Terra: Struggle of the Landless

Amazon.com

"Because death belongs to all, so too should life," observes Portuguese writer José Saramago in a preface to this remarkable volume of black-and-white images. But death is easy and life is hard in Sebastião Salgado's native Brazil, where exploitation of labor and mechanization of agriculture have combined to paint a bleak future for the country's rural population. Even the faces of small children are clouded with despair in this book, which is at once a testament to human courage and a powerful argument for agrarian reform--a long-promised and long-delayed reform that has led to a bloody struggle to take possession of unused land in private hands.

Customer Reviews:

A lesson in empathy!!!.......2003-03-27

A poignant illustration of the landless plight in Brazil! As evidenced by another reviewer, this book has the ability to thaw the heart of even the most ultra conservative (e.g. "Most of the people in these photographs have extremely difficult lives, due to a twist of fate rather than a personal choice.") They are landless because most middle-class Brazilians view the landless as making horrible life choices as opposed to being pushed by the wind of fate...and ironically they think descendents of Africans in the United States have much to teach "their" Amerindians and African populations about success. The irony! Yes, read it, see it, and see yourself.

Will blow you away, you will not know yourself..........2002-12-19

I took a look at this book in a book store, here in Berkeley Ca. The people you meet as you flip thru the photos make you want to re-examine your own life. Most of the people in these photographs have extremely difficult lives, due to a twist of fate rather than a personal choice. Salgado has not photographed them for pity or to gain sympathy from you, as much as he has shown you a side of yourself... and I am not talking about a "mirror" either. (I am talking about the side that you CAN'T see without Salgado's camera)

These people struggle and may suffer personal tragedies, but there is dignity in their souls. When you see these people, they may not be in control of their fate, whatever terrible fate it may be, but they are in control of their hearts. The blood that runs through the veins of the people Salgado introduced me to, in the photos from the other side of the globe, flows deeper, and redder, and richer than does the blood in my world...

Their lives are fleeting and so is yours my friend, but I believe they have wings; we do not. While you and I are burdened with the weight of unfunny jokes and political scandals, they are free, burdened only with broken hearts and bones that heal fast and clean...

I could not afford the price of the book myself, I could barely afford to stand there as long as I did reading the book; I mean how long can one view a side of oneself so rarely llumiminated?

Once I thought, all I needed to know was God, or to know a beautiful woman, or maybe just smile to bystanders... but I realize I KNOW NOTHING... and that leaves a lot for me to want to know, still. Good luck to you if you should get this book.

A mirror pointed at our soul.......1997-09-02

Once again, Sebastiao Salgado is back, and with two heavy weights by his side: Jose Saramago (preface) and Chico Buarque (poems).
Like all his previous works, the camera that made `Terra' points to the heart of all human being worthy of that classification; with Chico's poems pointing at each ones soul and Saramago's pen pointing at our conscience (and that of God), if this book does not make us see the world in a whole different way, then we better worry before looking at the mirror...
Fernando Gouveia (fgouveia@marao.utad.pt), Vila Real, Portugal

Chuck Jones: A Flurry of Drawings, Portraits of American Genius (Portraits of American Genius, No 3)

Average customer rating:

Keeping Up With Jones
A waste of paper
Marvelous Biography of America's Greatest Animator

Chuck Jones: A Flurry of Drawings, Portraits of American Genius (Portraits of American Genius, No 3)
Hugh Kenner
Manufacturer: University of California Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Cartooning | Comics & Graphic Novels | Subjects | Books

General | Comics & Graphic Novels | Subjects | Books

General | Drawing | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

General | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

General | Performing Arts | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

Movie Directors | Arts & Literature | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

General | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

Political | Leaders & Notable People | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

Direction & Production | Movies | Entertainment | Subjects | Books

Genre Films | Movies | Entertainment | Subjects | Books

General | Americas | History | Subjects | Books

Look Inside Nonfiction Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books
Similar Items:

Chuck Amuck: The Life and Times of an Animated Cartoonist
Chuck Jones: Conversations (Conversations With Comic Artists Series)

ASIN: 0520087976

Book Description

Creator of the mono-maniacal Wile E. Coyote and his elusive prey, the Road Runner, Chuck Jones has won three Academy Awards and been responsible for many classics of animation featuring Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Porky Pig, and Elmer Fudd. Who better to do Chuck Jones than Hugh Kenner, master wordsmith and technophile, a man especially qualified to illuminate the form of literacy that Jones so wonderfully executes in the art of character animation?
A Flurry of Drawings reveals in cartoon-like sequences the irrepressible humor and profound reflection that have shaped Chuck Jones's work. Unlike Walt Disney, Jones and his fellow animators at Warner Brothers were not interested in cartoons that mimicked reality. They pursued instead the reality of the imagination, the Toon world where believability is more important than realism and movement is the ultimate aesthetic arbiter. Kenner offers both a fascinating explanation of cartoon culture and a new understanding of art's relationship to technology, criticism, freedom, and imagination.

Customer Reviews:

Keeping Up With Jones.......2005-03-15

It might seem unusual that the literary critic who earned a reputation revealing the depths of Pound, Eliot, and Joyce would devote a book extolling the virtues of a master of Character Animation.

