May Book Bag: from a comic compendium inspired by MoMA to a turning point in the history of photography

Edward Weston: The Flame of Recognition, contributors include Nancy Newhall, Aperture, 112pp, £30 (pb)

First published by Aperture in 1965 and reissued this year in a 60th-anniversary edition, Edward Weston: The Flame of Recognition marks a turning point in the history of photography, both as an art form and as a subject of critical inquiry. The book was the New York-based magazine Aperture’s first monograph and emerged from the overwhelming response to a special Weston-dedicated issue. It laid the foundation for what would become Aperture’s respected photobook publishing programme, helping to set a benchmark for contemporary photography monographs that combine visual craft with intellectual engagement.

Weston, a founding member of Group f/64—a collective of West Coast photographers including Ansel Adams, Imogen Cunningham and Willard Van Dyke—was central to the movement to elevate photography beyond its documentary origins. The group championed “pure” photography, characterised by sharp focus, rich detail and unmanipulated imagery, as a rejection of the soft-focus pictorialism then in vogue.

With his meticulous large-format compositions and talent for transforming both classic subjects such as nudes and landscapes, and more ephemeral forms like shells and peppers, Weston showed photography’s capacity for formal refinement and conceptual weight. In The Flame of Recognition, Nancy Newhall, Weston’s longtime collaborator and a co-founder of Aperture, paired his images with excerpts from his Daybooks and letters—an editorial choice that underscored the medium’s literary and philosophical depth. T.S.

Drawn to MoMA: Comics Inspired By Modern Art, Alex Halberstadt and Arlette Hernandez (editors), The Museum of Modern Art, 200pp, $45 (hb)

Twenty-five graphic artists bring the Museum of Modern Art in New York to life in this comics anthology with contributions from Jon Allen, Gabrielle Bell, Barbara Brandon-Croft, Jessica Campbell, Roz Chast and Ted Closson. Initially launched by the Museum of Modern Art in 2019 as a web series exploring the intersection of comics and museums, the “project evolved into a multi-year publishing effort to bridge the gap between the art of comics and the experience of visiting museums”, says a publisher’s statement. “This book’s contributors have taken their growth, their trauma, and their histories and turned them into stories about looking at works of art,” writes the cartoonist Walter Scott in the introduction. The cover is designed by the writer and illustrator, Kristen Radtke. G.H.

The Fatal Scroll: A Herculaneum Mystery, Eric Siblin, ECW Press, 240pp, $24.95 (pb)

This new thriller focuses on a famed papyrus scroll which almost perished when the Roman city of Herculaneum was covered in ash and pumice after the eruption of the Vesuvius volcano in 79 AD. Marcus Sinclair, a history teacher, is the protagonist who inherits an indecipherable papyrus scroll from his antiquarian uncle, says a publisher’s statement. The book is billed as “a literary murder mystery about the shady side of the antiquities trade, ancient philosophy, and tech’s utopian promises” (spoiler: the plot also features a Neapolitan trafficker in antiquities and a dead Google software engineer). The publication also coincides with The Vesuvius Challenge, which uses AI to unlock the texts in the papyrus scrolls that were carbonised when the Roman city of Herculaneum was covered in ash and pumice after the eruption of the Vesuvius volcano in 79 AD. G.H.

Secondary: Matthew Barney, Rizzoli Electa, contributors include Mark Godfrey and Maggie Nelson, $115 (hb)

This two-volume publication charts the development of Barney’s five-channel video installation Secondary (2023-24) which was inspired by a tragic incident in professional football; a 1978 game between the Oakland Raiders and the New England Patriots that left one player, Darryl Stingley, paralysed for life. His attacker, the Raiders’ defensive back Jack Tatum, walked away without apology. Barney watched that incident repeatedly on television as a teen training to be a high-school quarterback and its memory never left him. Volume one explores Secondary in depth, with sequences of exclusive video and production stills and installation views from each iteration and exhibition, says a publisher’s statement. Volume two maps the life of Barney’s former Long Island City studio where Secondary was launched. G.H.