They say the eyes are the windows to the soul. While memory may be a fickle object, the thought processes of many souls have been laid bare here in the form of photographic evidence, which serves as an extension of the naked eye. Framed for posterity forever within these glossy pages, scores upon scores of images present a prism through which the human condition is displayed in all its sordid, splendid glory. Welcome to the world — as captured through their eyes.



Title: American Photography 23
Publisher: Amilus Inc.
Designer: Florian Bachleda, FB Design
Cover photograph: Yael Ben-Zion



Populated by mindboggling 6.6 billion homo sapiens, it’s inevitable that any viable pictorial documentary of the world would heavily feature humans. American Photography 23 does not disappoint in this aspect, displaying pristine pages covered with portraits of instantly recognizable celebrities such as Brad Pitt, Kate Moss, Julia Roberts, which share space with political figures like George Bush, Rudy Guilliani and Condelezza Rice. With every etch and expression captured in minute detail by celebrity photographers that include Dan Winters, Amy Arbus and Ben Baker, these instantly recognizable icons of our generation are caught in a variety of poses, from expressive to pensive, from postured, to downright mischievous, demonstrating to the public that they are, after all, but individuals in the world, caught up with trying to eke out a living, just like the rest of us.



Themed photo shoots also prominently feature Hollywood celebrities and popular fashion icons, culled from film studio sets, magazine covers, and promotional campaigns. Whether it be Scarlett Johansson frolicking in a toothsome bikini on the beach with Woody Allen brooding in the background, Kate Moss staring beguilingly at you while all decked out in a dapper tuxedo, or Tom Hanks looking harassed behind a pile of paperwork atop a carved oak desk, each snapshot perfectly captures a particular motion or expression, creating still-life stories that flare the imaginations of all who lay eyes upon them.



It’s easy to lose yourself amongst pages and pages of these painstakingly-created visual fantasies, where elaborate settings are designed to distract you from the real world. Nevertheless, grim reality awaits but a turn of the page away, with the likes of Paolo Pellegrin, Stephanie Sinclair, Brenda Ann Keneally, Kadir Van Lohuizen and Christopher Anderson documenting in stark black and white photography images, portraying a range of natural and man-made disasters including the ravages of HIV in poor black communities in the U.S., the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, portraits of Iranians killed during the Iran-Iraq war, and whole families huddled together in a lone staircase to escape bombing in the Israeli-Lebanon conflict.




The good and the bad, the bold and the beautiful, the whimsical and the warlike, the ugly and the frightening — these are all fragments of the humongous canvas of mosaics that make up this planet Earth we call our home. Stories told in as many different voices as there are images explode in a glory of bloody colors and monochromatic black-and-white with equal intensity, creating a collage filled with the pains and pleasures of all the individuals that share our world.



American Photography 23 teases as much as it delivers — for every foreboding Hitchcock-inspired portrait of a lone crow, executed to singular perfection by Brian Smale, there is Jeff Koons’ juicy, technicolored extravaganza with a dominatrix model, featured next to his signature metal structures painted over to resemble an inflatable red lobster toy. Precariously balancing between a myriad of contrasts, there is no better summation of the world we live in today. American Photography 23 displays a firm grasp of this knowledge, and — better yet — celebrates it with aplomb.





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