What ten books helped the @motherjonesmag photo department get through this turd of a year? Turns out three of our 2020 favorites were Best-of picks by @motherjonesphoto editor @ickibod ⁠⠀ ⁠⠀ @debicornwall 'Necessary Fictions' from @radius.books is an examination of "the mock villages and cities built on military bases around the United States with the idea of giving soldiers realistic training before landing in Iraq or Afghanistan. It’s a theater of the absurd, or a “necessary fiction…” It's a smart book. The photos are great, but all in all, as a book, it’s exceptional."⁠⠀ ⁠⠀ 'Chris Killip: The Station' from @steidlverlag "is notable for being the final book Chris Killip published before his death this year. It’s also notable for being thoroughly awesome—an in-the-pit look at small-town UK punk circa 1985… You can almost feel (and smell) the flesh and sweat and spikes and leather of the punks dancing to songs railing against Thatcher and Reagan. This work sat largely untouched for decades. Killip’s son found the contact sheets in 2016 and prodded his father to publish it."⁠⠀ ⁠⠀ @godlis Streets from @reelartpress "is more than a dizzy romp through a fantasized, fetishized New York. This is raw, exceptional street photography. It’s loose, but not overly so. It’s black and white and grainy, but not for effect. Godlis was a young man with a camera and wide open eyes taking in what he saw. F/16 vision. Taking it all in. It’s great to see Godlis get his due in this regard. If you happen to follow him on Instagram (you should), you’ve seen these photos and hoped for a book. Dreams do come true."⁠⠀ ⁠⠀ Read the full reviews via linkinbio.⁠⠀ ⁠⠀ #debicornwall #necessaryfictions #motherjonesbestphotobooks #chriskillip #thestation #godlis #godlisstreets⁠⠀ https://www.instagram.com/p/CJYppC-pzHW/?igshid=10dv4bjcn4zgr

Neighborhood around #université Paul Valéry #saintcharles is a twisty warren of gorgeous #golden stone buildings. Wonderful day of papers and readings from Greece, Cyprus, India, Paris, UK, Angiers, and more. International #shortstory conference in an appropriately repurposed 17th century hospital for the mad in Montpellier. #healing #art is #vital for #health #necessaryfiction is also #humblefiction. #EMMA #ENSFR https://ift.tt/2IZWpiZ

Woah. It recently came to our attention that conceptual documentary artist and former civil rights lawyer @debicornwall — shortlisted this week for a @rencontresarles 2020 Photo-Text Book Award — has been getting quite a lot of press for the shortlisted book, 'Necessary Fictions,' published by @radius.books⁠⠀ ⁠⠀ Some samples: ⁠⠀ ⁠⠀ "What stories we tell ourselves in the service of empire is a multi-faceted, many-layered concept that is difficult to attack, but Cornwall guides us to a sobering analysis of the machinery of policy by presenting deceptively simple imagery." @laweekly⁠⠀ ⁠⠀ "Alongside the images in the book is a huge amount of research, . . . and Debi also writes more personally about her own experiences with the players. . . This response is typical of Debi’s open and questioning approach to her art, which is part conceptual and part documentary . . . the book leaves a lot of room for interpretation." @itsnicethat⁠⠀ ⁠⠀ ". . . it’s hard country to photograph, featureless and dismal even at the sweet hours of dawn and dusk, which makes Debi Cornwall’s aptly titled photographic suite Necessary Fictions all the more remarkable," with "well-written text that accompanies her arresting photographs . . . Cornwall has a clear penchant for exploring the uncivil nature of the world in which men and women are paid to 'hurt people and break things' . . . preparing for real hell by means of real make-believe. Novelist Ben Fountain calls it the Fantasy Industrial Complex, and Debi Cornwall’s book is an extraordinary chronicle of its Disneyland." @lareviewofbooks⁠⠀ ⁠⠀ Read all reviews via linkinbio.⁠⠀ ⁠⠀ #debicornwall #necessaryfictions #atropia #wargames⁠⠀ ⁠⠀ ⁠⠀ ⁠⠀ ⁠⠀ https://www.instagram.com/p/CGfkzB-Jh9I/?igshid=1coni9xur55it

Debi Cornwall's 'Necessary Fictions' makes for interesting 9/11 reading⁠⠀ ⁠⠀ This beautifully produced volume by conceptual documentary artist and former civil rights lawyer Debi Cornwall investigates American military bases where role-players enact highly realistic training exercises in a fictional country called “Atropia.” Cornwall tells the following story. "In the years after September 11, an American friend of mine traveled for the first time to a Muslim country. Malaysia, maybe. Or Indonesia. He was awakened by the early-morning azan as muezzins around the city lifted their voices to call the faithful to prayer. It terrified him, he confided.⁠⠀ For all the mosques in the 'ville, I have never heard a call to prayer here. Five times a day, action does not stop. The faithful do not gather, wash, place their shoes outside, and kneel side by side to pray.⁠⠀ On my last rotation I encounter a fellow civilian, carrying a radio and a notepad. A consultant, he says. His job is to report back on how the scenarios play out, how realistic they are, where there is room for improvement.⁠⠀ 'If the 'ville is a stand-in for Afghanistan or Iraq,' I ask, 'why no call to prayer?' 'Interesting,' he replies, nodding. 'That's a good idea.'" ⁠⠀ ⁠⠀ Read more via linkinbio.⁠⠀ ⁠⠀ Please order from your local independent #bookstorehero — many have reopened or offer curbside pickup! Or order via linkinbio.⁠⠀⁠⠀ ⁠⠀ #debicornwall #necessaryfictions #911 #september11 @debicornwall @radius.books https://www.instagram.com/p/CE_8doLpBjc/?igshid=cwo81fnyxxn9

