Family [Hardcover]

Lauren Dukoff (Author), Devendra Banhart (Foreword)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 3, 2009

For many years Lauren Dukoff has been photographing close friend and musician Devendra Banhart and an extended loose-knit international family of artists who share inspiration variously from folk Tropicalia and each other, as well as a range of other musical influences. This lovely hardcover album collects Dukoff's striking portraits and candid images of Banhart, Joanna Newsom, Bat for Lashes, Feathers, Espers, Vetiver, Bert Jansch, Vashti Bunyan, and many others individually and together in performance and more private spaces. The 150 full-bleed color and black and white photographs are complemented by a foreword by Banhart text and artwork by the musicians, artist biographies, and a digital download featuring songs by some of the artists in the book.

Read a Q&A with Photographer Lauren Dukoff and Singer-Songwriter Devendra Banhart

Devendra Banhart: Do you see any connection between Photography and Magic?

Lauren Dukoff: I remember the first time I looked through the lens of a camera, it felt magical. I was about 11 years old and I was in Bali with my family. I woke up really early one morning, due to the time change, and found my father out on the balcony photographing the sun rising over the ocean. He handed me his old 35mm camera and said “Lolo, take a look through this.” I panned the camera across the horizon and then pointed it at my father’s face and I got this overwhelming rush of excitement. Somehow everything looked even more beautiful when I looked at it through the camera lens. I guess things just seem more intense though the lens because you’re focusing all of your attention on the visual and putting your other senses momentarily to rest. I remember I thinking I never want this to end; I want to stay here forever. Even today, because I still shoot film, there’s always this element of surprise and mystery to the process. I don’t get to see my images right away on a screen, like you do with digital; I have to wait for my film to be processed. You never really know what's going to come out of a roll of film once it goes into the developer. When I get my film back from the lab it reminds me of the feeling of seeing a magician pull a 10-foot handkerchief from his pocket. Sometimes the results are not what I expected and I’m like, “Where did that come from?" But that's part of why I love to shoot film; that imperfection and unpredictability can be magical.

DB: Is the camera your friend? When you wake up in the morning, do you say something along the lines of "Hey pal! Good morning, how did you sleep? Good! It's gonna be a long day of takin’ pictures. Let's just try and have fun no matter what, OK?" to your camera?

LD: I guess in some ways my camera is like a friend—or maybe more like a companion that goes places with me and makes me feel like I’m not alone. It can make me feel braver, and give me a sense of purpose. I remember photographing Ramblin' Jack Elliott in our hotel room in Camber Sands England at ATP. He was performing right there in front of us and I just felt so nervous and awkward in his presence. I mean, this is a guy who learned how to play guitar from Woody Guthrie and influenced Bob Dylan! But when I held the camera up to my face, I felt a sense of calm and purpose being there in that room; I had a job, and that job was to document that beautiful moment. I'll never forget that night. At the same time, a camera is only a tool. The real magic is what happens between the photographer and his or her subjects. The tools you choose to use--which camera; which format; which type of film--all affect the outcome of the image and it's an evolving process of trying different combinations till you feel you've kind of found a style of your own. I've been told I have a distinct style, but I still feel like I'm still trying to figure it out. I want to keep learning and growing. In the end, it's the emotion and the connection you make with your subject that makes an interesting photo. You can buy all the fancy and expensive photography equipment in the world but it won't change the core purpose of your work, and for me that is to tell the story and express the emotion of a moment that has passed.

DB: Could you tell us a little bit about this book of yours that Chronicle is putting out?

LD: It's called Family. As you know, we tried out all sorts of different titles and you even helped me brainstorm for other ideas, but Family was the only title that really explained the experiences I had taking these photos, and the feelings I get when I think about all of the artists in the book and their relationships with one another. I've done hundreds of photo shoots, but I've never experienced as much warmth and kindness as I did when I was shooting the people in Family. Some of the artists--like you and Matteah [Baim] and Isabelle [Albuquerque]--were already close friends and practically family, but there were other people who I’d never even met before but who still welcomed me into their most intimate spaces: living rooms, bedrooms, recording studios, and favorite secret spots. From Vashti Bunyan's kitchen in Edinburgh to Natasha Khan's bedroom in Brooklyn to the Feathers' favorite riverbank in Brattleboro, Vermont, I was accepted with open arms and treated like an old friend or even well, family.

DB: Do you know how much I love you and think yer the best photographer ever?

LD: Yup! Do you know how much I love you and think you are the best subject, muse, friend, and musician ever. I sure hope you do.

