Among private collections of fine photography, the Lane Collection stands out as one of the most remarkable. Begun in the 1960s and still ongoing, the collection shines not only for its wealth of top-quality prints by the great modernist triumvirate of Ansel Adams, Charles Sheeler and Edward Weston (including the most important single holding of Adams' work), but also for its breadth. This volume presents 120 photographic masterpieces from the Lane Collection, ranging from William Henry Fox Talbot to the Starn twins, and including along the way work by Arbus, Brancusi, Bravo, Cunningham, Frank, Fuss, Goldin, Kertesz, Lange, Michals, Modotti, Morell, Penn, Steichen, Strand, Sudek and nearly 50 others. The keynote essay by Lyle Rexer trains an acute eye on images from the collection, defining the vision behind this magnificent grouping. But it is the images themselves that place this among the most significant photography books of the year.

German photographer Roland Fischer adds palpable luminosity to the subjects he depicts. In his marvelous portraits of women in water, shot from the neck up, Fischer uses the water as a lighting device to bestow the faces of his subjects with clarity and openness. This monograph surveys his works of the past 20 years.

A publication of the project M2 of works by the Argentinean artist Graciela Sacco, where she proposes several questions and reflections on the ¿implications¿ of the square meter, parting from its physical existence. Castagnino +macro Editions, 2009. Texts by Fernando Farina, Sebastián López, Roberto Echen, Justo Pastor Mellado, Luis Camnitzer, among others. Spanish and English. 227 pages. 124 color illustrations. Tapa blanda. 23 x 23 cm. (9 x 9 pulgadas).

The Rose Art Museum at Brandeis University possesses one of the most extraordinary collections of any academic institution, spanning the last century in Western art, from the early European and American Modernists up to the 21st century. This catalogue of its holdings demonstrates the breadth of the collection.

Early purchases from the 1960s dominate the core of the collection, including works by Jasper Johns, Robert Rauschenberg, Willem De Kooning, and Andy Warhol. Contemporary works by artists such as Nam June Paik, Richard Prince, Matthew Barney, and Gregory Crewdson add to its luster. Essays on individual periods by Brandeis faculty, alumni, and distinguished critics put the collection into perspective.

Photographs by Edward Steichen, Karl Struss, W. Eugene Smith, Lewis Hine, Dave Heath, Sid Grossman, Walker Evans, Consuelo Kanaga, Leon Levinstein, Dorothea Lange, Jan Lauschmann, Les Krims, Enrique Aznar, Roman Vishniac, Ruth Orkin, Weegee, Ralph Eugene Meatyard, Julia Margaret Cameron, Frantisek Drtikol, Garry Winogrand, Bruce Davidson, Ted Croner, Roy DeCarava, Saul Leiter and William Klein. Essay by Lyle Rexer. Photographs selected and annotated by Harold Greenberg. Edited with an introduction by Michael Torosian. Includes a chronology of exhibitions held at the Harold Greenberg Gallery. Design, composition, presswork and binding by Michael Torosian. 104 pp., with 26 tipped-in plates exquisitely printed using 10 micron stochastic four-color offset lithography on Utopia Premium paper. Each plate is bordered in a matt grey ink and varnished. Digital scans by Laumont, with offset printing by C.J. Graphics, Inc., Printers and Lithographers. Text composed in Kennerley Old Style on an Intertype Model C4; with additional Parsons display typeface. Printed letterpress on a Vandercook Universal III press on Nideggen mold-made paper. Book measures 11-1/2 x 8-3/16 inches; slipcase is 11-3/4 x 8-1/4 inches.

A Couple of Ways of Doing Something replicates a deluxe limited-edition portfolio whose initial run was only 75 copies. This clothbound edition preserves the luxurious sensibility of the original with 22 extraordinary oversized daguerreotypes printed in rich tritone. Working with daguerreotype master Jerry Spagnoli to conquer the complexities of this venerable process, which yields images of astonishing detail and gravity, Chuck Close photographed many of the same artist-friends who have made regular appearances in his paintings over the years: Laurie Anderson, Lyle Ashton Harris, Cecily Brown, Gregory Crewdson, Carroll Dunham, Ellen Gallagher, Philip Glass, Bob Holman, Elizabeth Murray, Elizabeth Peyton, Andres Serrano, Cindy Sherman, James Siena, Lorna Simpson, Kiki Smith, James Turrell, Robert Wilson, Terry Winters, Lisa Yuskavage and himself. Each image is complemented by a poem on its subject by Bob Holman, the celebrated and widely published New York School poet who originated and hosted the famous Poetry Slams at the Nuyorican Poets Cafe and now runs the Bowery Poetry Club. With the counterpoint of Holman's engaging poetry, the collected work becomes a transfixing group portrait of Close's influential and highly creative circle of friends and colleagues, as well as an exploration of a challenging photographic medium. A traveling exhibition of the work will launch in November 2006 at the Aperture Gallery.