Images from 'Debi Cornwall: Necessary Fictions' launching today, Friday, September 4 at 5pm EST / 3pm MT as a Live Talk with Cornwall, Yasufumi Nakamori and Makeda Best. See linkinbio for details.⁠⠀ ⁠⠀ Made on ten military bases across the United States since 2016, 'Necessary Fictions' documents mock-village landscapes in the fictional country of “Atropia” and its denizens, roleplayers who enact versions of their past or future selves in realistic training scenarios.⁠⠀ ⁠⠀ Costumed Afghan and Iraqi civilians, many of whom have fled war, now recreate it in the service of the US military. Real soldiers pose in front of camouflage backdrops, dressed by Hollywood makeup artists in “moulage”—fake wounds—as they prepare to deploy.⁠⠀ ⁠⠀ Brooklyn-based conceptual documentary artist and former civil rights lawyer Debi Cornwall (born 1973) photographs this meta-reality—the artifice of war—presented in the book with a variety of texts to provoke critical inquiry about America’s fantasy industrial complex. The book includes an essay by PEN Award–winning critical theorist Sarah Sentilles.⁠⠀ ⁠⠀ Please order from your local independent #bookstorehero — many have reopened or offer curbside pickup! ⁠⠀ ⁠⠀ @radius.books @debicornwall @NakamoriYasufumi #debicornwall #necessaryfictions #radiusbooks #photobook #lannanfoundation #lwfp #furthermoregrantsinpublishing @artbook @nyfacurrent @harpofoundation @philacfeva @leica_fotografie_international @leicacamerausa @harvardartmuseums⁠⠀ ⁠#atropia⁠⠀ https://www.instagram.com/p/CEud_-YJ1dC/?igshid=n92e1feo6esj

'Debi Cornwall: Necessary Fictions' is the new book of conceptual documentary photographs from the author of 'Welcome to Camp America.'⁠⠀ ⁠⠀ Whereas her first book took us behind the scenes at Guantánamo Bay (GITMO) Naval Station, 'Necessary Fictions' presents photographs and documentation related to highly realistic role-playing exercises at American military training camps. A book that is provocative and fascinating in the revelatory strangeness of its subject alone, like all @radius.books this is also a beautiful piece of photobook publishing.⁠⠀ ⁠⠀ Features copious supporting primary text materials, several deluxe papers, exquisite printing, a bound-in booklet containing transcript from a 2009 training exercise gone awry, and an envelope containing studio portraits of soldiers dressed in "moulage," or fake wound makeup, for their roles as injured or deceased combatants. We learn that contemporary combat training includes not only exposure to "the visual stimulation of MST prosthetics," but scent oils that "simulate scents in the most unpleasant of scenarios." These include Decaying Flesh, Dead Body, Feces, Gunpowder, Burnt Flesh, Vomit, Urine and Car Bomb. Islamic prayer beads for Ramadan are sourced; authentic meals are cooked by Iraqi role-players; realistic remains are identified. "Cornwall's photographs demonstrate the paradox of this fictional mode," Makeda Best writes: "the photographs are not 'authentic' documents, but they are documents. They are documents of the fictions of this ongoing conflict and the fiction of photography as something that could tell us the truth about war." ⁠⠀ ⁠⠀ Text by Sarah Sentilles, Makeda Best, Nomi Stone, Roy Scranton.⁠⠀ ⁠⠀ Please order from your local independent #bookstorehero — many have reopened or offer curbside pickup! You can also order via linkinbio.⁠⠀ ⁠⠀⁠⠀ @debicornwall #debicornwall #necessaryfictions #militarytraining #militaryroleplay @makedabest @sarahsentilles @scrantonroy⁠⠀ ⁠⠀ https://www.instagram.com/p/CEuLyP4pGjH/?igshid=omxmgx2ev812

Tonight! Join Debi Cornwall for Philadelphia Photo Arts Center's Thursday Night Photo Talk at 7pm EST. The event is free! ⁠ From @philaphotoarts:⁠ "Debi Cornwall will preview her forthcoming book Necessary Fictions, ( @radius.books 2020) and multimedia installation exploring the performance of American power and identity in this militarized, post-9/11 era. In this time of perpetual war, constant vigilance, and political division, what are the games we play, the stories we tell, to manage unsettling realities? How are fictions deployed and embraced, and to what end?⁠ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⁠ Each Thursday at 7pm EST, PPAC will present a lecture by an award-winning, dynamic artist and journalist who uses photography to respond to current personal, political, and social issues."⁠ ⁠ @debicornwall @philaphotoarts⁠ #ThursdayNightPhotoTalk #DebiCornwall #necessaryfictions #radiusbooks https://www.instagram.com/p/CAdLIb1JHOz/?igshid=1xn4ces7rlvru

Congrats @debicornwall !! #Repost A happy surprise in yesterday’s mail: advance copies of #NecessaryFictions. Thrilled to see this new collaboration with @radius.books realized. And it’s also bittersweet: what to do with this object from before, this physical reminder of being on press in Verona, the freedom and joy in exploring, just before the world shut down? I haven’t brought myself to open it yet. In time, perhaps, it can be part of our new conversation. It asks, what are the stories we tell, the games we play, to manage unsettling realities? I’m so grateful to all of you who helped bring it into the world. #artbook @artbook @leicawomenfotoproject @nyfacurrent @philacfeva @harpofoundation https://www.instagram.com/p/B-zdhFtJhsH/?igshid=fzwq6uvod95k