I was pleased to see L’Oeil de la Photographie‘s Tribute to Charles Harbutt who died last June, published today. I’ve written many times, both before his death and in on this site in an article last year written to mark his passing about his contribution to photography, concentrating on its effect on photography in the UK and on me personally.
L’Oeil’s (it now prefers to be called ‘The Eye of Photography’ in ‘Anglo-Saxon’ countries, probably because many Americans have a problem with anything Frenchified other than fries) piece is short, but brings together a number of links, appears to have been prompted by the news that the Peter Fetermann gallery in Santa Monica has acquired a portion of his estate. You will find some of his pictures on their site as well as a page on his last book, Departures and Arrivals, still available new in the UK for around £20 (though you can pay up to up to £80 from some overseas booksellers.) It is better printed than his first and most influential volume, Travelog, which contains most of the better images from the later volume but now costs ten times as much.
While you are on the L’Oiel site, the ‘About‘ page, which features an interview with its founder Jean-Jacques Naudet makes interesting reading. There is also now a Chinese version of L’Oeil, (is it called 作者?) though it appears to be almost entirely in English, with the exception of some titles and the occasional spot of French.
You can learn more about Harbutt on some of the links cited in L’Oeil, and in those on my post last year. I’d particularly recommend the Visura portfolio, still on line though sadly the magazine is not currently being published.