In these alphabetically arranged volumes, Warren, along with 227 contributors, strives to "provide a useful resource on the entire scope of photography in the twentieth century." The set has an international reach, and 324 of its 525 entries cover people, mostly photographers. The remaining articles, as outlined in the thematic list of entries, cover "Equipment" (Camera: Digital; Enlarger); "Institutions, Galleries, and Collections" (Museum of Modern Art); "Publications and Publishers" ( National Geographic); "Regions" ( Mexico, photography in); and "Topics and Terms" ( Contact printing, Industrial photography, Photographic "truth"). Some articles, such as Camera: An overview, offer surveys on broad topics. Other, such as C able release, zero in on specifics.

South Africa is where Stuart O’Sullivan was raised, and where his family still lives. Growing up as a member of the white middle class, his childhood was one of affluence and privilege but, as he moved towards adulthood, he became increasingly conscious of the deprivations endured by his fellow South Africans. However, belief in the need for fundamental change came hand in hand with anxiety for his family’s future. In the late 1980s, O’Sullivan moved to New York for professional reasons and, after a decade away, he began to look through early family photographs. From the perspective of distance and time, he realized just what an “isolated paradise” his family had occupied and reflected on their place within the new, rapidly changing social and political climate. He started photographing, on return visits to South Africa, the daily lives of those close to him. The result is a fascinating and important body of work, made all the more pertinent by the inclusion of short texts alongside some of the images. These excerpts, taken mostly from family letters, add historical weight and a contemporary perspective to this remarkable document.

This new monograph of essays explores the fascinating artwork of Creative Growth artist Donald Mitchell. For nearly 20 years, Donald Mitchell's densely populated drawings have filled Creative Growth's gallery and studio with his crowds of unmistakable figures. Cheryl Rivers brings together a group of internationally known writers and collectors to explore the questions raised by Donald Mitchell's work. Essays address topics ranging from the use of repetitive motifs, the context of Outsider Art and an implied "center," understanding Mitchell's work in the studio, and exploring the impact Donald Mitchell has had on collectors, artists, and scholars throughout the art world. Right Here, Right Now includes 40 beautiful photographs of rare and exemplary work by Donald Mitchell, drawn from international private and public collections.

Simen Johan creates surreal and narrative tableaux of corrupted youth. His images of children and adolescents are constructed by digitally manipulating and combining parts of faces and bodies belonging to people of various ethnicities, ages, and genders. His fictional identities are depicted in equally fabricated scenarios that are replete with references to both the art historical tradition and Freudian sexuality. The poster-perfect finish of his prints belies the disturbing nature of their content; a pubescent girl hula hoops against an idyllic seaside backdrop, as the hoop leaves bruises on her waist; an androgynous teenager cradles the head of a dead sheep on which flies are beginning to land.

The rise of interest in "outsider" art over the past decade is now largely a fait accompli, in part due to Maresca and Ricco, the authors of American Primitive and American Self-Taught, and now, a follow-up survey of under-recognized vernacular objects. This classy, beautifully designed catalogue reinforces the seriousness and value of the outsider tradition; it features 450 color illustrations of angels, birdbaths, carousel swans, phrenology heads and gospel organs that together constitute the true handmade visual inheritance of American history. Addressed largely to the educated art viewer, the book makes a good argument for expanding the bounds of serious art to include the sheet metal cutouts, weird figurines and duck decoys that it documents, in the end telling us something we might have guessed-namely, that artists have been drawing from these unrecognized traditions for many years. With magazines and museums now devoted to outsider art, and traces of outsider greats such as Henry Darger and Thornton Dial showing up in the work of young artists, future generations will no doubt need to look for other artistic genres to plumb; in the meantime, this gorgeous volume will prove popular to artists, collectors and art appreciaters alike.

It was not until the age of 47 that Ernestine Ruben discovered the art of making photographs. Her rise on the international horizon has been hailed as meteoric, but like most seemingly instant artistic careers, hers seasoned over a long period, combining life-long interests in sculpture, dance, architecture, and the history of art. In Human Touch: Photographs by Ernestine Ruben accompanies a major exhibition of some 110 pieces opening at The University of Michigan Museum of Art in June 2001. The exhibition and book provide an overview of Ruben's career, and bring out the key issues and concerns that have informed her work as a photographer, namely: the human condition, landscape, dance, movement, and architecture. Focus, structure, and dimensionality have been key points within the making of Ruben's images, whether the subject matter is the artist's extraordinary work with the sculpture of Auguste Rodin in Paris, the Jewish Cemetery in Prague, or the ancient ruins of Petra. Ernestine Ruben's photographs and installations have been widely published, collected, and exhibited internationally. In Human Touch is our third book on the work of Ernestine Ruben.

Representing a diverse range of styles in nude photography, this all-new edition spotlights the extraordinary talents of more than 50 distinguished camera artists. This companion to the bestselling first volume includes photography of both men and women, representing the most exceptional recent work created in this fine-art medium. 250 color and b&w photos.