Book of the day > Catherine Opie: 700 Nimes Road. Prestel. "The renowned photographer Catherine Opie takes on a challenging documentary project—an “indirect portrait” of Elizabeth Taylor through her home and possessions. One of America’s most celebrated living photographers, Catherine Opie works in series that are remarkably varied in both style and subject matter—from intimate portraits of the LGBTQ community to beautiful, nearly-abstract landscapes featuring icefishing houses. Expanding that astonishing range of subjects further is Opie’s ambitious recent series of photographs taken at the home of late movie star Elizabeth Taylor. Though glamour and celebrity are not common themes in her work, Opie was inspired by the possibilities this project offered—recalling William Eggleston’s series on Elvis Presley’s Graceland, or her own photographs of Obama’s 2008 inauguration, both of which represent indirect portraits of their subjects. The images in this moving collection were culled from photos Opie took over the course of six months, both on the grounds of and inside Taylor’s home. The subjects are wildly diverse—a dogeared remote control manual, closeups of Taylor’s enormous closets, shelves of tchotchkes and priceless works of art—telling more about Taylor’s life than any “celebrity” portrait ever could. Through Opie’s thoughtful curation, Taylor’s home tells a poignant story and reveals the arc of a fascinating life."

‘Throwback’ book of the day in honor of Linda McCartney’s birthday > Linda McCartney: Life in Photographs. Taschen. Collector’s Edition - Signed by Paul McCartney -  $3000.  Also available in the $39.99 trade edition. We have them both! “From her early rock ’n’ roll portraits, through the final years of The Beatles, via touring with Wings to raising four children with Paul, Linda captured her whole world on film. Her shots range from spontaneous family pictures to studio sessions with Stevie Wonder and Michael Jackson, as well as artists Willem de Kooning and Gilbert and George. Always unassuming and fresh, her work displays a warmth and a feeling for the precise moment that captures the essence of any subject. Whether photographing her children, celebrities, animals, or a fleeting moment of everyday life, she did so without pretension or artifice.”

Book of the day > This Is The House That Jack Built. Edited by Maja Hoffman. Text by Rirkrit Tiravanija. Photographs by François Halard. Steidl. “This book offers an insight into the private contemporary art and design collection of Maja Hoffmann. As Hoffmann enters a new, increasingly public phase of philanthropy embodied by the construction of her Frank Gehry designed, non-profit LUMA Foundation Center in Arles, she is encouraged to share part of her collection to reveal that living with art and amongst artists is a dynamic and sincere experience, as well as a harbor for dreams.

Here photographer François Halard and art director Beda Achermann have created a flow of images depicting very human environments, absent of people yet populated by their spirit. To complete the book, Rirkrit Tiravanija has chosen the British nursery rhyme This Is The House That Jack Built which is dispersed (in his custom-designed font) between the photos: slightly obsessive yet full of humor, the text removes any possible traces of vanity in the purpose of this publication and creates space for Hoffmann’s vision of the world as an extended “house”—a place for storytelling, family, and an ongoing exchange with artists and thinkers. “

Book of the day > Soviet Bus Stops. FUEL Publishing.  “Photographer Christopher Herwig first noticed the unusual architecture of Soviet-era bus stops during a 2002 long-distance bike ride from London to St. Petersburg. Challenging himself to take one good photograph every hour, Herwig began to notice surprisingly designed bus stops on otherwise deserted stretches of road. Twelve years later, Herwig had covered more than 18,000 miles in 14 countries of the former Soviet Union, traveling by car, bike, bus and taxi to hunt down and document these bus stops.
The local bus stop proved to be fertile ground for local artistic experimentation in the Soviet period, and was built seemingly without design restrictions or budgetary concerns. The result is an astonishing variety of styles and types across the region, from the strictest Brutalism to exuberant whimsy.
Soviet Bus Stops is the most comprehensive and diverse collection of Soviet bus stop design ever assembled, including examples from Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Ukraine, Moldova, Armenia, Abkhazia, Georgia, Lithuania, Latvia, Belarus and Estonia. Originally published in a quickly sold-out limited edition, Soviet Bus Stops, named one of the best photobooks of 2014 by Martin Parr, is now available in a highly anticipated, expanded smaller-format trade edition.”

