Photography:The Thames & Hudson Photofile series has been one of the glories of photographic publishing for nearly two decades. These little pocket-sized volumes, elegantly produced, each carrying some 60 duotone images, were an introduction in miniature to the work of most of the world's greatest photographers.
The series is now being relaunched, in the same format but with colour covers - the originals were a uniform and slightly forbidding black - and with introductions by various hands.
Three previously published titles have just been reissued - Man Ray, introduced by Merry A Foresta; Henri Cartier-Bresson, introduced by Michael Brenson; and Helmut Newton, introduced by Karl Lagerfeld - along with four new titles: Bill Brandt, Josef Koudelka, Sabastião Salgado, and Elliott Erwitt, the last introduced by the photographer himself in typically witty style ("Thanks to Benito Mussolini, I'm an American"), while four further volumes, on Araki, André Kertész, Don McCullin and Walker Evans, will appear in the autumn.
These are wonderful books, and together the series makes for a comprehensive overview of world photography. And at £8.97 each, they are remarkable value. Take a look at the Elliott Erwitt volume - funny, playful, sexy, and touched throughout with a sweet melancholy - and you will be hooked on Photofile.