Taking Shots: The Photography of William S. Burroughs

by Patricia Allmer, John Sears, Barry Miles (Contributor)

Marking the centenary of William S. Burroughs’s birth, this exciting book reproduces the celebrated writer’s many rarely seen photographs. Renowned and highly regarded for his experiments with literature, painting, film, and music, William S. Burroughs was also a prolific photographer. However, his photographic work, consisting of several thousand images, has so far received little critical attention or sustained public exposure. This book reproduces many previously unseen photographs and offers fascinating insights into his photographic practices. It also provides convincing evidence that his photos should be considered a significant aspect of his entire body of work. It includes portraits and self-portraits, location shots from his travels in Europe, the Americas, and North Africa, images of construction and demolition sites, and his individual and collaborative experiments with photomontage, assemblage, and collage. Essays by internationally acclaimed scholars of photography and of Burroughs’s work offer a variety of critical perspectives on his photographic oeuvre, examining its sources, methodologies, biographical contexts, influences, and purposes. Certain to appeal to his many devoted fans, this publication also coincides with a recent revival of critical and cultural interest in the 1960s art scene and the Beat Generation’s writers and artists.

Genres: Photography, Art

160 pages, Hardcover

First published January 25, 2014

Reviews

[Vicky "phenkos" · Rating 1 out of 5]

Mainly text, few photographs, not very good ones. Burroughs' collages might have been more interesting but the reproductions are too small. A book only suitable for hard-core Burroughs fans -- and I'm not one.

[Laurent De Maertelaer · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interessante catalogus van de expo 'Taking shots' in het Londense Photographer's Gallery 2 jaar terug. Een mooi aanbod beelden van Burroughs als fotograaf, grotendeels nooit eerder gepubliceerd, aangevuld met 7 essays, waaronder één van biograaf Barry Miles. Verrassend (de collages), leerrijk (de essays) en boeiend (de zelfportretten): een nieuwe, voor vele fans ongekende zijde van El hombre Invisible.

[Andrea · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lots of fairly dry and academic essays before I got to the actual pictures. I liked what Burroughs did with collage and it’s obvious to me that he had an artistic talent as well as a good eye. Interesting.

[Simon Sweetman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nice to find out all about Ol' Bull's photos and what a part of the process they were - good snaps and great essays to contextualise.