Performance (Abrams, October 2008, U.S. $75, CAN $85 (U.S.), HC 205 full-color illustrations, 304 pages w/gatefold)
More than 200 celebrities and artists are featured in this book that features many never-before-seen images by Avedon. The names are familiar: Chaplin, Brando, Monroe, Sinatra, Cher, Dylan. With text by John Lahr, Mike Nichols, André Gregory, Mitsuko Uchida, and Twyla Tharp, Performance may rank as one of the best in this genre, a table top book of incredible and compelling portraits, that show the subjects in unique situations. Here we see Sophia Loren whipping her hair behind her in 1970, and here's Judi Dench in make-up cream (1997). The foot of Rudolph Nureyev, in 1967, may be the best of the lot. This is a keeper! (tba)

The Sadness of Men (Quantuck Lane Press, New York, 2008, $45 (U.S.) HC)
There is something at once ethereal and elusive about the images in this book.Yet, it is not difficult to figure out how the title came about. There is a stillness, a sort of detachment that Philip Perkis has come to use so well in his photographic career. Even in one of his most populated pictures (page 125), that of a clown, there are shadowy figures milling about, each in his own world, a one-act play with a dozen parts; is the curtain going up or down? (tba)
"In his new book, Perkis’ people often have a somnambulant quality. They are not ghosts exactly. Yet they seem to be going through motions that they can’t quite prevent, as though hypnotized by the dazzle nearby or, more often, caught in the quicksand of memories, daydreams, and quiet desperations. 'What are they missing?' we wonder." (Michael More)