But the critical impulse is surprisingly effective here. Principles of art are defined so infrequently that few of us know art when we see it; often we are left with the nagging feeling that we want nothing to do with it. One principle, according to Goethe, is that art consists of limitation, not liberation. Jones told a story in 400 seconds with a precision that came down to the blink of an eye. The pressures of work and money enabled rather than hindered Jones and his crew at Warner Brothers to create what are now considered classics of the genre: What's Opera Doc (which introduced millions of children to Wagner's Ring Cycle); One Froggy Evening, (which Spielberg called the Citizen Kane of animation); Duck! Rabbit! Duck! ("Shoot him now!"), and later Jones works which reveal equally memorable moments of imagination and craftsmanship, such as the balancing sled in How the Grinch Stole Christmas and the entry and exits of the mongoose in Rikki Tikki Tavi. Every work of art, wrote Conrad, ought to carry its justification in every line, and this is true of Jones's work as well as Kenner's: There is no wasted space, every item is telling. Just as the short novel fit Conrad, Jones's preferred form was the six-minute short, within which he employed frequent, comic use of fade to black. Make the point and move on.

Conrad wrote that art deals with what is essential and fundamental. Daffy is pure id; Bugs, in typical American fashion, fights back only when provoked. Far from being violent, Jones' works have moral content. Characters get what is coming to them. Fanaticism such as Wile E. Coyote's always fails. Character animation means, in part, that characters reveal themselves in action, a fitting notion for a country short on philosophers but long on inventors. And of course there is the ubiquitous Acme company with its unreliable products. The reality of the essential is different from the near photorealistic "illusion of life" that Disney tried to accomplish. Under the direction of Jones, figures are humanesque: Porky is a man who happens to look like a pig; Bugs is a rabbit who walks upright and speaks with a Brooklyn accent; Sylvester the cat has a nose like a basset hound, while Tweety has baloonlike feet. Yet these figures are more real to us, more believable, than any of Disney's blemish-free princesses or low self-esteem dragons. If anyone is to blame for preparing us for an ideal world that does not exist, it certainly wasn't Jones, whose humanlike creations are painfully recognizable.

Something else art does is endure. Suffice it to say that Jones has entered the American vernacular. Jones's work is enormously popular sixty years after its creation and far ahead of anything being done today with or without the aid of computers.

This is a slim book full of pleasant surprises in which Kenner gives us new eyes with which to appreciate the legacy of Chuck Jones.

A waste of paper.......1999-09-09

This book has absolutely nothing new to say about Chuck Jones. In fact it doesnt say much at all; just endless amounts of prose that add up to nothing. Rather than doing any reserach on his own, Kenner just takes his historical information from already published books on animation or from interviews he has done with Jones.The problems with interviewing Jones, however, is that he can be pretty self serving at times. So dont expect getting any real insight into Mike Maltese and Maurice Noble's contributions to his films, and certainly not any comparision to the work of Bob Clampett, who Chuck Jones hates with his guts. (They had a lifelong feud) For real insight into the work of Chuck Jones, try the articles written by Richard Thompson in Film Comment in the seventies, or Michael Barrier's book Hollywood Cartoons

Marvelous Biography of America's Greatest Animator.......1996-08-28

Professor Kenner turns his pen toward a study of the creator of The Roadunner and the Coyote, and of Bugs Bunny in this wonderful little monograph. Writing with wit and verve he traces Jones' career from the beginning to the present,touching on the high and low but always bringing us the essence of a true comic genius.

Average customer rating:

The Truth Hurts
The Truth Hurts
Great Photos of el Che
Best photos
A very interest book . . .

Che: Images of a Revolutionary
Oscar Sola
Manufacturer: Pluto Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Portraits | Photography | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

General | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

General | Historical | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

Political | Leaders & Notable People | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

Terrorism | Current Events | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

The Che Handbook
Fidel's Cuba: A Revolution in Pictures
El Che - Investigating a Legend
Companero: The Life and Death of Che Guevara
Che Guevara: A Revolutionary Life

ASIN: 0745317006

Book Description

Ernesto "Che" Guevara (1928-67) is the twentieth century's most famous revolutionary. Che grew up in a bohemian family drawn from the landed gentry and went on to train as a physician. As a young doctor his travels in Latin America produced a political awakening that altered the course of his life. He joined the1952 riots against Juan Peron in Argentina, joined agitators in Bolivia, worked for the pro-Communist regime of Jacobe Arbenz Guzman in Guatemala and, when Arbenz was overthrown in 1954, fled to Mexico, where he first met Fidel Castro. Che became one of Castro's closest and most trusted friends, and after the 1956 rebel invasion of Cuba became his chief lieutenant. Che proved to be a resourceful guerilla leader and was instrumental in establishing the Communist state in Cuba. He continued to foster revolutionary activity in other countries until the time of his death in 1967 when he was captured and executed by government troops in Bolivia while directing a guerrilla group there. Che: Images of a Revolutionary features nearly 400 photographs--many of them never previously published. The book follows Che's life from early childhood to his career as a political activist. Writings by Che, including a number of his speeches and examples of literature written about him, by Fidel Castro and Allen Ginsberg and others, complement the visually stunning photographic collection. The book is a result of exhaustive research in public and private archives in Cuba, Argentina, Bolivia, Europe, and North America. A concluding chapter discusses the "Guevara myth" from his death until the present day.