Take a Look Inside Family
(Click on Images to Enlarge)

Family at the Beach (L. Dukoff)	Devendra Banhart (L. Dukoff)	Johanna (L. Dukoff)

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Lauren Dukoff's photographs have been featured in a wide range of publications and projected at L.A.'s Armand Hammer Museum. She lives in Los Angeles.

Devendra Banhart is a musician and artist whose most recent album is Smokey Rolls Down Thunder Canyon. He lives in Los Angeles.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

The Introduction to Family by Lauren Dukoff

When I was fourteen years old my father gave me my first camera, a Canon 35mm. I carried it around everywhere I went and I took pictures incessantly. As soon as I had the camera, I wanted to take pictures of people. I wasn’t interested in taking the sorts of pictures that my father, a photographer, was pursuing (abstractions, still lifes, quietly serious images of trees or mountains), and maybe this was in part simply an adolescent urge to go in an opposite direction, but for me when I pointed my lens at a beautiful landscape I felt no sense of excitement or urge to snap away. On the other hand, when I aimed it at a person, I felt as if there was a whole story happening within my frame. A life story—real or imagined—being told with every nuance of expression and every line on a person’s face. That’s where my passion for taking pictures started to grow from.

Later that year, I wrote an essay on J.D. Salinger’s Nine Stories for my high school freshman English class. My teacher, Mrs. Gonzalez, said that my writing reminded her of another student of hers, a senior named Devendra. I started spending my lunch hours in Mrs. Gonzalez’s classroom, and I guess it was no coincidence that Devendra and his friend Isabelle Albuquerque also spent their lunch hours there. I would read and draw in a sketchbook, and one day Devendra walked over from the other side of the room and said he’d like to see what I was working on.

He was extremely magnetic and charming, and I felt that he and Isabelle were the most beautiful people I’d ever met. At first I wasn’t sure what I could possibly contribute. Why were they interested in me? They were four years older, and I felt out of my league, even though at school they were actually on the furthest outer rim of the usual social structure.

Soon, Devendra, Isabelle, and I started to spend many afternoons together riding into the city and wandering the streets. It was then that I began to photograph Devendra and all his friends. The photos were never posed; instead they were simple documentations of our adolescent adventures: shots of trips to the Getty Museum, photographs of Devendra and Isabelle in their backyards, a shot of Devendra through the rearview mirror taken from the back seat, images taken on city buses. These were my first photos.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 192 pages
• Publisher: Chronicle Books (June 3, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0811866629
• ISBN-13: 978-0811866620
• Product Dimensions: 11 x 9 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.8 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (59 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #97,566 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #98 in Books > Arts & Photography > Photography > Collections, Catalogues & Exhibitions

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Beautiful book captures the moments and life of The Family, December 17, 2009

By 

bsg2004 - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Family (Hardcover)

(What's this?)

The core audience of this book may be people who are fans of the artists, but if you are not, or if you have not heard of these artists, you may also enjoy this book as an artistic endeavor. Fear not, the book introduces these artists to us in many different ways. I was not familiar with these artists before the book, so my review is from that perspective...

The photographer, Lauren Dukoff, produced a photo-album - capturing the moments and the life of a group of musicians - the Family. In this particular case, the photographer herself is also part of the Family, which makes this book an even more intimate and in-depth look at the musicians and personalities. Obviously, if you are familiar with the artists, you can have a better appreciation of the different photographs, scenes and expressions.

There are different types of photographs in the book - performance shots, portrait-style photos, and snapshots of life and the fleeting moment. There is black and white, there is color, there is reflection, spontaneity, costumes, emotion, and a few pictures that capture "the moment".

The book also includes instructions on how to download eight mp3 songs from the artists in the book - this is a great idea for non-fans, as they can get a sampling of the featured artists. A smart thing to do!

The book itself, from a book-perspective is beautifully crafted, with a foreword by Devendra, and an introduction by Lauren who gives us the background story and introduces the artists to us. The main "dish" are the photographs themselves, sprinkled with artwork from the artists themselves.

At the end of the book, we find plenty more: poetry from the artists, bios for all artists featured in the book, and a list of all the photographs shown, in thumbnail format, mentioning where each picture was taken and who is featured in the picture. This is very helpful if you are not intimately familiar with the artist.

