Media noted and received.

The 3rd Act, by Drew Yanno.

Continuum/192 pp./$14.95 (sb).

About Stephen Bann, edited by Deborah Cherry. Blackwell Publishing/208 pp./$29.95 (sb).

Aesthetic Computing, edited by Paul A. Fishwick. MIT Press/457 pp./$42.50 (hb).

Against the Grain, essay by John Elderfield, interview by Ann Temkin, forward by Glenn D. Lowry. Museum of Modern Art/128 pp./$40.00 (hb).

Americanizing the Movies and "Movie-Mad" Audiences, 1910-1914, by Richard Abel. University of California Press/391 pp./$29.95 (sb).

The Appreciative Journey: A Guide to Developing International Cultural Exchanges, by Michael Sikes, Mary Campell-Zopf, Jami Goldstein, and Wayne Lawson. Ohio Arts Council/108 pp./$24.00 (hb).

Art from Start to Finish: Jazz, Painting, and Other Improvisations, edited by Howard S. Becker, Robert R. Faulkner, and Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett. University of Chicago Press/248 pp./$24.00 (sb).

Art of the Digital Age, by Bruce Wands. Thames & Hudson/223 pp./$50.00 (hb).

Bas Jan Ader: In Search of the Miraculous, by Jan Verwoert. Afterall Books/96 pp./$16.00 (sb).

Best of Black and White: Erotic Photography, edited by Peter Delius. Prestel Publishing/128 pp./$45.00 (hb).

Bombay, by Lalitha Gopalan. BFI Publishing/88 pp./[pounds sterling]9.99 (sb).

Bookworm: The Art of Rosamond Purcell, by Rosamond Purcell. Quantuck Lane Press/160 pp./$35.00 (hb).

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Brigitte Lacombe: cinema/theater, edited by Janet Johnson. Shirmer/Mosel/292 pp./$39.95 (sb).

Candida Hofer: Libraries, essay by Umberto Eco. Schirmer/Mosel/272 pp./$99.95 (hb).

Candida Hofer: Opera de Paris, by Gerard Mortier. Schirmer/Mosel/80 pp./$49.95 (hb).

Chris Marker, by Nora M. Alter. University of Illinois Press/232 pp./$19.95 (sb).

Cindy Sherman, edited by Johanna Burton. MIT Press/240 pp./$15.95 (sb).

Cinema at the End of Empire: A Politics of Transition in Britain and India, by Priya Jaikumar. Duke University Press/304 pp./$22.95 (sb).

Cinephelia and History, or The Wind in the Trees, by Christian Keathley. Indiana University Press/212 pp./$50.00 (sb).

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City 2000, edited by Teri Boyd. University of Illinois Press/276 pp./$49.95 (hb).

City Language Berlin, by Christoph Mangler. Prestel/128 pp./$14.95 (hb).

Collage: The Making of Modern Art, by Brandon Taylor. Thames & Hudson/224 pp./$34.95 (sb).

A Companion to Contemporary Art since 1945, edited by Amelia Jones. Blackwell Publishing/648 pp./$49.95 (sb).

Contemporary Desert Photography: The Other Side of Paradise, by Marilyn Cooper and Katherine Plake Hough. University of Washington Press/64 pp./$20.00 (sb).

The Decency Wars: The Campaign to Cleanse American Culture, by Frederick S. Lane. Prometheus Books/367 pp./$28.00 (hb).

Directed by Steven Spielberg: Poetics of the Contemporary Hollywood Blockbuster, by Warren Buckland. Continuum/256 pp./$19.95 (sb).

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The Director's Cut: Picturing Hollywood in the 21st Century, edited by Stephen Littger. Continuum/352 pp./$18.95 (sb).

Doctor Dogwit's Second Book of Transitive Aspects: A Chronicle of Tribulation in the Highlands of Exeter, by Gary Richman. Blue Book Issue/28 pp./price unavailable (sb).

Dream Worlds: Architecture and Entertainment, text by Oliver Herwig, photographs by Florian Holzherr. Prestel Verlag/160 pp./$60.00 (hb).