Customer Reviews:

The Truth Hurts.......2002-12-07

This is not a book for the general public but for leftists.
And it isn't about HISTORY but about Communist mythologie.
Contains several omissions:

.It forgets to informate the readers about what Che Gue Vara did
when he and his guerrileros went to Bolivia to "Liberate" the Bolivian peasants: they assassinated about 50 people ( peasant and soldiers in ambushes ) BEFORE he himself was captured and executed.
The Bolivians felt strange about this "Liberation" and not even one (!) joined his "red terror" band ( they actually told the Bolivian army the precise local where the che's band was ).
In other words, CHE GUE VARA TASTED HIS OWN POISON but the author (and some reviewers) made him a martyr and think America is the real guiltie....
it hurts the intelligence of a rational person

.it says very little about Che's cruelty and crimes: in Las Cabanas prison he ordered the execution of hundreds of people( some of them former brothers in arms which refused communism and stayed democratic ).SOME OF THEM WERE SHOT BY HIM, to give the example...
CHE incentivated their followers during those executions: « DON'T WAISTE TIME WITH THE CAUSES, THIS IS A REVOLUTION, DON'T USE LEGAL METHODS OF THE BURGUEOSOIS, THE PROVE IS SECONDARY.
IT'S NECESSARY TO ACT BY CONVICTION!»
We bet they did.
And the Mass Killings of the "enemies of the people" in Santa Clara Prison (some years later )is practically omissed by the author.
etc etc i could go on AD INFINITUM..

Omited too is the TROPICAL GULAG, the concentration camps and prisons system( or "REEDUCATION" CAMPS like CHE used to called them),where have been imprisioned since 1959 until today about 100 000 political prisioners.
Read how they were and still are beaten and forced to drink they own urine in AGAINST ALL HOPE of Valladares in Amazon.com

The Truth Hurts.......2002-12-07

This is not a book for the general public but for leftists.
And it isn't about HISTORY but about Communist mythologie.
Contains several omissions:

Great Photos of el Che.......2001-09-02

Filled with photos of Che from childhood until his death, if you want to know more about him thru photography then this book is a fine start. Also to read Che: A Revolutionary Life by Jon Lee Anderson, the best biography ever written about him.

Best photos.......2001-07-18

Anyone interested in one of the 20th centuries most enigmatic and charismatic figures will love this book. This is an excellent source to compliment the book by Jon Anderson or to enjoy by itself. Filled with over 400 photgraphs, many rare and never seen before, this book captures the image of the man in the various years of his life, most notably his years spent in Cuba. To see the man in all his glory, whether it be sipping his beloved mate, smoking a cigar or fighting his guerrilla war somewhere, his face is unforgetable and this book shows the many facets of his personality. The text is an easy read that can be read in one sitting but the pictures are priceless and require one's attention over and over. This is a book that sits prominently in full view in my house for quick browsing. The photos are exquisite, taken from various sources including one's taken by Che himself. Of particular interest is a section of the book that deals with the now fanous photo taken by Korda that is the image most people know of Che. This is the image that adorns everything from t-shirts to money that was taken during a service for for the victims of an explosion on a ship in 1960, one of the images of our times. The contact strip is included and the various degrees of differences can be noted. Of even more interest is the image of Che's corpse that was displayed by the Bolivian authorites and a comparison to the art of Mantegna's Dead Christ. The resemblance is uncanny. The open eyes of Che, even in death, are more alive than many of the people alive who walk around with tombstones in their eyes. This is an excepional book that chronicles the life and times of Ernesto Guevara, portraying an image in text and magnificent photographs of the man, not the myth, known as Che.

A very interest book . . ........2001-05-22

I think this is the best book of Che Guevara that I've read, and im really read a lot of him. It's perspective it's ecuanimous and objetive and show to the readers, many pictures of his life than we never know. I'm not triying to write some kind of promotion but i feel compromised to say my experience with the book.

Evita: An Intimate Portrait of Eva Peron

Average customer rating:

Eva Peron, Argentina's Golden Goddess
Can pictures of the controversial Argentinian Madonna lie?
A mythical Latin Beauty who had brains, mystery and unimaginable Power.
The best photographic biography about Evita
A compelling visual history of a fascinating woman

Evita: An Intimate Portrait of Eva Peron
Tomas de Elia , and Juan Pablo Queiroz
Manufacturer: Rizzoli International Publications
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

History | Photography | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

Portraits | Photography | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

General | Historical | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

Political | Leaders & Notable People | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

General | Americas | History | Subjects | Books

General | World | History | Subjects | Books

Evita: The Real Life of Eva Peron
Biography - Evita: The Woman Behind the Myth (A&E DVD Archives)
Eva Peron: The Myths of a Woman
Eva Peron: A Biography
Evita, First Lady: A Biography of Evita Peron

ASIN: 0847820289
Release Date: 1997-04-15

Book Description

By the time of her death in 1952 at age 33, the charismatic Argentine first lady Eva Perón--Evita to millions of loyal followers--had become the spiritual leader of the nation, a saintlike figure whose dramatic life would inspire near mythical devotion as well as callous rumors and fierce political debate. Although she wielded privilege and power as the wife of Argentine president Juan Perón and was honored by heads of state and received by the Pope, Evita devoted her life to fighting for the rights of the descamisados, the "shirtless poor" and working-class people of Argentina for whom she had deep compassion.