All the photographs were taken with film cameras, as the photographer prefers to use that medium over the convenience of digital. And this is perhaps evident in the pictures, as film is a better suited format for capturing the mood and emotion of this beautifully crafted book.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Deadhouseplants' Review: Family, July 7, 2009

By 

Singed Phoenix "Singed Phoenix" (Tualatin, Oregon) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Family (Hardcover)

(What's this?)

I remember being a child, and one of my favorite things to do was to go through my mom's record collection. Mostly to listen to the music she collect, but also to just sit in front our fireplace and look at the visual images contained on and within that 12 by 12 inch cardboard square. It gave me a greater connection not only to the music, but to the artist, and in some cases, the time period my mother lived in. I was a child of the 80's who grew up on music from the 60's. Which brings us to the here and now, and the scope of today's music. With most music coming in a digital form, so goes the ability to connect to artists via visual representation. You download a song, and if you're lucky, you get a jpeg image of an overly marketed and researched piece of "art." You don't get to see the images of your musician on the road, at home, in the studio. You lose that connection to an artist and their music. One could debate if that is why today's music has very little value to it, because listeners don't have that connection.

Enter in "Family," by Lauren Dukoff. The best way to describe this book isn't as a photography book per se. Instead, consider it a 192 page album cover/CD booklet. You get a view of these artists in a candid setting. They rarely pose for the photos, so you might see how they interact with one another, or their behavioral mannerism. Just as you would come to expect from an album cover/CD booklet, but there is more to this book that just that. Okay, so let me break down this book...

I don't know what I can say about the photos. I'm a photographer myself, and I have opinions on critiquing others' works. I just don't do it. Art is art, and art is a representation of what one thinks, feels, or expresses. How do you criticize an emotion? The best I can offer in the sense of an opinion is if you want some examples of a certain style of photography, then this book is excellent to have in your library. Yeah, there are a couple photos one could question as being bad, such as the lack of good exposure on the "Spleen" photo. However, I have seen worse photos suffering from the same problem, and everyone but I called them genius. So what do I know? To me, my favorite photo is of "Priestbird" and a standoff with a goat. Just the color, the texture, and the limitless abilities of finding a story to go along with that image make it stand out.

Next are the literary portions of the book. You have a compelling forward written by Devendra Banhart, followed by a candid introduction from Lauren Dukoff. Following the photography portion are a collection of poems or monologues by the different subjects. Like I said before, if you think of this book in the context as an album cover/CD booklet, then this collection of writing is a pure delight for a fan of these artists. I'm a Motown kid who grew up in Humboldt County. So while I may not connect with the artist or their music. I know people who would, and understand their views. Following the collection of writings are biographies of the subjects. Again: album cover/CD booklet. With an epilogue of acknowledgements and a glossary/index of each photo and the subjects photographed. The final bonus of this book would have to be the inclusion of free digital downloads. Just in case you don't know who these artists are, and you want to get a better connection to them and their music. The web address and code to download the songs are located on the second to last page of this finely crafted book.

Okay, now you're asking, if everything I have said is so positive, why am I giving it four stars? It's a great book, if you think of it in the context that I have lamented over and over again of it being an album cover. However, for me, as an individual, I can't say it's perfect for me. It's a great book, and I'm sure for a collection of people out there it is a treasured find. If anything, this book may be just that to me, the perfect obscure gift to certain friends who I know would enjoy this book. All in all, it's a great book, full of eclectic images and insightful information about other artist I knew nothing about.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars manages to create a larger, more thought-provoking narrative, July 24, 2009

By 

A - See all my reviews

This review is from: Family (Hardcover)

Photo books of musicians or music scenes are tricky business. Too often, these tomes come across as either lifeless documents of some alien world to which the reader has no relatable context, or they function as vaguely voyeuristic glimpses into the lives of those who are lauded as heroes. The pictures of Lauren Dukoff's Family, however, attempt something greater in scope than simple documentation of moments in time. In Dukoff's photos of Devendra Banhart, fellow musicians, and friends, the photographer strives to connect her subjects through their like-minded spirituality, musical ideology, and overall appreciation of art that, in turn, make them "family." The images are of the intimate sort, whether they be of Banhart overlooking the beautifully greenery outside his home/studio in Topanga, CA, Bat For Lashes' Natasha Kahn putting on makeup in her Brooklyn, NY home, or Vashti Bunyan holding an acoustic guitar and laughing. These pictures not only pick up on the humanity of their subjects, but also tie together the musical and artistic threads that bind them. And in this sense, Dukoff succeeds in documenting the "family" she envisions, and manages to create a larger, more thought-provoking narrative.

By Frank Valish