Eugene weekly., December 14, 2017, Image 21

by Tod d Coop e r
A ROUNDUP OF THE BEST PHOTOGRAPHY BOOKS OF THE YEAR
A THOUSAND WORDS
In That Land of Perfect Day
Annie Leibovitz Portraits
2005-2016 by Annie Leibovitz.
La Calle : Photographs
from Mexico by Alex Webb.
Phaidon Press, $89.95.
Let me start with this: I idolize Annie
Liebovitz, but she frustrates me. I don't
always like her work. But I always pay
attention. I subscribe to Vanity Fair for her
work alone. Undeniably, Liebovitz still has
an incredible career and body of work, not
to mention a level of access unrivaled by
just about any photographer on planet earth.
She is a titan who has done it all; she's shot
everyone and continues to grow. And yet, at
times in Portraits 2005-2016, it seem to be
solely about who's in the picture — a kind
of photographic name-dropping. Whereas in
others, the idea, setting and epic production
overpower the subject. It's when she lands
a perfect pairing of the two that she blows
me away. And the book has many portraits
that find that balance. Like the KimYe
photo-behind-the-photo-behind-the-photo
photo, that controversial shot of Miley
Cyrus looking like a Manet painting, David
Hockney sketching in his car or what really
went on under Jon Stewart's desk.
Aperture, $60.
La Calle get its name from the Octavio
Paz poem, which is pure genius for a book
on street photography in Mexico. The
collection showcases more than 30 years of
Alex Webb's work in that country. Even
though over-referenced, his work brings
Henri Cartier-Bresson's famous words to
mind: "We work in unison with movement
as though it were a presentiment on the way
in which life itself unfolds. But inside
movement there is one moment at which the
elements in motion are in balance." In
Webb's compositions, the stars seem to
align, the chaos quiets and everything falls
into its right place. But, really, he has just
mastered recognizing that decisive moment
some photographers strive their entire career
to catch. The photos, along with
commissioned passages from five Mexican
and Mexican-American authors, help us
better understand the roles the streets have
played for generations.
by Brandon Thibodeaux. Red Hook Editions,
$60.
Brandon Thibodeaux's first book explores
his time spent in the Mississippi Delta. I first
saw a lot of this work in early 2016 in an
accompanying exhibit ("When Morning
Comes") that preceded this book in my
hometown of Columbus, Mississippi. His
powerful portrayal of the land and its people
fully relays the complex beauty and
perseverance throughout a suffocating history
of poverty and racism. In the subjects, you see
the struggle and the light that keeps them
going. We get glimpses into rural towns like
Alligator and witness the soul-piercing stares
of a man named "Dance Machine." We also
get reminded of the simple pleasures of
childhood, like hiding in a cabinet or a
backflip on an old mattress. What started out
as a personal journey for the photographer
teaches us all we need a little more joy, faith
and determination in our lives.
FAT H E R’ S DAY, B O B O, M I S S I S S I P P I , 2 0 14 ( L E F T ) A N D M AYO R S, M O U N D B AYO U, M I S S I S S I P P I , 2 0 0 9 ( R I G H T ) . F RO M I N T H AT L A N D O F P E R F E C T DAY © B R A N D O N T H I B O D E AU X
eugeneweekly.com • December 14, 2017
21