5 comments about Madeleine Vionnet.

1. Es lo mejor que he tenido , el libro de un diseñador donde estan patrones, diseños y fotos...que mas se puede pedir!
   Ojala se hicieran mas libros como este .
   España,profesion: patronista



2. This is an outstanding book on a revolutionary designer. Wonderful photos, and "patterns" from the clothing. the only problem is Kirke never bothers to tell you what the scale is, so making these patterns is almost impossible. Her directions for making the patterns are laughable. The patterns are white lines on black. Why include patterns if you aren't going to put them in a usable form? There are people out there who can and have made clothing from this book. You will have to be very smart and well trained to do so. that said it is still one of the best books on a fashion designer I have seen.
   
   Maybe Kirke will redesign the book with the pattern section properly done. Then the book would be worth more then $100.



3. This book is even better than I hoped. The photographs are stellar and for some designs - a bird's eye view of the pattern peices are included. Try to wrap your head around those non-conventional cutting techniques! I bought this for myself but this would be an excellent gift for someone interested in Fashion History, Fashion Design, Fine / Decorative Arts, etc. Super-Gorgeous book!



4. A great book on Vionnet's work and life. It has a lot of sewing patterns with instuctions from the WWI era to late 1930's; the patterns include day and evening dresses and frocks, capes and coats, slips and pajamas. Plus there a lot more pictures of Vionnet's clothing. The perfect gift for a fashion student. It is a pity that you do not hear so much about her.



5. This book is an absolute dream right through from the beautiful hard cover to the wonderful photographs, history and patterns. I am a Designer/Patternmaker and is the most beautiful book I have ever bought on fashion. Betty Kirke has put a lot of love and care into this treasure and any student of fashion, especially patternmaking and draping has to purchase this and learn a whole lot about bias cutting.

5 comments about The Morning Star 3-Volume Boxed Set.

1. Great price for all three books. These books can stand alone, but are a continuation of Nick Bantock's earlier trio. The artwork, mysterious story line and feeling that you are reading mail that belongs to someone else definitely add to the allure of these books.



2. Anyone who was captivated by the first three books in Bantock's imaginative Griffin & Sabine series--whether for the quality of the storytelling, the imagery, or even just for their creative design--owes it to themselves to check out these three followup volumes, which are every bit their equal on all counts. Even readers who are entirely unfamiliar with the Griffin & Sabine saga will, I think, find this trio a real treat and well worth the purchase price.



3. This continuation of the Grifin and Sabine trilogy is fantastic. I read all three books in one sitting.



4. City girl and I recently read the six books. It was a delightful, warm, fun time, drinking wine and reading a book a night by the fire. I read aloud the male parts and she the female. We would laugh and wonder and hypothesize and puzzle over the meanings. They were wonderful memorable evenings.
   
   
   
   My opinion of The Books:
   
   He should have stopped at the first one!!
   
   Like a movie company that sees dollar signs after a successful first run, Nick wrote a sequel that was a shadow of the original. The subsequent books prove to be good evidence that he had very little in mind as far as a story line goes and with the judicious application of vague, confusing and nonsensical teasings, he told us nothing. Just as "Jaws XXI" and "Halloween XVI" still brought the teenagers to the box office, so will "Sabine Becomes Cleopatra" and "Griffin Returns to Pleades" bring bring the Bantok herds stampeding into Barnes and Nobels. The cash registers will ring, Nick will smile, and the faithful will say, "May I please have some more?"
   
   I didn't like his artwork either.



5. About ten years passed for me between the time I first discovered the Griffin & Sabine trilogy and this Morning Star box set. It's hard to judge this work without comparing it to the merits of the first trilogy. The lovers in Morning Star are far less interesting and their passion seems to be more about physical tension rather than the loneliness and searching that brought Griffin and Sabine together from their vastly different worlds. The villan from the 3rd G&S story is back, but why he's interested in this new couple and how they relate to G&S is only vaguely hinted at.
   
   You still get the guilty pleasure of reading someone else's mail, but because the two lovers already know each other, there isn't a sense of the story tensely unwinding as they are trying to figure out who they are in relation to each other. This trilogy seems to sacrifice the romantic tension and suspense of the first trilogy for a more philosophical statement about the connections between people. Nick Bantock's artwork is still amazing, but the story and characters in this series aren't as compelling as the images in the book.

5 comments about Naked Happy Girls.

