Folk Photography

A penetrating analysis of the real-photo postcard phenomenon of the early 1900s. These cards depict the now vanished world of small-town America, but also represent a pivotal stage in the evolution of photography. Their head-on style inherits something of the plain aesthetic of the Civil War photographers, while anticipating the great 1930s documentary artists such as Walker Evans. Fusing his skills as a chronicler of early 20th-century America, a historian of photography and a keen critic, Sante shows how these postcards offer a revealing 'self-portrait of the American nation'.

A revised and expanded new edition of Lucy Sante's classic history of the real-photo postcard, with 130 images and a new afterword. In rural America at the beginning of the twentieth century, the worldwide postcard craze coincided with the spread of light, cheap photographic equipment. The result was the real-photo postcard, so-called because the cards were printed in darkrooms rather than on litho presses, usually in editions of a hundred or fewer, the work of amateurs and professionals alike. They were not intended for tourists, but as a medium of communication for the residents of small towns, isolated on the plains and in the hills. The cards document everything about their time and place, from intimate matters to events that qualified as news. They show people from every walk of life and the whole panorama of human activity: eating, sleeping, labor, worship, animal husbandry, amateur theatrics, barn-raising, spirit-rapping, dissolution, riot, disaster, death. Uncountable millions of them were made in the peak years, 1905 to 1912. The 123 postcards reproduced in this book cover the vast range of subjects encompassed by the medium-sometimes lyrical, sometimes bracingly harsh-and Lucy Sante's penetrating analysis places them in their full historical and artistic context. She argues that the cards were a medium of expression very much like the folk music being made in the same places at the same time-open to the complete and unvarnished experience of life and enacting tradition even as they embody modernity. They also represent a crucial stage in the evolution of photography-they are the essential link between the plain style of the Civil War photographers and the vision of the great midcentury documentarians, above all Walker Evans. Combining her gifts as a chronicler of early twentieth-century America, a historian of photography, and a peerless critic, Sante shows how the "vast, teeming, borderless body of work" constituted by these postcards adds up to a "self-portrait of the American nation."

A modern refresh of an age-old craft! Author Libby Moore teaches basic embroidery stitches and how to choose materials, and shares original patterns with easy-to-remove perforated pages. Thread Folk Includes: • 15 embroidery projects • Step-by step instructions & modern patterns • 14 different stitches, from straight stitch to lazy daisy • Techniques to stitch on clothes, shoes, tote bags, and pillows Thread Folk also features Artist Collaborations, a series of projects based on the curated artwork of several distinctive, talented artists, including clothing designer Audrey Smit, and illustrators Alli Koch and Lauren Merrick. Materials Used: • Thread (Embroidery Floss or Metallic Thread) • Fabric (Quilting Cotton or Calico) • Embroidery Hoop • Embroidery Needle • Embroidery Scissors • Needle Minder

“A fabulous book! . . . If you enjoy tiny, detailed projects that allow for lots of creativity and personal handiwork, I cannot recommend this book enough!” —Feeling Stitchy Salley Mavor’s book Felt Wee Folk inspired tens of thousands to handcraft dolls from simple materials. Now, she invites you to return to the wee world with Felt Wee Folk—New Adventures, starring 120 dolls to spark smiles and creativity. As requested by fans, this long-awaited follow-up shares more challenging projects. Explore fresh scenes and an array of new outfits, hairstyles, and accessories, with full-sized patterns. Make bendable dolls that resemble you, your family, or your favorite fairy-tale characters with wool felt, chenille stems, and decorative stitching. Display the figures in a dollhouse, atop a wedding cake, or in a holiday scene to be cherished year after year. From the pages of Mavor’s award-winning children’s books to your home, the enchanting wee folk dolls appeal to crafters of all ages and skill levels. More dolls, more scenes, and more outfits Use your stash—wool felt, chenille stems, and simple embellishments Delightful, challenging projects, as requested by fans Felt Wee Folk was a Foreword Reviews’ GOLD WINNER for Crafts & Hobbies “While the original book included projects beyond Wee Folk dolls, the new volume focuses on the dolls themselves. Fairies and families, kings and knights, and even some not-too-scary pirates all grace the pages of the book, beckoning readers to at least admire, if not try to create, Wee Folk of their own.” —The Enterprise (Cape Cod)