This lavish photographic chronicle documents the private and public life of Eva Perón, from her modest childhood in the provincial villages of the pampas to her early career as an actress in Buenos Aires, her marriage to Juan Perón, her crucial role in politics, and her extraordinary funeral, when millions of mourners thronged Buenos Aires to view her body, and thousands of small, flower-adorned shrines carpeted the streets. Evita's dramatic life unfolds on these pages with unprecedented immediacy, against the vivid backdrop of real places and events.

These photographs--many of which have never before been published--were discovered in archives and private collections throughout the world, and include images by Alfred Eisenstaedt, Gisèle Freund, and Cornell Capa, as well as reproductions of magazine covers and publicity stills from Evita's acting career, sketches of her jewelry designs by Van Cleef & Arpels, and images of her stunning Dior gowns and wardrobe. For the first time, Eva Perón's sisters have allowed exclusive access to private family photographs.

Extensive captions include anecdotes and excerpts from Evita's impassioned speeches and letters, and with the photographs they offer much more than simply a visual record of Eva Perón's life: This book is a fascinating portrait of a legendary figure of the twentieth century.

Customer Reviews:

Eva Peron, Argentina's Golden Goddess.......2003-09-09

This is a fabulous book which follows the life of Eva Peron through photographs. Francisco M. Rocha tells his account of Eva's life in about seven pages, so there is not a lot of reading to be done. Instead you get hundreds of beautiful pictures ... if a picture is worth a thousand words, this book speaks volumes. There are lots of never before seen photo's from Eva's early life, many studio portraits from her acting days, as well as one of the few surviving official portraits of the Perons. To me the most touching photos are those from the days following her death. It was a fitting tribute to Evita, the thousands of Argentines standing in line for hours and sometimes days just to catch one last glimpse of her beautiful face. As well as the millions of flowers filling the streets of Buenos Aires. You can almost feel the grief that filled the air through those tragic days.

There are also many photos of Eva's decline ... that proud, elegant creature shrunken down to a fragile waif and of her triumphant tour through Europe. The Peron's lavish life-stlye is also on display here ... the legendary Dior gowns, the millions of dollars worth of jewelry and the palatial Presidential Palace (destroyed in the revoltion of 1955) where Evita kept a storeroom for clothing, food and also offered as a shelter to the homeless.

Evita's life was distinctly cut up into sections, her poor childhood, her acting days, the glorious days as First lady, and her death. The are all documented her beautifully in the lavish photos and detailed captions.

Eva Peron is perhaps one of history's greatest mysteries. Many have called her a whore and a thief. Still there are countless others who attest to her sainthood. The truth is no one really knows what Evita was hiding behind those piercing eyes and no one ever will. What we do know is that in her short life, she accomplished amazing feats. For a poor illegitimate girl from the pampas to reinvent herself as an actress is extraordinary. For an actress no one took seriously to become the First Lady of Argentina and to win over the hearts of millions really is mind blowing. Evita was only 33 years old when she died, who knows what else she could have accomplished?

Can pictures of the controversial Argentinian Madonna lie?.......2003-08-01

As a photographic biography of an individual who died about a decade before bographies were featured on mass television, this book is magnificent. The Argentinian publishers painstakingly compiled nearly 200 pages of many elusive photos of this controversial Argentinian icon - all in black and white, and of surprisingly impeccable quality. One of the auhtors is an academic who provides much of the narrative, and fills an important gap in the literature on Eva Peron. Their treatment shows a clear sympathetic bias which should be recognized by any unwitting reader who may be unaware of the deeply split views of Eva Peron which still previal in Argentina and of the political movement that she and her husband created.

You may, like myself, have enjoyed the brilliant Lloyd and Weber musical about Evita's musical life one or more times. If so, you will find these photos will provide some complementary historical insight to the dramatic performance and parallels the performance - although they two are unrealted, as far as I know. Like the musical, this book captures photos from Eva's childhood in a remote provincial pueblo in the pampas through her meteoric rise to stardom in Buenos Aires and ultimately to Argentina's First Lady. Perhaps most remarkable are the photos of her final months where, despite her cancer-ridden state and growing frailty, she continues public appearances and political campaigns.

If you are interested in this book, I would recommend you avoid the expense of a new copy by looking for one of the many high-quality second-hand copies available. I found my copy by accident ...for [money amount]!

A mythical Latin Beauty who had brains, mystery and unimaginable Power........2003-02-02

Before Princess Diana, before Jackie O, even before Princess Grace, Eva "Evita" Peron made a name for herself in the international spotlight as a symbol of elegance, ambition and power. Although not always favourable to her character, the world press was intrigued by her obvious glamour. While the Peronist Argentine media labelled her with saintly nicknames such as "The Lady of Hope" and "Mother of the Poor", international correspondents used terms that were less meaningful and more shallow. She became known as "The Dashing Blonde" in the US while the french press labelled her as "La Belle Blonde D'Argentina".

