Orhan Pamuk

Alex Webb

In 1998 Alex Webb visited Istanbul and was immediately enthralled by the people, the layers of culture and history, the richness of street life. But what particularly drew him in was a sense of Istanbul as a border city, lying between Europe and Asia. As he writes, For thirty-some years as a photographer I have been intrigued by borders, places where cultures come together, sometimes easily, sometimes roughly. He has returned to Istanbul whenever possible, and the resulting body of worksome of Webbs strongest to dateconveys the frisson of a culture in transition, yet firmly rooted in a complex history.

City of a Hundred Names

Istanbul

Geoff Dyer

Gathering some of Alex Webbs most iconic images, many of which were taken in the far corners of the earth, "The Suffering of Light" brings a fresh perspective to his extensive catalogue. Recognized as a pioneer of American colour photography, Webb has since the 1970s consistently created photographs characterized by intense colour and light. His work, with its richly layered and complex composition, touches on multiple genres, including street photography, photojournalism and fine art, but as Webb claims, to me it all is photography. You have to go out and explore the world with a camera. Webbs ability to distil gesture, colour and contrasting cultural tensions into single, beguiling frames results in evocative images that convey a sense of enigma, irony and humour. Featuring key works alongside previously unpublished photographs, This is Webbs first comprehensive monograph and provides the most thorough examination to date of this modern masters prolific, thirty-year career.

Thirty Years of Photographs by Alex Webb

The Suffering of Light

Teju Cole

Rebecca Norris Webb

In this series, Aperture Foundation works with the worlds top photographers to distill their creative approaches, teachings, and insights on photographyoffering the workshop experience in a book. Our goal is to inspire photographers of all levels who wish to improve their work, as well as readers interested in deepening their understanding of the art of photography. Each volume is introduced by a well-known student of the featured photographer. In this book, internationally acclaimed color photographers Alex Webb and Rebecca Norris Webb, offer their expert insight into street photography and the poetic image. Through words and photographstheir own and othersthey invite the reader into the heart of their artistic processes. They share their thoughts about a wide range of practical and philosophical issues, from questions about seeing and being in the world with a camera, to how to shape a complete body of work in a way thats both structured and intuitive.

Alex Webb and Rebecca Norris Webb on Street Photography and the Poetic Image

Gathers photographs taken in Haiti, Mexico, the Dominican Republic, Egypt, Barbados, India, Zaire, Ivory Coast, Uganda, and Trinidad

Photographs from the Tropics

Hot Light/half-made Worlds

Amazon: From the Floodplains to the Clouds is photographer Alex Webb's compelling documentation of a voyage through the worlds of those who live along this immense waterway. The photographs reproduce a trip from the enormous Amazon delta in Brazil through Colombia to the icy ponds and streams by the slopes of Mount Mismi in Peru - the source of the river. Indigenous traditions and European influences intermingle and thrive throughout these countries. The lowlands are a diverse region of backwater ports and river villages overgrown into ramshackle towns and cities, as well as places of fantastic festivals, highlighted by costumes and parades. The Peruvian highlands are a world of harsh rock, bleak and bitter weather, and ongoing political strife.

From the Floodplains to the Clouds

Amazon

Guillermo Arriaga

La Calle brings together more than thirty years of photography from the streets of Mexico by Alex Webb, spanning 1975 to 2007. Whether in black and white or color, Webb's richly layered and complex compositions touch on multiple genres. As Geoff Dyer writes, "Wherever he goes, Webb always ends up in a Bermuda-shaped triangle where the distinctions between photojournalism, documentary, and art blur and disappear." Webb's ability to distill gesture, light, and cultural tensions into single, beguiling frames results in evocative images that convey a sense of mystery, irony, and humor. Following an initial trip in the mid-1970s, Webb returned frequently to Mexico, working intensely on the U.S.-Mexico border and into southern Mexico throughout the 1980s and '90s, inspired by what poet Octavio Paz calls "Mexicanism--delight in decorations, carelessness and pomp, negligence, passion, and reserve." La Calle presents a commemoration of the Mexican street as a sociopolitical bellwether--albeit one that has undergone significant transformation since Webb's first trips to the country. Newly commissioned pieces from noted Mexican and Mexican American authors lend further insight into the roles the streets have played for generations: part arterial network, part historical palimpsest, and part absurdist theater of the everyday.

Alex Webb

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