Australian photographer Matthew Sleeth is a consummate observer, exploring the world around him with an acute and often humorous eye. His latest project, Ten Series/106 Photographs, emphasizes how the sequencing of images as an essential part of creating photographic meaning, a conceit with precedents in the work of Ed Ruscha and others. Sleeth's playfulness, wry sensibility, and unorthodox visual style, however, also recall practicing photographers like Lars Tunbjork and Lee Friedlander. With its range of typologies, Ten Series/106 Photographs is varied and eclectic. Topics include Japanese women in uniform, tagged trees and plants in an arboretum, Red China, and Mount Fuji, inspired by old Japanese prints but with each image taken from a modern vantage point. Through its casual exploration of these disparate themes, Ten Series/106 Photographs offers a view of a contemporary world that is structured on somewhat arbitrary types, categories, and systems of classification, all the while making allusions to the role that photography has played in this process.

These essays address us in the quiet voice of a working photographer, an artist and craftsman who has thought long and seriously about his endeavor, who has tested and questioned his own assumptions in the light of actual practice. The result is a rare book of criticism, one that is alive to the pleasure and mysteries of true exploration. Written over a ten-year period, and originally published in 1981, this timeless collection of writings now includes a new preface by the author. Robert Adams possesses the wit to avoid cant, dogma, and platitudes of the scholar that can deaden our responses to the lively business of art. His eight essays pose a host of questions about photography's place in the arts — and in our lives: How is photography art? By what standards are we to judge the success or failure of a photograph? His reflections are delicate, unusually calm, but they also carry the force of sure conviction, the passion of absolute dedication. Few visual artists are capable of articulating the subtle, potent wellsprings of their own creative achievement. Adams does so with extraordinary grace and power. This book offers not only an insight to the work of a distinguished photographer, but also an illuminating challenge and corrective to the usual pieties and pettiness of photography criticism today.

An American artist of Brazilian origin, Vik Muniz has come to stand out as one of the most articulate and innovative artists of his generation, equally at home working with images of chocolate sauce, spaghetti marinara, or the detritus of hole punchers. In doing so, he has carved out a unique niche within contemporary photography: one of trickster and philosopher as well as creator of compelling and delightful images. Reflex: A Vik Muniz Primer is a privileged, guided tour of the contents of Muniz's pyrotechnic imagination. The collection of essays Muniz contributes walks us through each of his major series, and unveils the thinking and historical influences behind each image.

In The Photography Workshop Series, Aperture Foundation works with the worlds top photographers to distill their creative approaches, teachings, and insights on photography offering 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, Mary Ellen Markwell-known for her pictures' emotional power, be they of people or animals offers her insight on observing the world and capturing dramatic moments that reveal more than the reality at hand. Through words and pictures, she shares her own creative process and discusses a wide range of issues, from gaining the trust of the subject and taking pictures that are controlled but unforced, to organizing the frame so that every part contributes toward telling the story.