Argentina's first cover girl- Eva Peron's lovely face has graced more magazine covers around the globe than any other female Latin American political leader in history. She's also the only Latin American First Lady to have had the honour of gracing the coveted cover of TIME magazine- in June of 1947 and with her husband in 1951. This may not seem like a big deal NOW but at the time, it was a honour indeed and it should be noted that throughout the 30's & 40's not many woman made the cover of TIME magazine. In 1947 for instance, only a handful of women (6 - according to a source) made the cover that year - If I'm not mistaken Eva Peron was the third. Flipping through the thick pages of this book, it's not hard to see why so many were fascinated by this striking but controversial woman who wore expensive clothes, decorated herself with diamonds and wrapped her femininity in elaborate fur coats. But solely praising her for her looks is missing the point since it was her larger than life persona, her numerous works with Argentina's poor and her meteoric rise from obscurity to power that has kept her name and legacy alive.

This visually informative book is one of the BEST books there is on Maria Eva Duarte de Peron. It offer's an in-depth look into her life using high quality glossy prints. Many of the images presented inside the book are striking photographs of Eva's handsome face with her golden blonde hair and it's metallic sheen either swept up into elaborate coils & curls or pulled back into it's trademark chignon or (in a couple of images) let loose to cascade over her shoulders. Her intoxicating beauty is evident and is the main showcase here but while most of these pictures show her at her most beautiful, others show us her lamentable decline as well. The once delectable body and face gave way to an extremely thin and frail woman with sad eyes and colourless skin. Her swift rise and rapid descent are all displayed infront of our curious eyes. For those of you who love Evita, it will definately arouse some type of emotion seeing her during her final struggles. For those of you who despise her, it might give you a sense of relief that this powerful & vulgar woman was finally silenced in death.

Stikingly original and visually rousing, this book is highly recommended to anyone who is interested in learning more about the life and times of this remarkable but controversial figure (altough the book itself maybe a little TOO expensive for the casual curiosity seeker, in that case I recommend buying a good used copy). It's also one of the rare PRO EVITA books (in English) that offers such clear, good quality photos of the subject. It offers a brief intro and briography but the main attraction are the photographs. You will see Eva's life from the earliest childhood photos to the last Cancer Stricken photos. Her incredible matamorphesis, her incredible acheivements and her awesome gowns and jewels are all displayed within the pages of this interesting book. My only problem with it though is that despite the amazing amount of photographs, I was still left unsatisfied. The reason being is that there are HUNDREDS and HUNDREDS of beautiful photo's from Eva's artistic career but the ones they chose to display are the ones we have already seen. The same goes with the photo's taken of her in Europe and of her candid moments. The book claims that many of the photographs have never been seen before but that is true only of her childhood photos, all of the other ones have been published before in several magazines and books. That said, it's still THE BEST photographic Book ever released in North America. The only other ones that come close are ALL visciously one-sided ANTI PERONIST accounts- Lloyd Weber's and Tim Rice's EVITA: THE LEGEND OF EVA PERON & W.A Harbinson's awful EVITA: A LEGEND FOR THE SEVENTIES- the latter remains the WORST biography ever written on the subject and was re-released as EVITA SAINT OR SINNER in 1996 however only the original 70's version contains an amazing collection of photos which is the only reason it's recomended.

And for closing, I am quoting my Chilean Aunts mother (who lived in Argentina during the first Peronist Period): "I saw her from the distance and to this day I have never seen a woman more beautiful. She was and is a Goddess. Everything about her was larger than life. She looked my way and her dark eyes pierced my soul. I will never forget her look."

This book offers a glimpse of the awesome power this remarkable woman had in life and still holds 50 years after her tragic demise.

The best photographic biography about Evita.......2003-01-20

EVITA: AN INTIMATE PORTRAIT OF EVA PERON is the best photographic record available of Eva Peron, First Lady of Argentina from 1946 to 1952. ("Evita," meaning "Little Eva," was her nickname.)

Evita lived in a time before television was widely used, and since she was a politician she did not have many spreads in glossy magazines (once she became First Lady, her "cheesecake" portraits - taken while she was an actress - were supressed). Therefore, most of her pictures were used in newspapers, giving them a grainy feel. Often, the quality of pictures you find of Evita seem to be much poorer quality than what you would expect from something taken merely 50 years ago. EVITA: AN INTIMATE PORTRAIT OF EVA PERON is an exception, perhaps the best exception I have ever found. Most of these pictures are clear and crisp, though they are all black-and-white.

One thing this collection of pictures reveals is that Evita truly was not what would be considered a conventionally beautiful woman. She was certainly beautiful in her publicity photos and propaganda portraits (some of which are reproduced here). But in a day-to-day setting - such as the enclosed pictures that depict her having lunch, leaning against her dresser, yelling at a policeman for obstructing a youth's access to her - she was a somewhat awkward, even at times homely, woman. But she was a master of image. As Nicholas Fraser and Marysa Navarro point out in EVITA: THE REAL LIFE OF EVA PERON, she had an astonishing instinct, almost a sixth sense, for knowing how image affected people. This talent of hers is demonstrated when one constrasts the behind-the-scenes pictures of her as an awkward woman, with those gorgeous photos of Peronist propaganda. She wasn't a conventionally beautiful woman, but she knew how to make it seem as though she were.