Dreaming in Black and White: Photography at the Julien Levy Gallery by Katherine Ware and Peter Barberie. Philadelphia Museum of Art & Yale University Press/336 pp./$65.00 (hb).

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This book was published to accompany the exhibition of the same title at the Philadelphia Museum of Art during the summer of 2006. This "supercatalog" of 336 pages begins with two in-depth essays by Katherine Ware and Peter Barberie, both from the museum. The two texts explain and contextualize the importance of Julien Levy's gallery in New York from 1931 to 1949. They are followed by 145 pages of high-quality reproductions of photographs shown at the gallery during that period, and chosen from among the 2,500 pieces of the Julien Levy collection now belonging to the museum. As early as the 1930s, the Julien Levy Gallery revealed to an American audience the works of such photographers as Eugene Atget, Manuel Alvarez Bravo, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Walker Evans, Andre Kertesz, Nadar, Man Ray, and many others. A list of all the photographic exhibitions held at the gallery concludes the volume. This book is an extremely valuable source of information about the American photographic scene in the middle of the twentieth century, and one of its key players.

BRUNO CHALIFOUR is a freelance critic and photographer, educator, and PhD candidate.

Dudley Murphy: Hollywood Wild Card, by Susan Delson. University of Minnesota Press/272 pp./$27.95 (hb).

East Art Map: Contemporary Art and Eastern Europe, edited by IRWIN. MIT Press/500 pp./$45.00 (sb).

The Education of a Photographer, edited by Charles H. Traub, Steven Heller, and Adam B. Bell. Allworth Press/256 pp./$19.95 (sb).

Eleven Septembers, by Reiner Leist. Prestel/512 pp./$85.00 (hb).

Encountering Eva Hesse, edited by Griselda Pollock and Vanessa Corby. Prestel/224 pp./$60.00 (hb).

Entropy 101, photographs by Sarah Boss. Boss Works/218 pp./$49.99 (sb).

Eyesight Alone: Clement Greenberg's Modernism and the Bureaucratization of the Senses, by Caroline A. Jones. University of Chicago Press/544 pp./$45.00 (hb).

F is for Phony: Fake Documentary and Truth's Undoing, edited by Alexandra Jubasz and Jesse Lerner. University of Minnesota Press/244 pp./$20.00 (sb).

Feelings Are Facts: A Life, by Yvonne Rainer. MIT Press/504 pp./$37.95 (hb).

Floodscapes, by John Goto. Churchill College/University of Cambridge/23 pp./price unavailable (sb) [exhibition catalog].

Full Metal Apache: Transactions between Cyberpunk Japan and Avant-Pop America, by Takayuki Tatsumi. Duke University Press/272 pp./$22.95 (sb).

Gaming: Essays on Algorithmic Culture, by Alexander R. Galloway. University of Minnesota Press/168 pp./$17.95 (sb).

Greece: Images of an Enchanted Land, 1954-1965, photographs by Robert A. McCabe. Quantuck Lane Press/204 pp./$85.00 (hb).

Guitar Eros, by Jean-Baptiste Mondino. Schirmer/Mosel/180 pp./$59.95 (hb).

Harald Szeemann: Exhibition Maker, by Hans-Joachim Muller. Ursus Books/168 pp./$35.00 (sb).

Illya Kabakov: The Man Who Flew into Space from His Apartment, by Boris Groys. Afterall Books/62 pp./$16.00 (sb).

In the Name of the Father, the Daughter, and The Holy Spirits, by Isabella Rossellini. Schirmer/Mosel/144 pp./$35.00 (hb).

Information Please: Culture and Politics in the Age of Digital Machines, by Mark Poster. Duke University Press/320 pp./$79.95 (hb), $22.95 (sb).

Is There Life After Film School?, by Julie MacLusky. Continuum/216 pp./$19.95 (sb).

Joe, photographs by Hiroshi Sugimoto, text by Jonathon Safran Foer. Prestel/96 pp./$80.00 (hb).

