Bygone Days, by John Penor and Steven Sebring

in

Why?

“My friend and frequent collaborator Steven Sebring discovered an extraordinary collection of photographs taken by his grand uncle, John Penor, who was born in 1910 and lived his entire life on his family's homestead in Bison, South Dakota. Penor was a cowboy, but the way he captured the seasonal life of Bison — from rodeos to family gatherings to the epic landscape — shows that he was a natural artist. I’m drawn to the simplicity and authenticity of these moments - so perfectly imperfectly captured. It’s a small miracle that Steven happened upon this long forgotten box of photographs in a drawer to turn it into such a beautiful and meaningful book, which Penor lived to see published at 95 years old. Patti Smith's foreword so eloquently describes Penor’s photographs as “the most heartbreakingly beautiful shots of sandlot baseball I’ve ever seen — makes me feel like time lost was found again.”
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- Kathryn MacLeod, Producer

Untouched, by Guy Bourdin

in

Why?

“Like everyone, I’m a fan of the mad genius of Guy Bourdin, so it was a revelation to discover this book of Bourdin’s early black and white work and see how he developed his photographic eye. I love a glimpse into a photographer’s process, and it is a treat to see Bourdin’s early contact sheets —with his china-marked crops and notes which show his brilliant sense of composition. Always ahead of his time, he would create the most striking layouts by cutting out the contacts and taping images to the page. Everything in this book is pure heaven to me.”
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- Kathryn MacLeod, Producer

Southwest, by Paul Strand

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Why?

“Wow, do I love this gorgeous book. Strand’s journeys brought him from his native New York to New Mexico, where he explored the land, the sky, the architecture, the religion... Strand’s portraits of his wife, Rebecca, in Taos, are sublime — the spread on pages 40/41 — sigh. I grew up in the southwest, and these photographs make me long for home.”
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- Kathryn MacLeod, Producer

The Unretouched Woman, by Eve Arnold

in

Why?

“Eve Arnold’s story is just as inspiring as her iconic images, which always bring joy and a sense of wonder. She was largely self-taught; as a 38-year-old Long Island housewife, she took a 6-week photography course; followed by her first reportage work: a groundbreaking behind the scenes look at a Harlem fashion show in 1950, a story that led to her association with Magnum in 1951 — she was the first woman to join the collective. She was a natural; the level of intimacy and trust she achieved with her subjects resonates in every frame. Arnold’s own words best describe my sentiments about this influential book: ‘This is a book about how it feels to be a woman, seen through the eyes and the camera of one woman — images unretouched, for the most part unposed, and unembellished.’ And the cover — with those stacks of color slides from everywhere from Afghanistan to Phoenix — can’t be beat.

P.S. Arnold was in her sixties before she decided to publish her first book!! #BeLikeEve and remember that it is never too late to publish your book!”
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- Kathryn MacLeod, Producer

Georgia O'Keeffe: A Portrait, by Alfred Stieglitz

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Why?

“I’m borderline obsessed with Georgia O’Keefe — her art, her life, her style — and I especially love the photographs in this book for their exquisite intimacy and spectacular range — they were taken over a 20-year period. The portraits of O’Keefe are everything one wants a portrait to be — revealing, transcendent, of a time yet timeless. The images of her beautiful, expressive hands have a hypnotic poetry all their own.”
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- Kathryn MacLeod, Producer

Pilgrimage, by Annie Leibovitz

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Why?

“I’ve been lucky to work with Annie for over 20 years as she has gone about documenting many of the notable cultural figures of our time. Of course, her books hold a certain personal significance to me— from A Photographer’s Life to At Work but my favorite among them is Pilgrimage. This gorgeous book is a deeply personal statement to what has inspired, shaped and fulfilled her life as an artist. Her photographs of the ephemera that remains — from Virginia Woolf’s writing desk to Emily Dickinson’s Herbarium— were part of a project she undertook in response to a challenging time in her life — “an exercise in renewal,” she writes in the book’s essay, “looking at history provided a way of going forward.”
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- Kathryn MacLeod, Producer