Agreed.

newyorker:

Desert Island Photo Books: Peter Van Agtmael

Katy Grannan, “Boulevard.”

I had seen bits and pieces of Grannan’s work but my ignorance of these portraits was met with dismay and shock by the fountain of photographic knowledge that is Curran Hatleberg. He then showed me small jpegs on the internet. Amazed, I ordered the book. It’s one of the best books of portrait photography I’ve seen and my favorite since I first saw Avedon’s “In The American West.” The cast of characters is impeccable, and the pictures are free and spontaneous despite being posed and shot with the slow-moving 4x5. That cover shot! Oh man, what a cover. It makes me want to go out and get drunk, smash my hard drives in a fit of despair, and start the whole thing over from scratch the next morning.

- For our first installment of Desert Island Photo Books, Magnum photographer Peter Van Agtmael selected Katy Grannan’s “Boulevard” (above). Click through for the rest of Van Agtmael’s selections, with explanations: http://nyr.kr/y4iIPp