Leavin'a Testimony: Portraits from Rural Texas, by Patsy Cravens. University of Texas Press/348 pp./$34.95 (hb).

Little Polar Bears, by Thorsten Milse. Prestel/176 pp./$45.00 (hb).

Marilyn Monroe: The Complete Last Sitting, by Bert Stern. Schirmer/Mosel/464 pp./$120.00 (hb).

Mark Lewis, by Mark Lewis, essays by Michael Connor, et al. Liverpool University Press/120 pp./[pounds sterling]22.50 (hb).

The Moment of Seeing: Minor White at the California School of Fine Arts, by Stephanie Comer and Deborah Klochko. Chronicle Books/208 pp./$40.00 (hb).

My Father, by Liza Nguyen. Schaden.com/60 pp./[euro]20 (hb).

The New Creative Artist, by Nita Leland. North Light Books/176 pp./$29.99 (hb).

New Philosophy for New Media, by Mark B.N. Hansen. MIT Press/368 pp./$19.95 (sb).

The New Visual Culture of Modern Iran by Reza Abedini and Hans Wolbers. Mark Batty Publishers/160 pp./$49.95 (hb).

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The New Visual Culture of Modern Iran reminds me what is great about "art." This book of full-color, full-bleed images employs the exact formal elements a student in any studio art program would have been taught, yet the imagery oozes and breathes a culture unknown to me. The title may be a bit presumptuous; however, the works contained include photographs, experimental posters, video stills, illustrations, and designs for logos, greeting cards, exhibitions announcements, theatrical performances, CDs, book covers, and brochures.

The amount of imagery in comparison to the text is vast: Hans Wolbers wrote a one-page foreword about how the project began and Reza Abedini (whose work in the book is some of the strongest design I have seen in a while) contributed a two-page essay as both an Iranian and an art educator. Aside from the quantity and range of imagery that would impress even the most uninformed viewer, the power of this book's publishing fulfills its title's claim. Emotionally humanistic and powerfully charged imagery made by Iranians currently living and working in their home country successfully usurps the narrow-focused media coverage of that region--a stereotype that would have "them" be what "we" think they are.

ILANA SWERDLIN

Not Quite a Memoir: Of Films, Books, the World, by Judy Stone. Sillman-James Press/486 pp./$29.95 (sb).

On the Waterfront, by Leo Braudy. BFI Publishing/88 pp./$13.95 (sb).

Our Secret Secret: Escaping the Cage We're All In, by J.H. Vowels. Feedback Publishing/314 pp./$24.95 (sb).

Parts, by Nikki S. Lee, text by RoseLee Goldberg. Hatje Cantz/88 pp./[euro]29.80 (hb).

Paul Ruscha's Full Moon, by Paul Ruscha. Steidl/184 pp./$20.00 (sb).

Pedro Almodovar, by Marvin D'Lugo. University of Illinois Press/192 pp./$19.95 (sb).

The Photographer's Guide to the Digital Darkroom, by Bill Kennedy. Allworth Press/224 pp./$29.95 (sb) [CD-ROM included].

Photographs: Archival Care and Management, by Mary Lynn Ritzenthaler and Diane Vogt-O'Connor. Society of America Archivists/550 pp./$84.95 (hb).

A Place in Time, by Stephen Williams. David R. Godine/96 pp./$18.95 (sb).

Private Property, by Thomas Kneubuhler. Dazibao/32 pp./$29.50 (hb).

Psychoanalysis and the Image, edited by Griselda Pollock. Blackwell Publishing/264 pp./$34.95 (sb).

Rangefinder Photography: A Gathering. RFF Forum/222 pp./$37.83 (sb).

Sante D'Orazio: A Private View, by Francesco Clemente. Schirmer/Mosel/300 pp./$39.95 (sb).

Sierra Nevada: The John Muir Trail, by Ansel Adams. Little Brown and Company/128 pp./$50.00 (hb).

Spanish Peaks: Land and Legends, by Conger Beasley. University Press of Colorado/200 pp./$27.95 (sb).

