Book of the Day Posted Nov 13, 2021

Book of the Day > William Eggleston: The Outlands

● Purchase ● A luxurious three-volume box set of previously unseen images from the 1960s and 1970s by the father of American color photography The three volumes of The Outlands are drawn from photographs that William Eggleston (born 1939) made on color transparency film from 1969 to 1974, which formed the basis for John Szarkowski’s seminal exhibition of Eggleston’s work at the Museum of Modern Art in New York in 1976 with the accompanying book William Eggleston’s Guide. However, with the exception of a couple of alternate versions, none of the photographs in The Outlands have been published previously.
 
The result is revelatory. Starting at almost the exact point on the same street in suburban Memphis where Eggleston made his famous photograph of a tricycle, the work follows a route through the back roads to old Mississippi where he was raised. What is disclosed is a sublime use of pure color hovering in semi-detachment from the forms he records. At the time, Eggleston was photographing a world that was already vanishing. Today, this final installment of his color work offers a view of a great American artist discovering the range of his visual language and an unforgettable document of the Deep South in transition.
Book of the Day Posted Nov 12, 2021

Book of the Day > Janette Beckman: Rebels – From Punk to Dior

● Purchase ● Janette Beckman and Drago Publishing are proud to present ‘Rebels: From Punk to Dior,’ the first-ever monograph from the British-born, New York-based photographer. Covering four decades of photography the book serves as a stunning snapshot of Beckman’s significance in the world of art, photojournalism, music, fashion, and popular culture – but most prevalently, it’s a testament of her unique ability to extract beauty from the outliers of society. With written contributions from Beckman’s peers including academia’s Jason King, Chair of NYU’s Clive Davis Institute of Recorded Music & Vivien Goldman Author & Professor at NYU; journalists Vikki Tobak, and co-founder of PAPER, Kim Hastreiter; visual artist Cey Adams; music legends Sting, Run DMC, Paul Weller, Salt-n-Pepa, Belinda Carlisle, and Slick Rick; and fashion’s Dapper Dan, Dior’s Maria Grazia Chiuri, Levi’s Chad Hinson – From Punk to Dior showcases Janette Beckman’s influence in her realm. In addition to publishing five books, Janette Beckman’s work has been exhibited in galleries worldwide and is included in the permanent collections of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, the Museum of the City of New York, and the British National Portrait Gallery. She is represented by the Fahey Klein Gallery.

Book of the Day Posted Nov 11, 2021

Book of the Day > Gilles Peress: Whatever You Say, Say Nothing

● Purchase ● A long-awaited, multivolume “documentary fiction” of photographs and documents portraying the Northern Ireland conflict
 
In 1972, at the age of 26, Gilles Peress (born 1946) photographed the British Army’s massacre of Irish civilians on Bloody Sunday. In the 1980s he returned to the North of Ireland, intent on testing the limits of visual language and perception to understand the intractable conflict. Whatever You Say, Say Nothing, a work of “documentary fiction,” organizes a decade of photographs across 22 fictional “days” to articulate the helical structure of history during a conflict that seemed like it would never end—days of violence, of marching, of riots, of unemployment, of mourning.
 
Accompanying each copy is Annals of the North, a text-and-image almanac to Whatever You Say, Say Nothing, also published separately by Steidl this season; the books are housed together in a tote bag.
 
Held back for 30 years and now eagerly anticipated, Whatever You Say, Say Nothing takes the language of documentary photography to its extremes.
Book of the Day Posted Nov 09, 2021

Book of the Day > *SIGNED* 2022 Calendar - Ed Templeton

● Purchase ● For the annual Deadbeat Club Calendar, we called on our friend Ed and told him to have fun with it. What he designed is 12 glorious months of classic Templeton color washes, doodles, custom lettering and other personal touches to accompany some of your fav Tempster photos. Here's wishing you a happy, healthy and friend-filled 2022, from your buds Ed Templeton and Deadbeat Club.
Book of the Day Posted Nov 06, 2021

Book of the Day > Patrick Kelly: Runway of Love

● Purchase ● Patrick Kelly (1954–1990) was known for his bold, bright, and joyful fashion creations that resonated in the streets and nightclubs and on the runways of New York, Paris, and beyond. The first American and the first Black designer to be admitted to the governing body of the French fashion industry, Kelly boasted celebrity couture clients including Madonna, Cicely Tyson, and Gloria Steinem. His designs are distinguished by a combination of playful aesthetics and a willingness to brazenly foreground race and heritage and push cultural boundaries, including racial tropes like golliwogs, or Black baby dolls.

 

Generously illustrated with hundreds of images of runway photography, garments on mannequins, and never-before-published archival materials, this book is an unprecedented exploration of Kelly’s influential career, which was tragically cut short by complications from AIDS. More than 80 of Kelly’s most beloved works are featured alongside thoughtful essays focusing on his work in relationship to French fashion, Queer identity, Black identity, and his exuberant runway shows. Also featured is a detailed timeline decorated with archival photographs and drawings, making this volume the definitive resource on Kelly’s life and work.

Book of the Day Posted Nov 05, 2021

Book of the Day > Bryant Terry: Black Food

● Purchase ● A beautiful, rich, and groundbreaking book exploring Black foodways within America and around the world, curated by food activist and author of Vegetable Kingdom Bryant Terry.
 