1. Andrew Einhorn did a great nude job in this book. Different from other books you can see the models in their normal life playing with their cats,smoking,dancing etcc but the most important all of them are laughing. I really like the style and the idea of "Happy Naked Girls"



2. This guy is on the Playboy Channel practically every hour. This Naked Happy Girls is just too overexposed. I thought Playboy meant hot models, not a pudgy jew running around NYC with a camera.



3. Einhorn's images make me think of those nature shows, the ones where the photographer goes into wild to shoot his subjects. Like the successful naturalist, Einhorn lets us see these wild, delicate creatures as they appear in their native environment. And, as the title promises, his subjects all look happy.
   
   This thick book devotes a few pages to each of his models. Each section starts with a few sentences about the model - this one smokes cigars, that one likes red wine, another just bought a kitten. I like that. Just a few words celebrate the uniqueness of each woman, a warm contrast to other collections that don't even allow the model a name.
   
   Black and white pictures allow degrees of flexibility that are hard with color photos. I don't mean darkroom tricks, but choices of light and dark or amounts of contrast. This, along with the subtlety of each model's appearance, just blows away the idea of race. Saying that any particular woman is "black" or "Asian" simply is not adequate. They're people, beautiful people who combine in themselves all the best of humanity's many faces. This isn't an arty or erotic collection, but it's a lot of fun.
   
   -- wiredweird



4. I found this book a bit disappointing. Fair enough, the title suggests it is just gonna be `Naked, Happy Girls' and to that end it could hardly be called misleading. However, I guess I'd hoped for a little bit more. A little bit more composure to the photographs (not posed, just not quite so `passing snapshot'), a little bit more interest or theme than can be generated by a collection of photos of naked, happy girls. Spend a few Summers on the beach with lots of naked people and the novelty of naked, happy girls starts to fade and you need something more, it makes it too much like random photos of people just going about their business. Not a misleading title but once you realize that's the sum of the content it seems a bit........ and?
   
   It feels like if this was a collection of your own photos of your own group of friends it would be perfect, but when it's someone else's collection of people not known to the reader it's too much like looking through someone else's personal photo albums.
   
   Notwithstanding, if you'd like a little book of pictures of naked, happy girls this is just that-and naked, happy girls are always a guaranteed spirit lifter!!
   
   Cheers
   
   Lloyd



5. Indeed it is a line up of happy girls without much clothing around. All photographed in a good mood and by a good mooded photographer. These moods reflect well in the photos and it is a pleasure to read the introduction per person and view all photos one by one.
   
   The book certainly shows that silver based black and white photography on film is very well suited for figure studies. With what seems like thousands of shades of grey the girls's skins tones are brougth onto paper very delicately.
   
   Well done!

5 comments about Digital Collage and Painting: Using Photoshop and Painter to Create Fine Art.

1. I feel that the author was torn between writing a step by step, "follow these directions to recreate this image" project book for beginners, and a book filled with art to inspire and spark the creativity of those a bit more advanced. For me, it does neither well.
   There are about 600 pages in this book. The first 500 show you other artists finished work then give you detailed, step by step directions, complete with screen shots and settings, on how to recreate what the artist did. This makes it seem to me like a step by step project book. Problem is, you aren't supplied with the images so you can't duplicate the image (and why would I want to anyway?). I would guess that each piece of finished work you're shown gets at least 10 pages of directions on how it was done. If I was a beginner and wanted a step by step project to follow, it would have been great, but only if they supplied the images, which they don't, so it's not. As I'm not a beginner looking to replicate someone else's work, all those pages and screen shots were a complete waste of book space and my time, reading page after page after page of settings and screen shots bored me silly.
   Sometimes, you get page after page of screen shots on how the artist fixed a bad photograph before he used it in his collage. Huh? So now this a basic "How To Use Photoshop" book? This is why I say the author wasn't clear on what type of book she was writing.
   I feel the book misses the mark as one to inspire and spark my creativity simply because 500 of the 600 pages are filled with screen shots of how to replicate someone else's work. If I could have gotten 600 pages of art with a small blurb with the gist of how it was done I would have loved it.
   The best part about this book for me was the quotes. There is a quote about art on almost every single page. The reason I didn't flip past section after section of screen shots was that I didn't want to miss the quotes.
   So, unfortunately, this book will go on my shelf and probably never see the light of day again. If it supplied images to go with the steps, I'd pass it along to a beginner to use, but it doesn't so I won't. And all those pages of screen shots doesn't really spur my creativity, so I'll probably never open it again.