The portions of EVITA: AN INTIMATE PORTRAIT OF EVA PERON that I found most interesting, and most haunting, were of Eva as a young girl in her hometown of Junin, and the pictures taken of her shortly before her death. There is one particularly chilling scene of Evita, reduced to a mere 77 pounds by the cancer that had invaded her body, standing on the balcony of the government house to greet the tens of thousands gathered below. She spoke, yelled, actually, about taking justice into her own hands, warning her political enemies of the day that she would "go forth with the poor of the country and leave no brick standing that is not standing for Peron!" The rise from poverty, the contrasts, the extremes ... it's all palpable in these pictures.

This woman was a genius.

A compelling visual history of a fascinating woman.......2002-03-19

"Evita: An Intimate Portrait of Eva Peron," edited by Tomas de Elia and Juan Pablo Quieroz, brings together a wealth of black-and-white photographs of Eva Peron, the legendary first lady of Argentina. The editors note in their preface that with the 1955 overthrow of Eva's husband, President Juan Peron, much visual material related to this controversial woman was destroyed. Thus, this book has significant historical and sociological value.

We see the full span of the woman's extraordinary life: Eva as a child, aspiring actress, wife, and triumphant first lady. There are "glamour shot" portraits, candid photos, magazine covers, stills from film productions, and more. We see Eva and her husband, as well as her interaction with adoring crowds.

Eva is a consistently fascinating subject: whether fiery, starry-eyed, thoughtful, amused, determined, or serene, you can see why she continues to captivate so many imaginations.

Book Description

The photographs of Las Soldaderas and Elena Poniatowska's remarkable commentary rescue the women of the Mexican Revolution from the dust and oblivion of history. These are the Adelitas and Valentinas celebrated in famous corridos mexicanos, but whose destiny was much more profound and tragic than the idealistic words of ballads. The photographs remind Poniatowska of the trail of women warriors that begins with the Spanish conquest and continues to Mexico's violent revolution. These women are valiant, furious, loyal, maternal, and hardworking; they wear a mask that is part immaculate virgin, part mother and wife, and part savage warrior; and they are joined together in the cruel hymn of blood and death from which they built their own history of the Revolution.

The photographs are culled from the vast Casasola Collection in the Fototeca Nacional of the National Institute of Anthropology and History in Pachuca, Hidalgo, Mexico.

Customer Reviews:

Tribute to the brave women who were active participants in the Mexican Revolution.......2007-05-14

Elena Poniatowska's "Las Soldaderas: Women of the Mexican Revolution" (Cinco Puntos Press, $12.95 paperback) demonstrates the riveting, almost hypnotic power of photographs.

Poniatowska's text (translated from Spanish by David Dorado Romo) is wisely limited to about two dozen pages and acts as a frame for the remarkable black-and-white images of the brave women who fought on either side of the Mexican Revolution.

The term "soldadera" comes from "soldada," or salary. Poniatowska explains that "during all wars and invasions, soldiers used their 'soldada' (a word of Aragonese origin) to hire a female servant. The woman would go to the barracks to charge her salary, i.e., soldada." Thus, the term "soldadera" was coined.

The photographs are culled from the enormous Casasola Collection in the Fototeca Nacional of the National Institute of Anthropology and History in Mexico. The publisher tells us that the collection is based on the work of Agustín Casasola (1874-1938), one of the first photojournalists in Mexico and founder of the photo agency that carries his name.

It is difficult not to mull over these photographs of Mexican and indigenous women from the early part of the last century as they pose with their pistols, horses, children or husbands. These are women who played different roles, sometimes as brave soldiers, other times as helpmates (or even prostitutes without much choice) to the male warriors.

Poniatowska offers anecdotes to help us know these women, sometimes using their own words. Pancho Villa does not fair well here, nor do other men who took brutal advantage of -- or even murdered -- these women.

"Las Soldaderas" perfectly weds words with photographs as a poignant tribute to the brave women who were active participants in the Mexican Revolution.

[The full review first appeared in the El Paso Times.]

Waste of money !.......2007-05-09

The pages of the book are not even numbered correctly at the beginning of the story . The book is very thin, with only 89 pages (57 pages are of photographs, all of which are easily available on the internet for free, like on Pancho Villa's Photos website of Ojianga). Throughout the book, everything is so contradictory. The author seems confused. No real effort seems to have been put forth to educate the reader.Seems like she gave a bunch of jumbled reviews of different novels she picked up . You can't tell what is true and what is fiction. Can't believe this is supposed to be a book.

Contact Sheet 116: Tony Gleaton, Tengo Casi 500 Años¿I Have Almost 500 Years. Africa's Legacy in Mexico, Central and South America.

Average customer rating:

Gleaton is a genius!