A Foreword Reviews’ GOLD WINNER for Crafts & Hobbies. “If you enjoy felt sculpting, doll making, or fun fabric embellishment, check out Felt Wee Folk!” —Needle ’n Thread Salley Mavor’s charming, bendable Wee Folk fairies and dolls are real show-stoppers. Learn to create your own tiny figures and accessories using wool felt, chenille stems, simple embellishments, and Salley’s new step-by-step guide. Take your work along with you anywhere—no sewing machine needed! 18 complete Wee Folk projects feature dolls, pins, purses, checkbook and cell phone covers, pillows, and scenic backdrops Techniques include appliqué, embroidery, thread wrapping, and painting, plus add your own buttons, beads, natural materials, and “found objects” Ideal for dollmakers, quilters, and embroiderers of every skill level “The projects in this book will tempt us all to the needle and felt . . . Thank you for a wonderful book about the doll form and its application in miniature.” —Elinor Peace Bailey, author of Storytelling with Dolls “An inspiring hands-on book that awakens us to the beauty and magic of the forest, and encourages us to pick up our needles and create.” —Ruth M. Keessen, publisher of Soft Dolls & Animals, Contemporary Doll Collector, and Miniature Collector magazines

For fifty years, music fans, hippies, artists, and songwriters have converged each spring on Quiet Valley Ranch in the Texas Hill Country. They are drawn by the thousands to the annual Kerrville Folk Festival, a weeks-long gathering of musical greats and ordinary people living in an intentional community marked by radical acceptance and the love of song. At the festival, David Johnson is known as Photo Dave, the guy who lugs around a large-format camera and captures the moments that make Kerrville special. It Can Be This Way Always collects eighty images from the past decade. Portraits of attendees and volunteers accompany scenes of stage performances, campfire jam sessions, and vans repurposed into coffee stands. In these images we see the temporary, makeshift world that festivalgoers create, a place where eccentricities are the norm and music is the foundation of friendship and unity. “It can be this way always” is a popular saying at Kerrville: simultaneously optimistic and wistful like a good folk song—or a photograph from your best life.

A thrilling new voice in fiction injects the absurd into the everyday to present a startling vision of modern life, “[as] if Kafka and Camus and Bradbury were penning episodes of Black Mirror” (Chang-Rae Lee, author of My Year Abroad). “Stories so sharp and ingenious you may cut yourself on them while reading.”—Kelly Link, author of Get In Trouble With a focus on the weird and eerie forces that lurk beneath the surface of ordinary experience, Kate Folk’s debut collection is perfectly pitched to the madness of our current moment. A medical ward for a mysterious bone-melting disorder is the setting of a perilous love triangle. A curtain of void obliterates the globe at a steady pace, forcing Earth’s remaining inhabitants to decide with whom they want to spend eternity. A man fleeing personal scandal enters a codependent relationship with a house that requires a particularly demanding level of care. And in the title story, originally published in The New Yorker, a woman in San Francisco uses dating apps to find a partner despite the threat posed by “blots,” preternaturally handsome artificial men dispatched by Russian hackers to steal data. Meanwhile, in a poignant companion piece, a woman and a blot forge a genuine, albeit doomed, connection. Prescient and wildly imaginative, Out There depicts an uncanny landscape that holds a mirror to our subconscious fears and desires. Each story beats with its own fierce heart, and together they herald an exciting new arrival in the tradition of speculative literary fiction.

Much has changed in the world of self-taught art since the millennium. Many of the recognized "masters" have died and new artists have emerged. Many galleries have closed but few new ones have opened, as artists and dealers increasingly sell through websites and social media. The growth and popularity of auction houses have altered the relationship between artists and collectors. In its third edition, this book provides updated information on artists, galleries, museums, auctions, organizations and publications for both experienced and aspiring collectors of self-taught, outsider and folk art. Gallery and museum entries are organized geographically and alphabetically by state and city.