2. Most chapters are very good. My interest is painting--I found that several chapters were just excellent instruction and tips-others were OK. Worth the purchase price to me...



3. This book was like reading a great novel, I couldn't put it down! The inspiration was excellent. The incorrect assumption of some that "digital" means "computer generated" is debunked in this excellent work which has lots of beautiful examples of many kinds of digital art (not just collage). There are lots of step by step tutorials that are helpful and tips for using the tools of PS and Painter to their best advantage.
   
   It is not a beginners book however as Bloom assumes that the reader is familiar with PS and Painter. Still this might be the work that makes one REALLY want to do the work needed to become proficient in these programs.
   
   Loved it more than any other work on this subject and I already have a shelf full!!!
   
   Suni R



4. Ok, firstly if you want a hands-on plenty of action book stay away from this one. Sure you get to see how other artist have created their work but if you read carefully there are gaps between getting from one stage to the next in some cases. Also a MAJOR dissapointment is you get no images to play with so you can attempt to emulate what the artist is doing as you read. Using the same techniques on different images can obviously give you totally different results.
   
   There is a small hands-on section (26 pages) at the back where you have to download the images to work with. Come on guys how about a CD..? You also have to download a total of 49 files off the web if you want all of them AND they are all largish TIFFS instead of jpgs so be prepared for a long download session.
   
   Basically if you want to be a digital vouyer and have a perve at how others do it without having fun yourself buy this book. If you want to get down and dirty and have heaps of fun then look elswhere. I have read many good PS and Painter books but for me this is not one of them. I might add I am a very experienced PS user and more than a fair Painter user and while the author certainly knows her stuff the book for me is a major letdown and certainly not for a new user looking for a good start to take them to an intermediate level.



5. Artists create by combining and extracting elements, often employing diverse techniques, to express ideas. Sue Bloom's new book brings her background as a teacher and digital artist and painter to the reader by showing how different artistic methods can be combined to create a work richer than any single medium alone could provide. She does this, not just by describing her own work, but by inviting 21 other major digital artists to share their eyes and techniques. Of course, she provides some excellent chapters on the "basics" of digital creation in Photoshop and Painter, but her book's unique strength, I think, lies in going beyond all of the usual "How to" books. It is a book which bridges these different digital disciplines. It covers collage and panorama creation, along with artistic tools in Photoshop and Painter while at the same time has a large section on "Artistic Considerations" (which includes "Experimentation" ideas). Bloom's first sentence begins with the question: "Where does that kernel of inspiration come from?" She brings us many tools to use. Along the way, she offers inspiring and thoughtful quotations from artists throughout history. I took great comfort from her quote from Emerson that "Every artist was first an amateur." An inspiring and truly unique book. BRAVO.

2 comments about Helmut Newton: Portraits.

1. What can I say. Photos a really good. But hey, it's NEWTON.
   This book also include interview with Helmut. Buy this book and You will see that You don't need super-hiper digital SLR to make good picture. Good pictures born in heads and hearts.



2. The British photographer Sir Anthony Snowdon once said something to the effect that you cannot look at a photograph and identify who shot it. He couldn't have been more wrong about someone like Helmut Newton. You recognize many of his photographs immediately. They are often of women (tall and svelte), they are erotic thought according to Newton not violent, they are often shot at night with available light, and the women are often nude or partially nude. As the photographer says, "I always want more skin." And skin he got, even in portraits. What is fair for the goose works for the gander as well. This collection begins with self-portraits of Newton from 1934 to 1986, and he is nude is several of them in what certainly are not flattering photographs. Additionally, he photographs his wife June naked or near naked as well. (There is a marvelous portrait of her sitting at a table with food and wine in front of her. She is lighting a cigarette and exposing her breasts.) In "June Newton in the metro, Paris 1957" Newton's wife looks straight into the camera's lens. The woman wearing a fur seated next to her is even more interesting. Whether the photograph was posed or not, it has a wonderful candid feel to it. Newton obviously went to great lengths to stage some of these shots, however. The two portraits of Nastassia Kinski with the Marlene Deitrich doll are perfect examples. He apparently had favorite models as there are several photographs over a period of time of both Paloma Picasso and Charlotte Rampling. The environment is important in many of these portraits. These people, many of them celebrities, are often posed in elaborate, rich but relevant settings. For example, Mr. Newton would photograph American models only in front of American automobiles, never a French or German car. He would reserve those automobiles for French and German models.
   