Contact Sheet 116: Tony Gleaton, Tengo Casi 500 Años¿I Have Almost 500 Years. Africa's Legacy in Mexico, Central and South America.
Tony Gleaton
Manufacturer: Light Work
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Collections, Catalogues & Exhibitions | Photography | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

Portraits | Photography | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0935445250

Book Description

Of more than ten million Africans brought to the Americas as slaves, only six percent were taken to the territory now known as the United States, with the rest being taken to the Caribbean, Mexico, Central and South America. In 1990, Tony Gleaton began making portraits of the present day descendants of African slaves brought to what was the New Spain in the 1500s, 1600s, and 1700s. In these portraits which resulted in the exhibition Africa's Legacy in Mexico, which was extensively exhibited by the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service in the U.S. and in Mexico and Cuba by the Mexican National Council for Culture and the Arts, Gleaton developed a style that would allow him to explore issues of cultural identity and present his own personal descriptions of beauty, family, and goodness.

Customer Reviews:

Gleaton is a genius!.......2006-03-28

Gleaton's work is gorgeous. These photos are treasures for anyone who calls the Americas home. What's he working on now? Can't wait for the next Gleaton collection!

Shooting Kennedy: JFK and the Culture of Images

Average customer rating:

Camelot Rewritten

Shooting Kennedy: JFK and the Culture of Images
David M. Lubin
Manufacturer: University of California Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | History & Criticism | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

Collections, Catalogues & Exhibitions | Photography | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

General | Photography | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

Portraits | Photography | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

General | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

Popular Culture | Social Sciences | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

General | Americas | History | Subjects | Books

Look Inside Entertainment Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books

All Titles | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books

Arts & Photography | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books

Nonfiction | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books
Similar Items:

Art in a Season of Revolution: Painters, Artisans, and Patrons in Early America (Early American Studies)
Outlaw Representation: Censorship and Homosexuality in Twentieth-Century American Art (Ideologies of Desire)
The Body of Raphaelle Peale: Still Life and Selfhood, 1812-1824 (Ahmanson Murphy Fine Arts Imprint)
Reframing Abstract Expressionism: Subjectivity and Painting in the 1940s
Inventing the Modern Artist: Art and Culture in Gilded Age America

ASIN: 0520229851

Book Description

Jack and Jackie sailing at Hyannis Port. President Kennedy smiling and confident with the radiant first lady by his side in Dallas shortly before the assassination. The Zapruder film. Jackie Kennedy mourning at the funeral while her small son salutes the coffin. These images have become larger than life; more than simply photographs of a president, or of celebrities, or of a tragic event, they have an extraordinary power to captivate--today as in their own time. In Shooting Kennedy, David Lubin speculates on the allure of these and other iconic images of the Kennedys, using them to illuminate the entire American cultural landscape. He draws from a spectacularly varied intellectual and visual terrain--neoclassical painting, Victorian poetry, modern art, Hollywood films, TV sitcoms--to show how the public came to identify personally with the Kennedys and how, in so doing, they came to understand their place in the world. This heady mix of art history, cultural history, and popular culture offers an evocative, consistently entertaining look at twentieth-century America.
Marilyn Monroe, Sylvia Plath, Donna Reed, Playboy magazine, Jack Ruby, the Rosenbergs, and many more personalities, little-known events, and behind-the-scenes stories of the era enliven Lubin's account as he unlocks the meaning of these photographs of the Kennedys. Elegantly conceived, witty, and intellectually daring, Shooting Kennedy becomes a stylish meditation on the changing meanings of visual phenomena and the ways they affect our thinking about the past, the present, and the process of history.

Customer Reviews:

Camelot Rewritten.......2003-11-27

Of the books that have been published on the occasion of the 40th anniversary of the Kennedy assassination on display in my local bookstore, which include memorial editions of LIFE and LOOK magazine that compile all the iconic photos of that time (and sponsored by the History Channel in one case), SHOOTING KENNEDY is a bracing antidote to the lachrymose nonsense posing as historical insight and edifying remembrance that litter the publishing landscape.

In SHOOTING KENNEDY, Lubin employs a process that in post-modern cultural critique has become the prevailing strategy: the Dadaist practice of placing on the dissection table the sewing machine and the umbrella and reporting on their encounter. SHOOTING KENNEDY may, thus, for some readers, seem a bizarre and desacralizing example of the kind of "relativistic" post-modern cultural criticism that upends and sabotages the "milestone event" narrations of history by treating everything as a cultural text, everything as grist for the cultural critique mill.

As an example of this technique, Lubin, late in the book, examines a LIFE magazine spread showing a liquor ad featuring a dandy tipping his hat in salute on the page facing the famous photo of John John's salute of his father's passing coffin. He then offers a disquisition on the suggested birth of the salute in the era of the knight errant, who it is believed, lifted up the visor on his helmet to show another knight his eyes to show he intended no harm. He then goes on to discuss the notion of Camelot as a metaphor for the Kennedy presidency, and then ties in JFK's boyhood reading during his sickly childhood of romantic tales of knighthood by Sir Walter Scott and others.

