Walker, Todd. Todd Walker Photographs. Untitled 38.

Friends of Photography, 1985. ISBN 0-933286-42-2. Issued at $20. Near fine in illustrated wraps, as issued. Only edition.  First edition, first printing. Photographically illustrated stiff wrappers; no dust jacket as issued. Photographs by Todd Walker. Introduction by Julia K. Nelson. 34 four-color plates. 10-3/8 x 9 inches.  Introduction by Julia K. Nelson.  47 pages.  Walker’s manipulated photographs, most in color.  Many of the subjects are female nudes.  Summary:

Todd Walker: Photographs (1985), published by The Friends of Photography as Untitled 38 in their highly regarded monograph series, is a definitive mid-career retrospective of American photographer and master printmaker Todd Walker. Edited by James Alinder and featuring an insightful introductory essay by art historian Julia K. Nelson, this 47-page book chronicles Walker's departure from conventional commercial practice into the vanguard of alternative process photography.

The Philosophy: Defying the Straight Aesthetic

Having spent decades as a highly successful commercial and Hollywood studio photographer, Walker completely pivot-shifted in the late 1960s to reject the prevailing "straight photography" aesthetic championed by West Coast purists. Untitled 38 serves as a visual record of Walker's belief that the negative was not the final destination, but merely a starting blueprint for endless mechanical and chemical manipulation.

Key Artworks and Technical Innovation

The volume is illustrated with 34 meticulously reproduced four-color plates, capturing Walker’s work from 1968 to 1983. The monograph highlights his mastery over forgotten or modified print mediums:

• Solarization & Sabattier Effects: The portfolio displays his early experimental figure studies, transforming human anatomy into shimmering, metallic shapes through light reversals during development.

• Photo-Silkscreens & Lithography: Walker transferred his imagery onto offset printing presses and screen-printing beds. The book documents how he overlaid separate color separations (often mixing primary tones arbitrarily) to create painterly, textured, and graphic transformations of standard photographs.

• Digital Genesis (Computer-Generated Imagery): Demonstrating his forward-thinking nature, the final sections of the book showcase Walker’s early 1980s experiments with digital imaging, capturing his move toward using early computer monitors and digital dot matrices to manipulate pixels long before digital photography became the industry standard.

Book Production Standards

Though Walker was famous for creating his own self-published, small-run artists' books on personal press beds, Untitled 38 represents a rare, widely distributed monograph. To honor Walker's legacy as a graphic designer, the publication was produced to his exacting, self-imposed press standards, featuring vibrant, high-fidelity offset lithography on heavy, premium paper stock.

Significance

Untitled 38 is a crucial reference work for scholars of late-20th-century photo-printmaking. By collecting his solarized nudes, vibrant silkscreens, and early computer images under one cover, The Friends of Photography successfully solidified Todd Walker's legacy not merely as a picture-taker, but as a pioneering visual alchemist who bridged the gap between fine art, printmaking, and technology.