Sport in the USSR: Physical Culture--Visual Culture, by Mike O'Mahony. Reaktion Books/224 pp./$39.95 (hb).

Still Lives, by Sam Taylor-Wood. Steidl/256 pp./$35.00 (hb).

The Subject In Art, Catherine M. Soussloff. Duke University Press/192 pp./$22.95 (sb).

Tacita Dean, by Jean-Christophe Royoux, Marina Warner, and Germaine Greer. Phaidon/160 pp./$39.95 (sb).

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Tank Too, edited by Masoud Golsorkhi and Andreas Laeufer. Thames & Hudson Inc./608 pp./$34.95 (sb).

Thomas Demand, by Beatriz Colomina and Alexander Kluge. Serpentine Gallery/Schirmer/Mosel/144 pp./$75.00 (hb).

Visible Language

"Fluxus and Legacy" (Vol. 39, no. 3), "Fluxus after Legacy" (Vol. 40, no. 1).

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Two current issues of the journal Visible Language devoted to the Fluxus legacy show the movement's continuing vitality. Guest edited by Ken Friedman and Owen Smith, these issues focus on ongoing activities in the Fluxus spirit. Grounded in participatory, process-based work, Fluxus came into being in the early 1960s as a loose network of artists. Blurring boundaries of art and life, calling attention to the banal and ordinary through instructions and actions (turning on and off car headlights, pouring a glass of water from a high stool, shaving with music, or creating mail art and book works exemplary of "intermedia"), these artists were part of an international dialogue that included Situationism, conceptual art, and Happenings. Anti-commodity in its original ideals, Fluxus has been caught in the paradox of art historical cycles. Projects once meant to be transient have had every scrap of documentation recovered, published, and fetishized. As retrospective attention grows, Fluxus artists find their original anti-object impulses countered by a desire to produce consumable artifacts in the present. Historicizing has theoretical implications as well. At the beginning of her piece on Ben Vautier, Ina Bloom says the challenge is "to confront, head on, the anxious historiography of the avant-garde." George Brecht, John Cage, Geoff Hendricks, Dick Higgins, Alison Knowles, George Maciunas--central figures in the performance works--have all been the objects of study. Now a generation of young artists, among them the growing-up-Fluxus kids, grapple with the rich legacy, trying to extend and repeat its innovations. Is this possible? The edge seems gone, the actions seem tame and familiar now, quaintly nostalgic in an era of high-glamour art scenes and celebrity culture. But engagement with the Fluxus spirit of persistent change is admirable, as is the steady commitment of Visible-Language to publishing research at the intersection of literacy, visuality, written language, and the arts for four decades.

JOHANNA DRUCKER is the Robertson Professor of Media Studies at the University of Virginia and is a well-known book artist and scholar of visual and graphic media.

Visible Spirits, by David M. Spear. Gnomon Press/144 pp./$40.00 (hb).

Visions of England: Class and Culture in Contemporary Cinema, by Paul Dave. Berg Publishers/288 pp./$29.95 (sb).

William Christenberry

Texts by Elizabeth Broun, Walter Hopps, Andy Grundberg, and Howard N. Fox. Aperture/204 pp./$50.00 (hb).

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William Christenberry presents a comprehensive survey of works in photography, drawing, painting, sculpture, and found object assemblage by this multifaceted artist. This collection offers a totality of Christenberry's complex explorations into cultural identity shaped by his rural Alabama birthplace. More than half the work is previously unpublished, including Kodachrome images of vernacular Southern landscapes and photographs of Ku Klux Klan rallies during the height of the civil rights movement in the 1960s. Additionally, works are reproduced from his enigmatic ongoing project room, Klan Room (begun in 1979), weaving viewers through the mindset of a southern, white, male artist who has quietly, obliquely, and without irony wrestled with the system of racial segregation within which he grew up.