   While most of these portraits are of celebrities and women, that is not always the case. There are fine portraits of unknown people and of men as well. For instance the portrait of "Female train engineers and a policewoman (left), Houston, Texas 1985" is as intriguing as anything in this book. Likewise, there are great photographs of Helmut Berger nude as well as Jack Nicholson, Prince Rainier and his friends et al.
   
   In addition to his own self-portraits, other photographs here certainly do not flatter their subject: an extreme closeup of Debra Winger, for instance. A few of them are in color: the sexy photograph of the singer Grace Jones and Dolph Lundgren and, of course, the color shot of the bejewelled Elizabeth Taylor up to her neck in a swimming pool with a parrot clutching her finger-- and we thought there was no new way to pose one of the most photographed women of all time. Some of these shots are beautifully lit. The portrait of Paloma Picasso and Rafael Sanchez Lopez is an equisite study of gradations of grays and has a beautiful formal feel to it.
   
   Mr. Newton, genius that he was, appears to be most down to earth. He shuns the idea of the photographer as artist as well as that the photographer can take a "psychological" portrait in the short time his subject is before him, a statement with which another great, Richard Avedon, would be in agreement. Newton understood that a camera should not be used as a "weapon to violate people."
   
   There is no rule that says you have to like someone to appreciate his work. On the other hand, it doesn't interfere with your admiration either. Certainly that's true of Mr. Newton.

2 comments about Lead Belly: A Life in Pictures.

1. Many people have loved Lead Belly and his legacy, but none perhaps so much as John Reynolds, one of the listed authors of this book. Although John is listed last of the 4 contributors to the book, this is really his project, and one that he has labored on for many years to bring to fruition. Lead Belly (or Leadbelly) was a seminal force in our understanding of 'American' music, and his influence has informed even those who have never heard of him.
   
   This book is a beauty, and is not meant to be an exhaustive biography, but rather a celebration of the man, his times, his influence, and his music. As such, it succeeds spectacularly. I highly recommend that you search www.youtube.com for Lead Belly videos to accompany your journey through this book. It will add much to the experience, and actually enhance the fact that this book is a wonderful keepsake and motherlode of visual delights and insights in our understanding of this man.
   
   My favorite page was "The Leadbelly Method" by contributor Glenn O'Brien.



2. Whether you favor the two-word or the single word version of his name, this pictorial biography of Leadbelly is just outstanding! Truly a labor of love by the authors and it should be well received by all Leadbelly fans as well as by any who are interested in folk-music and blues. Particularly poignant are the photos showing Leadbelly just months before his death holding Alvin Singh and/or his guitar. This book is highly recommended!

3 comments about FHM Women: The Exclusive Collection (Erotica).

1. If you like the magazine you'll enjoy this collection. The pictures are well done, not great and not bad. Just a good collection with celebrities. I too think the cover was the best photo.



2. Possibly the best picture is the cover. Inside, the photo quality is pretty damn poor and some of the subjects not very attractive to the camera. All in all, a disappointment. I have thrown this in the trash like the bad magazine the pictures come from.



3. I know what you're thinking... Anyone reviewing this is just a pervert who wants to gawk at scantilly clad women. I beg to differ. I purchased this book as a reference for figure drawing and I'm very pleased with it. The photographers are very skilled at creating a beautiful setting, creative lighting, and solid composition.

5 comments about The Best of Teen and Senior Portrait Photography: Techniques and Images from the Pros (Masters Series).

1. A great resource for anyone either entering the Senior Portrait market, or seeking to refresh business and photography techniques. As one who works a lot with teens, I believe that the author's sense of how to work with them througout the entire process is right on - refreshing and honoring of Teen spirit. The photos and posing suggestions are helpful, as are the ideas and results from several very accomplished Senior Portrait artists.
   
   Definitely worth adding to your library



2. Good inspiration! Only thing this book lacks is really how it was done. If only it had a page after each concept telling how it was done this book would be absolutely perfect! But if your starting out this is what you should read so you can know what you dont know and where to start your education!



3. I ordered this book with the hopes of expanding my photography from wedding and family/children portrait work to do senior work. And this book provides great deatils about getting into this line of work. But it does much more. It covers details for all types of portrait work to fine tune your photography with chapters on proper posing, lighting and much more. Whether you are just starting or have been in the business for a while you will benefit if you read and apply the information within. Great Job!!!



