinn

For a lot of Americans, the word 'Cuba' brings either a sense of great anger, or adventure.  Photographer and member of the Magnum Photos group, Burt Glinn, went to Cuba the day the revolution happened.   When covering a story or incidents that is happening at that moment, a photographer must be part of that moment. If they lost the moment, then they don't have their photograph.   Glinn, I suspect, is a man who always has his moment, and he will capture it.   He surely did in Havana, 1959.

Photograph by Burt Glinn

"Cuba 1959" is very much a photo-journalistic narration and the beauty of this book is not the fact that Glinn was behind the scenes, but actually in the crowd.  So, his point-of-view is from the public and what they saw in those series of days around January 1, 1959.  It's amazing that the photographer on December 31, 1958 was at a black-tie party in New York City when he heard the news that Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista had fled Cuba.  By next morning, Glinn was in Havana.  

Beautifully edited, the book lays out a narrative where Glinn starts his work as soon as he landed in Havana.   The one thing that really struck me, was how handsome and beautiful the Cuban people are.  They're incredibly chic!   The Revolutionaries and Castro himself is a good-looking group of guys.   Whatever this by design or happenstance, it almost looks like a fashion shoot, instead of a battle on a Havana street.   The architecture as well, although in the background of these photos, is magnificent in itself.  For those who are interested in Cuban style, this book is for you.  But with bullets and upheaval.  

Photograph by Burt Glinn

"Cuba 1959" is not a political book, but a document of things that happened in the early days of 1959.    What happened afterwards can be debated, but this book is not about that debate.  What this book is about is a series of moments, where a change took place.  And change for the moment, is usually the best.   Tomorrow or later, that is another question all together.   Gillian is a superb photographer.  Although I never been to Cuba, I can feel the presence of the city and its architecture through this book.  A classic. 

Book layout : art direction and design by Joakim Olsson

- Tosh Berman

"ROADBOOK" BY Hunter Barnes (Reel Art Press)

ISBN: 978-1-909526-27-3 Reel Art Press

When you get down to it, the United States of America is a very odd country.   So large, with so many different cultures within its boundaries.  That, is probably what makes it a very interesting place.  Personally, it scares me to death.   Unless it's nature shots of parks, the seaside, and cute animals, the rest of the country is a fearful and haunted place.  "Roadbook" by Hunter Barnes captures what is scary to me, in other words, the human being.  

All of the black and white photographs are from the 21st century, but it could be any era in the States.  They say things change, but in certain parts of our world, nothing changed.   A series of images from Sammyville, Oregon is portraits of men with their guns.  Most are wearing their weapons as if it was the wild west - which the case may be in Sammyville.  One thing is clear. There will never be a ban on guns in this country.  There is no way in heaven or hell, that these guys and gals will give up their firearm.  It's not going to happen. Not in my lifetime nor if I have a kid, not in their lifetime either.  

Photographs by Hunter Barnes

Throughout the book, except on a section on really beautiful women in New York City (why in his right mind, would he leave the city?), we see life on the margins.   Motorcycle gangs in NYC, prisoners in CA State Prison, low riders in New Mexico, Black gang in East St. Louis, white Baptists, and rednecks.   Barnes captures the world quite well, because I suspect that these people accepted, or at the very least, trusted him.   As far as I know this wasn't a fast hello and goodbye project from Barnes, he actually spent time with these people.  The portraits show a relationship between the subject matter and the photographer.  I have always believed that a good picture is not just the image itself, but that the photographer knows the culture, and its people, and then the photograph can happen.  At least the good ones.  And this book is full of great portraits. 

As usual, the book is beautifully designed by the good people at Reel Art Press.   The design never gets in the way of the images by Barnes.  It serves the image.  

Photograph by Hunter Barnes

- Tosh Berman

"The 1960s: Photographed by David Hurn" Introduction by Peter Doggett (Reel Art Press)

ISBN: 978-1-909526-13-6 Reel Art Press

"The 1960s Photographed by David Hurn"  Introduction by Peter Doggett (Real Art Press, 2015)

The 1960s were a perfect landscape for photographers.  Not saying that the era itself was perfect - far from that, but on the other hand the world felt new.   It is interestingly noted in Peter Doggett's opening introduction that the photographer David Hurn wanted to be an anthropologist, but couldn't be due to poor school grades.  On the other hand, I feel his interest in anthropology is very much the focus of his work in this book, "The 1960s."   Whatever he's photographing Sean Connery or people doing their everyday life thing on the streets of Manhattan to a dance that took place at the Hammersmith Palais, he is photographing the everyday of people of various classes and nationalities.

There's the image of the 1960s, that we pretty much have grown into, due to photographic images of that era, as well as its literature, music and films.   Hurn captures another level of that era through his commercial photo work for various magazines.   One gets the feeling that he's not only documenting a place, a moment, an individual, but also how that person, place or moment is placed in the big picture of that entire era.

