Born out of his successful website of the same name photographer Eilon Paz has now collected a healthy sampling of his portraits of record collectors from around the world in his debut book; Dust and Grooves: Adventures in Record Collecting. 130 vinyl collectors are featured, each in the friendly confines of their record rooms. The first section of the books focuses on the visuals while the second part features 12 in-depth interviews which lets us in as to "what motivates record collectors to keep digging for more records." Joe Bussard: King of the 78s As to the success and important role...
A man, his camera and the library: Robert Dawson and the American Commons
A public library can mean different things to different people. For me, the library offers our best example of the public commons. For many, the library upholds the nineteenth-century belief that the future of democracy is contingent upon an educated citizenry. For others, the library simply means free access to the Internet, or a warm place to take shelter, a chance for an education, or the endless possibilities that jump to life in your imagination the moment you open the cover of a book. - Robert Dawson It is being billed as the most comprehensive visual survey of American libraries ever...
In The Stacks: William Burroughs Through the Lens of Allen Ginsberg
William Burroughs in front of sphinx at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, NYC. 1953. For this installment of In the Stacks we visit the Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library at the University of Toronto and their fabulous collection of Allen Ginsberg's photographs. With almost 8,000 prints the collection is the largest repository of photographs by Allen Ginsberg in the world. William Burroughs at typewriter fixing Yage Letters typescript, E 7th street, NY. 1953And with 2014 being the 100th anniversary of the birth of fellow beat icon William Burroughs what better than a selection of photographs spanning almost 40 years of their seminal relationship....
In the Stacks: Leslie Jones at the Boston Public Library
Gertrude Fisher takes unusual position to read the latest novel of her husband M.S. Merritt. November 26, 1932 Though he worked as staff photographer of Boston Herald-Traveler from 1917 to 1956 Leslie Jones considered himself more of a camera-man then a photo-journalist. And when all was said and done he had amassed "a stunning pictorial document of the history of Boston in the 20th century." The Old Bookstore, Cornhill March 1930 His collection of almost 40,000 negatives was donated to the Boston Public Library by his family in the early 1970's and now thanks to the work of the Digital Commonwealth and...
Still Life with Book: A series by Juliette Tang
"I saw her running at me, shrieking, with a whirl of fire blazing all about her." -Charles Dickens, Great Expectations If we had a Book Patrol Hall of Fame photographer Juliette Tang would make it in on the first ballot. She describes her attraction to books: When people ask me why I take so many photos of books, I always give the same straightforward response. Books capture my imagination. It’s a short answer. It’s also an honest answer. But, I can elaborate. Reading them, taking photos of them, writing them, writing about them, and just having them near me, everything to...