To the average reader of political history, this will seem an inappropriate invasion of one discipline into the precincts of another -- in this case materials of history and politics examined with theories and tools of art criticism. The similarities Lubin finds between notable paintings from the Western canon and news photos of the Kennedy's and JFK's assassination will seem superfluous, beside the point. So will the parallels he finds between the structure of the Zapruder film and the standard Hollywood movie both now and then. Average readers will be more comfortable with coincidence as the principle behind the suggestive links he finds in history and art,(e.g., Oswald jumping onto the stage in the Dallas movie theater where he sought to hide from the police, John Wilkes Booth jumping onto the stage of the Ford Theater after shooting Lincoln, the Nazi villain in Lubitsch¹s "To Be or Not to Be" being chased onto the stage before being captured and killed), and less comfortable with the idea that life and art are inseparable and dialogic. This approach may seem destabilizing and even decadent. Lubin admits as much. Indeed, he often recognizes that his approach may serve to cast dirt on the icons whose images and histories he examines. He explains that this is not his intent; one's reaction will depend entirely upon whether mentioning Camelot and the Beverly Hillbillies in the same breath seems appropriate.

The post-modern argument has come to prevail in the academy, although in fact it was never really all that radical a position to begin with: reasonable readers of history always recognized that whatever claims to the contrary, historians came to their work with agendas (even "objectivity" is an agenda). Historians, like art historians and art critics develop followings depending on both their skills as a storyteller as well as by how well they support their version of history in their selection of and retelling of facts. In both cases, what emerges always is the sensibility of the critic. There are schools of history in the same way there are schools of art and art criticism.

Still, even accepting the post-modern notions of the text, Lubin's selection of facts and materials has something of the magpie about it -- meaning that his choices, while mostly hits are occasional misses. For instance, how relevant is it that Marat's assassin was the same age as Lee Harvey Oswald? This "insight" is one of those stray facts that pose as enlightening but are not. It is the same kind of quasi-fascinating fact that conspiracy theorists yoke together in their fantastic farragoes. Incidentally, Lubin does an excellent job on the cultural output of these re-writers of the circumstances of the assassination. He takes no sides, he only examines their output in conjunction with that of other forms of reportage, history and journalism.

Altogether an illuminating, creative, and corrective work of criticism.

The Secret Museum of Mankind: Five Volumes in One - The Secret Album of (North & South) America, Africa, Asia, Europe, Oceania (Tribal Portrait Photography)
Average customer rating:
The Secret Museum of Mankind: Five Volumes in One - The Secret Album of (North & South) America, Africa, Asia, Europe, Oceania (Tribal Portrait Photography)

Manufacturer: Manhattan House
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000GHIUEA

Memphis Blues: Birthplace Of A Music Tradition (TN) (Images of America)
Average customer rating:

Fuzzy Focus

Memphis Blues: Birthplace Of A Music Tradition (TN) (Images of America)
William Bearden
Manufacturer: Arcadia Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Soul | Musical Genres | Music | Entertainment | Subjects | Books
General | United States | Americas | History | Subjects | Books
General | State & Local | United States | Americas | History | Subjects | Books
Tennessee | State & Local | United States | Americas | History | Subjects | Books
South | State & Local | United States | Americas | History | Subjects | Books
Similar Items:

Chicago Blues: Portraits and Stories (Music in American Life)

ASIN: 0738542377
Release Date: 2006-04-19

Book Description

The blues was born in the Mississippi Delta, and since that fateful night in 1903 when W. C. Handy heard the mournful sound of a pocketknife sliding over the strings of an acoustic guitar and the plaintive song of a long-forgotten musician in the hot night of Tutwiler, Mississippi, the blues has been on a journey around the world. From the cotton fields and juke

joints of the Delta, up Highway 61 to Memphis's Beale Street, St. Louis, the Southside of Chicago, England, and points beyond, the blues is America's unique form of music. Blues is incisive in its honesty, elemental in its rhythm,

and powerful in its almost visceral sensation. Nearly every style of popular music has its roots in the blues. Muddy Waters said it best: “The blues had a baby, and they called it rock and roll.” Memphis has become the heart of the blues world, with a re-born Beale Street acting as its spiritual center. People come from the world over to experience its beat, savor its emotion, and feel its power. In the end . . . “it ain't nothin' but the blues.”

Customer Reviews:

Fuzzy Focus.......2006-06-22

I was very much looking forward to reading this book as my MemphisHistory web site has an expanding section on the Memphis blues. First of all it is important to know that this is a thin book filled mostly with photos, which is fine I suppose.

Many of the photos I had not seen before, which is good. What became absolutely bizarre is that by page 36 the author was up to the birth of WDIA. The Memphis blues were at their most important from 1900 to the late 1920s. After that, economics drove blues acts from the delta to Chicago with a brief stop in Memphis at most.

The author goes on to praise and give space to bands such as "Moloch" a white, critic's darling band of the 60's. While there are multiple pictures of white pop artist Jim Dickinson there are no pictures of Memphis Minnie or Frank Stokes. Further there seems to be a lack of knowledge of who was who in the early blues scene.

After covering WDIA the author divides the rest of the book between Sun Records, Stax and the Blues Awards hosted annually in Memphis. In that way he is able to integrate two pictures of Kenny Wayne Shepard and one of ZZ Topp without any of Sleepy John Estes or Frank Stokes.

Memphis has a great musical heritage covering multiple genres. The blues heritage we had ended fairly early in the 20th century, but I thought that was what this book would be about. Ultimately it appears that the author used the book to sneak in pictures of his friends and acquaintances.

Local, current DJ "Tater Red" is shown in two photos, but there is no photo of Walter Horton... I think you get the idea.

Books:

Books Index

Books Home

Recommended Books