When a photographer is working, he is just capturing in what is in front of him.  Unless it's a job in a studio where you have complete control of the situation, it is mostly chance of finding something interesting that took place on the street, or a passing incident (he captures a robbery taking place in London) by accident.  This book is put together fifty years later, looking at the past circa the images by Hurn.   The anthropology kicks in, because we are not only seeing The Beatles as themselves, but how they are placed in a world that is perhaps not of their making.   So the subject matter is not really the Fab Four, but the people surrounding the mop-tops.   The same goes for the images of people vacationing on an island off London, Herne Bay, which was the spot for the citizens of London's East End.  Or, the young debutantes about to be presented at the Queen Charlotte's Ball.

in the controlled environment of a photo-studio, we see Jane Fonda (Barbarella) at work, and Hurn comments on her that she was kind to the people who work on the set, as well as Sean Connery's dis-interest in publicity shooting for the early James Bond films.   These are people who are interacting with fellow professionals and I think the inter-subject matter of these images is people working and living within a world of some sort.

This handsome book conveys the 1960s not as an objective view, but clearly through the point-of-view from its photographer.   Each section of the book has commentary by Hurn, that is short and quite profound.   A superb photographer, but also this is a beautifully edited book by Tony Nourmand, who is also the publisher of Reel Art Press.

- Tosh Berman

"Brigid Berlin Polaroids" (Edited by Dagon James, Vincent Fremont, & Anastasia Rygle. Foreword by John Waters. Introduction by Bob Colacello) Reel Art Press

ISBN: 9781909526242 Reel Art Press

"Brigid Berlin Polaroids" by Brigid Berlin (Edited by Dagon James, Vincent Fremont, & Anastasia Rygle.  Foreword by John Waters.  Introduction by Bob Colacello) Reel Art Press

Brigid Berlin, sometimes known as Brigid Polk, is famous for being associated with Andy Warhol and his Factory world.  The great thing about the Warhol world, generally speaking, is how talented the people that he connected himself with - If not all, most are border-line genius types.  Berlin I think is a member of that club, due to her talents with a Polaroid, but also the ability to live in the right place and time. 

As Bob Colacello pointed out in his introduction to this book, Warhol is very much a blue collar type of character who liked to run with the wealthy.  On the other hand, Berlin is part of an upper-class Republican life, with her parents being associated with Richard Nixon and others of that world.   This, of course, made her into a rebel.  Drug Addict (speed), and a woman who had no trouble eliminating her clothing when a camera came by, is something of a great wit.   The beauty of someone like Berlin is that she's a total open book, and allowing herself to absorb the world around her, without much filter, shame or fear.  Warhol surrounded himself with either very brave people or total psychotics - or perhaps both.   In a sense, Berlin and others would dip their toes into the fire, and then report back to Warhol. 

"Brigid Berlin Polaroids" is a beautiful time-capsule from the late 1970s to the early 1980s.  The height of the third act in Warhol's life and career.  The first being his career as a graphic artist in New York City, second is the early years of the Campbell Soup & Elvis paintings, as well as his avant-approach to film making, with an insane cast of characters.  The third segment is what Brigid captured in these photographs.  "Post-Warhol-getting-shot" life as he shifts direction from crazy dangerous landscape to a somewhat much more organized world.  Berlin was part of both worlds, and I think clearly was made to assist Warhol in the Third Act of his life.

Although one has to presume that Berlin had to take these images quickly, and without much thinking, proves to be a fantastic and skilled photographer or again, has the genius ability to be the right person doing the right thing at that moment.  Her portraits of individuals in the art world as well as people around the Factory environment is superbly framed and are exquisite portraits of these people.  She didn't ask permission to shoot, and it seems no one said anything about either being the subject matter of the shoot, or what will be done with the image afterwards.  Brigid was capturing the moment as it happened, and only thinking of the present at the time.  The beauty of the polaroid is that it was something of that instant, and not meant to be fussed over or over-thinking on the photographer's part.  Almost like an artist's notebook of ideas, but the truth is, Berlin knew how to take a great picture of someone.  Although I think these photographs were done in relaxed moments, they are still classic portraits of the subject matter.   There is not one bad portrait of anyone looking bad.  Including her self-portraits in the nude (at times) and the revealing images of Andy Warhol.

The Alice Neel / Warhol polaroid photo session was taken while Warhol agreed to pose without his shirt on, exposing his horrible scars from the shooting.  Neel painted his portrait, and Berlin captured both the model and the painter at work.   It's a revealing series of photos, due to Warhol's obsessively sense of uniform, meaning his wig, and the sensibility of his body's limitations.  I don't think Warhol is the type of guy who is comfortable being in the nude or in front of a camera.    He accepts it for what it is, but I feel he's more comfortable behind a camera than in front of the lens.   Even in specific photo shoots, such as him in drag (by Chrisatopher Makos) or doing TV commercials - he never looks at ease being the subject matter of someone else's observations or the placement of him in front of attention.   He is truly a living tape and camera recorder, and so is Brigid Berlin in this book.

"Polaroids" is a beautiful production job of a book.   The editing is superb, and Berlin's polaroids are totally suitable for an exhibition as well as for this book.   Not only documenting an important time in the arts, but also herself being an artist and photographer.  She's really good.  

- Tosh Berman