Thought I'd put this out there for anyone interested in such things... Mike Johnston of The Online Photographer blog mentioned "Here Far Away" by Pentti Sammallahti as his 'book of the year' pick in 2012. I looked through the preview on Amazon and was intrigued so I ordered a copy at about $50. They ran out of the first printing, the order was cancelled abruptly, and I kept going back to see if any were available ... second hand copies were selling for $100, $125, then $200, then $300 and more. I heard there was going to be a second printing somewhere around March. It appeared on Amazon for sale again, at $58, at the beginning of June. I placed an order. Two weeks later, they sent a notice that it was delayed until the end of August. I waited. I heard the books were now shipping ... but Amazon kept listing my book as "not shipped" and expected delivery by Sept 10. I did another search and found "The Book Depository" in the UK listing it as in stock with free shipping. Placed an order, received a shipping confirmation, and cancelled the order with Amazon . The book arrived yesterday.
It was worth the wait and the trouble. A fantastic retrospective of Sammallahti's work over a forty year span, beautifully presented and printed. 12x10" landscape format, about 256 pages in hardcover. Beautiful beautiful photographs ... landscape, people, all stunning black and white. Superb printing and design by Dewi Lewis Publishing. Give yourself a gift, while it's still available. Information below. :-) Godfrey - godfreydigio...@me.com http://www.bookdepository.com/Here%2C-Far-Away-Pentti-Sammallahti/9781907893261 "Full description for Here, Far Away Born in 1950 in Helsinki, Finland, from 1971 Sammallahti began to exhibit extensively in Finland and throughout the world. He is recognised as a master craftsman both in terms of the photographic print and also in mechanical printing methods. His own innovative printing techniques and his reintroduction of the portfolio form have been a major influence on published photographic art. Sammallahti taught at the University of Art and Design in Helsinki for 17 Years, until he received a 15-year artist's grant in 1991 from the Finnish government, an unusually long endowment. He had a solo exhibition at Paris for Mois de la Photographie in 1996 and another in 1998 at Houston Fotofest. In 2004, Henri Cartier-Bresson ranked Sammallahti amongst his favourite photographers in his Foundation's inaugural exhibition in Paris. In 2005 he was added to Robert Delpire's Photo Poche book series and also exhibited at the Arles International Photography Festival. As a teacher, Sammallahti has had an enor mous influence on a whole generation of documentary photographers in Scandinavia and since 1979, he has published thirteen books and portfolios and has received innumerable awards. His work is in many major international collections including the V&A, London; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris; Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam; Museum fur Kunst und Gewerbe, Hamburg; Moderna Museet / Fotografiska Museet, Stockholm; and The Finnish State Collections and the Photographic Museum of Finland." -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List PDML@pdml.net http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.