Book of the day > Kevin Harry: KH Issue 2. @mrkevinharry. Just in:  Kevin Harry’s highly anticipated second issue of his fabulous eponymous ‘zine! This time featuring portraits from the 2014 Afro Punk Festival in Brooklyn. “I wanted to create a zine of portraits that celebrate people of color…our beauty, diversity, strength, style...our vibration. I have found that the people I photograph really appreciate being acknowledged, they appreciate being seen. Often, people will embrace me after I take their picture...saying ‘thank you’! What I really try to capture is a ‘come as you are’ spirit…My aim is to honor the people I'm photographing and to uplift the culture.”

Book of the day and Book Signing/Discussion/Reception tomorrow (Saturday, 9/12, 4-6)! Join us, please! > Thomas Demand: The Dailies. MACK. “Working within the parameters of his established technique, Thomas Demand created carefully formed paper and card sculptures, a parallel world which is photographed and then destroyed. The Dailies offers only traces – signs of consumption, or the spectres of things left behind. His creations are based on things he saw and photographs he took while travelling and walking the street. They show a world that is familiar but out of reach, like the dancing coloured pins on a clothesline, suspended somewhere between the overfamiliar and the hallucinatory – as if a chance apparition, glimpsed momentarily, before it vanishes into its habitat.

The images lure the viewer into a mirror world, a twin universe made only of paper. But the imperfect models are awash with discrepancies from actual things, and as such, they act as small ruptures that complicate the old indexical bond between a photograph and reality. Demand describes the series as Haiku poetry, simple fragments strung together to inspire reflection; they are the stock of our daily lives, but as they trigger deja vu through performed repetition, they ask us to look again, anew, to find in the repertoire an ordinary but redemptive beauty.”

Book of the day > Bread and a Dog – Natsuko Kuwahara. Phaidon. Featuring (as advertised) bread and dog, as well as recipes and the occasional cat. Have a great weekend!

Book of the day > Catherine Ceresole: Beauty Lies In The Eye. Edition Patrick Frey. “In 1979 Catherine Ceresole and her husband Nicolas moved to New York, where he was to begin training as an audio engineer. In truth, however, the couple went there because they were captivated by the city’s underground music scene. They soon became friendly with a number of musicians who Catherine began to photograph at concerts and in intimate settings. The result was a unique photographic documentary of the New York punk, no-wave and avant-garde music scene during its heyday. With her keen eye for dramatic moments, she captured them all on film: Sonic Youth, Lydia Lunch, Glenn Branca, Arto Lindsay, Christian Marclay, the Beastie Boys and many others. After they returned to Switzerland, Catherine Ceresole continued to photograph musicians and their bands — with an unfailing ear and keen eye. The book is a visual music history of the last decades, presenting the work of this unique photographer to a broad public for the first time.”

Book of the day > Piero Fornasetti: Practical Madness. Rizzoli. “An extensive illustrated survey of one of the most inventive design minds of the twentieth century. Combining whimsy and elegance, Piero Fornasetti transformed everyday objects like cups, scarves, and plates into much sought-after works of art with his idiosyncratic motifs, such as the hand, the female face, and luminescent fish. His dazzling pieces of trompe l’oeil furniture, created in collaboration with Gio Ponti, are also highly prized by collectors worldwide. 
Fornasetti’s boundless imagination is celebrated here in a book published to document a major retrospective exhibition at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris. The first half of the monograph is organized by type and includes Fornasetti’s paintings, drawings, and furniture. The second half focuses on favorite themes: his use of trompe l’oeil, architectural drawings, and his variations on the face of a famous operatic beauty. Featuring 400 illustrations covering almost fifty years of a protean and prolific designer and artist like no other, this is a must-have for Fornasetti connoisseurs and anyone interested in design.”

Book of the day > Bruce Davidson: Nature of Los Angeles 2008–2013. Steidl. "In 2008, Bruce Davidson, who had already photographed New York and Paris, began exploring Los Angeles with a focus on its exotic plant life. The arid climate, normally hostile to life, allows for an exceptional botanical diversity in L.A. County that reaches from the surrounding foothills and mountain wilderness to the Pacific Ocean, and Davidson quickly became a Los Angeles convert. "Traffic, wealth, poverty, violence and other urban phenomena give way to valiant plant life where ivy thrives on the underside of the 405 and Glendale Freeway interchanges, and a tree in the foothills regenerates itself after a wildfire has parched its bark," he writes. "Without its plant life and human respect for it, L.A. would be a vast desert void." Nature of Los Angeles 2008–2013 depicts the city in black and white, presenting its beauty and banality as emblematic of urban existence in general."