For decades, Christenberry has returned annually to photograph the same places, such as the Palmist Building, Havana Junction, AL (1961-88), in order to pursue his unassuming fascination with passing time. [Ed. note: See Afterimage Volume 33, no. 3 (November/December 2005) for an interview with Christenberry by Hirsch.] Christenberry's ritual documentation of "home" evokes pensive memories and scrutinizes scenes that unwaveringly record the physical changes brought about by nature and time without evoking nostalgia, establishing a connection between the past and the present. Each fleeting and simple structure can be a sculpture, an anxious agent for aging, decay, fragility, insecurity, and shifting purpose, as well as a signifier for the closing of a way of life.

Much has been made about Walker Evans's influence on Christenberry's photographs, which Evans called "perfect little poems." However, one of the wonderful elements of this compilation is that it extends the continuum of images built upon previous images by making us aware that, without Christenberry's diminutive, dream-like Brownie snapshots, his Memphis friend, William Eggleston, might still be making black-and-white photographs.

This publication coincides with a major exhibition at the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington, D.C., which is on view through July 8, 2007, as well as exhibitions that took place at New York's Aperture Gallery during the summer of 2006 and at Pace/MacGill Gallery during the fall of 2006.

ROBERT HIRSCH's next book, Light and Lens: Photography in the Digital Age, is due to be published by Elsevier's Focal Press in 2007. His visual and writing projects can be seen at www.lightresearch.net.

with

by Ken Ohara. Twin Palms

Publishers/148pp./$60.00 (hb).

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From the earliest days of portrait photography, those working behind the camera have concerned themselves with capturing a sharp image--even going so far as to employ discomfiting contraptions to hold the sitter in place to help achieve this highly desired result. Old processes were continually cast aside and new ones adopted if they sped up the act of recording the sitter's features, shortening the time the model had to remain still. In with, Ken Ohara uses his skill to extend the sitting time to exactly one hour, and he does so to great effect. The result is a compelling collection of portraits that range from soft focus faces to mere shadowy outlines lacking any of the detail expected in a formal portrait. What appear to be tack-sharp are the often-cluttered surroundings, and the reader is compelled to slow down, invited to scrutinize the scene for clues. In more than one portrait, the sitter has removed his or her eyeglasses, as is the habit of many people when before a camera. With Ohara's work, this act has the opposite effect. The glasses remain in perfect, crisp detail, seen when the viewer looks away from the blurred face in search of more information. In that search, the smallest detail is assigned great significance--books, movie posters, snapshots, stickers, shopping bags. Some seem to be intentionally arranged props, others mere incidental background, but all are carefully chosen and framed. Occasionally, a painting or photograph of the sitter becomes the focus because it is visible and the sitter is not--the representation becomes more real than the person being photographed. With brings up questions of identity and appearance: How are we defined by our surroundings? How will we be remembered after we have left them? What is also stirring about Ohara's work is the tenacity of those sitting before his camera. To sit for any portrait can be taxing but to sit completely still, contemplative, for one hour, is an extraordinary thing in itself.

TAMMIE MALARICH

World Press Photo 2006

Thames & Hudson/156 pp./$24.95 (sb).

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This year's collection of the best press photography covers a breadth of news topics from around the globe, ranging from roller derby to bat migration. But it is within the human rights-based photography that this anthology truly soars. Perhaps most striking are Chris Hondros's image of Samar Hassan, an Iraqi toddler, blood-spattered and screaming in the glow of a flashlight held by one of the American soldiers who has just killed both of her parents; Edmond Terakopian's shot of a dusty, bloody survivor of the July 7, 2005, London bombings; Michael Appleton's Hurricane Katrina portfolio, including an image of a body floating face down in flood water; and Todd Heisler's portfolio documenting the return of fallen U.S. soldier Jeffrey James Cathey, whose wife slept in the church with his casket the night before his funeral playing songs that reminded her of her husband (winners of 2nd Prize Singles, 3rd Prize Singles, 3rd Prize Stories, and 1st Prize Stories, respectively). In addition to informing readers, the selected images captivate both visually and mentally. This collection speaks just as much about the state of the world today as it does about photography. World Press Photo 2006 makes the term "no news is good news" obsolete.

ADAM LEAHY