4. Bill Hurter has managed to assemble a collection of some of the finest senior photographers in the country to create an exceptional set of images and text. This is like the title implies, the best in senior photography.
   
   This book is a must-have for all senior portrait studios



5. Start by looking at the cover. This book as so many digital ideas (not what we were looking for) but they chose such a poor image for the cover. Instead of such gimicky digital ideas, maybe Mr. Hunter and the others should have retouched the cover image. Blood shot eyes, yellow teeth, a floating eye and stray hairs will put most professional photographers out of business in less than a year. We have been in business for over 15 years and are now thinking just about anyone can write a book. Maybe we will.

5 comments about Mastering Digital Printing, Second Edition (Digital Process and Print).

1. I bought this book in the hope of becoming a better printer not a better comercial printer. This is definately not a how-to book, for do it yourself hobbyist like myself, but more of a reference manual for comercial printers.
   
   For the price I got to say the book is very well illustrated and contains nearly 400 pages of photos and print. However, Most of the pages are not dedicated to specific instruction on how to print, but on equipment graphs and printer specifications. It seems as if the author is beating around the bush. Out of the eleven chapters in this book, I think only 2 of them are dedicated to instruction, while the rest is dedicated to reference.
   
   For example take a look at a few of the Chapter headings "Navigating the Digital landscape", "Understanding Digital Printing", "Understanding and Managing Color", "Determining Print Permanence", "Selecting an Inkjet Printer", "Choosing your Consumables", "Using a Print Service, get the picture. This makes for interesting reading on a bad weather day, or when you are on a long trip to Honk Kong, but it sure wont make you a master printer.
   
   As a matter of fact most of the instructional material deals with one or two examples that did not really enlighten me whatsoever, since I had found the same information on the web prior to purchasing this book.
   
   The way I see it this book will make a great conversation item in my growing library of photographic books, but I don't see it as a working manual sitting on my desk or by my printer. Therefore, I am very dissapointed with and cannot recomend it for advanced amateurs like myself.



2. Very informative,I am a novice at photo printing, and understood this book. very easy to understand what the author is saying. I am looking forward to the " Third Edition" if author chooses to write one, thank you. Mr C. Simons



3. Only 25 pages (Chapter 8) out of almost 400 total actually talk about making a print. The technique the author uses is highly based around the trial and error method. A Master printer, in my mind, should be able to hit it on the first print not after experimentation and a lot of testing. If that is not enough to lose interest in this author, there are some serious mistakes in those 25 pages as well. For instance page 268, there is a reference to the Print Space Profile--Same As Source. Anyone who knows how to print, knows that Same As Source is used ONLY to print a Target. I didn't see any reference in the book to a Target. I don't think the author knows what a Target is. This Book is a big disappointment for me. Take out Chapter 8 and come up with a different title.



4. This book will help any digital photographer/printer to learn about printing phtographs.



5. This book is getting mighty long in the tooth. It addresses inkjet printers from long before they became so good and useful. The approach to CMS, or color management systems, is superficial, and does not even address tools available when the book was written. It completely skips color spaces and the understanding of light and color.
   However, it does give a broad beginning approach to understanding color printing. If you are just beginning to learn, this book is a good introduction covering many of the topics you will need an introduction to. Once past the introductory phase of learning, this book is of little value, being to basic in its handling of subjects to really be useful.

4 comments about Cuba: 400 Years of Architectural Heritage.

1. WONDERFUL PICTURES AND YES, THE PAPER IS EXCELLENT QUALITY. DEFINITIVELY A COFFEE TABLE PIECE. CAN ANYONE SAY COHIBA? THE TEXT IS VERY CLEAR AND TO THE POINT AND INFORMATIVE ALL AT THE SAME TIME. ARCHITECTURE YOU NEVER THOUGHT EXISTED THERE.



2. great book. awesome pictures and paper quality. Very good price in amazon.
   Thanks.



3. Lots of beautiful photography (by Andrea Brizzi) for anyone who dreams of Cuba and would like to feel the cobblestones of Old Havana underfoot, taste the mojitos in the lobby bar of the Hotel Nacional, hear the strains of the mariachi band at sunset, and learn about the history of our most enigmatic, so-close-yet-so-far neighbor through it's architecture and the very readable text by Rachel Carley.



4. One of the best pictorial books on Cuba that has ever been published. It's the realization of profesionals and very objective, a very difficult achievement considering Cuba. Highly recommended to those willing to discover the real Cuba.