Julian Rothenstein 

In pictures: The Book of the Eye

Julian Rothenstein picks a selection of the most intriguing images in his new 'compendium of visual surprise'
  
  


Book of the Eye: Book of the Eye 2
The Redstone Book of the Eye opens with Kiyoshi Koishi's violent and dramatic image from his book with the wonderful title of Early Summer Nerves. Published in Japan in 1933, Koishi's modernist photographs radically disrupted the stifling conventions of the time.
Photograph: Kiyoshi Koishi Photograph: Kiyoshi Koishi/Action images
Book of the Eye: Book of the Eye
Like some of the blind people whose photographs are featured in the book, children also have a very different approach to photography and this photograph by Sally is so fresh and unexpected. There are so many things children can do, if only someone asks them to!
Photograph: Sally Photograph: Sally/Action images
Book of the Eye: Book of the Eye
This paradoxical eye-test chart is the work of Joan Brossa who made hundreds of brilliant works which he called visual poems. Brossa was a prolific Catalan poet, writer, artist, theatre director and magician. Photograph: Redstone Press
Book of the Eye: Book of the Eye
Who knew that Elizabeth Taylor was also a landscape painter?
Photograph: Redstone Press Photograph: Action images
Book of the Eye: Book of the Eye
Pictures like this one, by Chema Madoz, do not need captions.
Photograph: Chema Madoz Photograph: Chema Madoz/Redstone Press
Book of the Eye: Book of the Eye
I am currently working on a book about the blind and have become fascinated by how life can be lived without eyesight. A group of blind photographers were asked to make an image suggesting empathy and Marco Antonio Martinez created this perfect image: so simple.
Photograph: Marco Antonio Martinez Photograph: Marco Antonio Martinez/Redstone Press
Book of the Eye: Book of the Eye
Another blind photographer, Aaron Ramos, wrote that he was looking for a way to describe his condition and was looking for an object that had once had a life inside it but was now empty, and made this beautiful image of a snail, looking a bit like an eye…
Photograph: Aaron Ramos Photograph: Aaron Ramos/Redstone Press
 

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