In this stunning and deeply heartfelt tribute to Black culinary ingenuity, Bryant Terry captures the broad and divergent voices of the African Diaspora through the prism of food. With contributions from more than 100 Black cultural luminaires from around the globe, the book moves through chapters exploring parts of the Black experience, from Homeland to Migration, Spirituality to Black Future, offering delicious recipes, moving essays, and arresting artwork.
 
As much a joyful celebration of Black culture as a cookbook, Black Food explores the interweaving of food, experience, and community through original poetry and essays, including “Jollofing with Toni Morrison” by Sarah Ladipo Manyika, “Queer Intelligence” by Zoe Adjonyoh, “The Spiritual Ecology of Black Food” by Leah Penniman, and “Foodsteps in Motion” by Michael W. Twitty. The recipes are similarly expansive and generous, including sentimental favorites and fresh takes such as Crispy Cassava Skillet Cakes from Yewande Komolafe, Okra & Shrimp Purloo from BJ Dennis, Jerk Chicken Ramen from Suzanne Barr, Avocado and Mango Salad with Spicy Pickled Carrot and Rof Dressing from Pierre Thiam, and Sweet Potato Pie from Jenné Claiborne. Visually stunning artwork from such notables as Black Panther Party creative director Emory Douglas and artist Sarina Mantle are woven throughout, and the book includes a signature musical playlist curated by Bryant.
 
With arresting artwork and innovative design, Black Food is a visual and spiritual feast that will satisfy any soul.
Book of the Day Posted Nov 04, 2021

Book of the Day > Lennart Anderson: A Retrospective

● Purchase ● This is the most comprehensive publication to date on the painter Lennart Anderson (1928-2015). Anderson was described by the New York Times as one of the “most prominent and admired painters to translate figurative art into a modern idiom.” John Yau calls Anderson a “masterful colorist whose sensitivity to tonality and to tonal groupings is unrivaled,” and Hilton Kramer succinctly wrote that Anderson was a “Degas of our time.” This illustrated and scholarly publication pairs more than fifty full color reproductions of work, some never seen before, with essays by leading contemporary painters and art historians.
Book of the Day Posted Nov 02, 2021

Book of the Day > Lewis Miller: Flower Flash

● Purchase ● From Lewis Miller, the celebrated floral designer and “flower bandit” himself, an intimate and joyous behind-the-scenes look at his signature flower flashes as they introduced bright moments of natural beauty into the city when they were needed most.
 
Before dawn one morning in October 2016, renowned New York-based floral designer Lewis Miller stealthily arranged hundreds of brightly colored dahlias, carnations, and mums into a psychedelic halo around the John Lennon memorial in Central Park. The spontaneous floral installation was Miller’s gift to the city—an effort to spark joy during a difficult time. Nearly five years and more than ninety Flower Flashes later, these elaborate flower bombs—bursts of jubilant blooms in trash cans, over bus canopies, on construction sites and traffic medians—have brought moments of delight and wonder to countless New Yorkers and flower lovers everywhere, and earned Miller a following of dedicated fans and the nickname the “Flower Bandit.”
 
After New York City entered lockdown, Miller doubled down, creating Flower Flashes outside hospitals to express gratitude to frontline health workers and throughout the city to raise spirits. This gorgeous and poignant visual diary traces the phenomenon from the first, spontaneous Flower Flash to the even more profound installations of the pandemic through a kaleidoscopic collage of photos documenting the Flower Flashes, behind-the-scenes snapshots, Miller’s inspiration material, fan contributions, and more.
Book of the Day Posted Oct 30, 2021

Book of the Day > From Palm Beach to Shangri La: The Architecture of Marion Sims Wyeth

● Purchase ● Homes, pool houses, and gardens in paradise by the great architect Marion Sims Wyeth—progenitor of the fabled Palm Beach style and designer of Doris Duke’s legendary Hawaiian retreat, Shangri La—are featured here in the first in-depth book to consider his most alluring creations.
 
Beauty and elegance mingle with extravagance in the Palm Beach style of architect Marion Sims Wyeth, a kind of home design that takes the standard fixtures of paradise—palm trees, ebullient fountains, glistening pools and gardens, views of the sea—and mixes them with a dash of the exotic—a Moorish-style balcony or doorway, Venetian archways, fanciful courtyards in the Spanish style, and spiraling staircases in stone and iron.
 
Featured here are the legendary abodes of Marjorie Merriweather Post and Doris Duke—Mar-a-Lago and Shangri La, respectively—as well as the less well known but equally spectacular Hogarcito and La Claridad, to name but a few. For those unfamiliar with these dream palaces, intimate homes of repose and reflection, for the enjoyment of life and the living of it, the book serves at once as a revelation and an inspiration.
Book of the Day Posted Oct 29, 2021

Book of the Day > The San Quentin Project. Published by Aperture

● Purchase ● The San Quentin Project collects a largely unseen visual record of daily life inside one of America’s oldest and largest prisons, demonstrating how this archive of the state is now being used to teach visual literacy and process the experience of incarceration.
 
In 2011, Nigel Poor—artist, educator, and cocreator of the acclaimed podcast Ear Hustle—began teaching a history of photography class through the Prison University Project at San Quentin State Prison. Neither books nor cameras were allowed into the facility, so an unorthodox course with a range of inventivemapping exercises ensued: students crafted “verbal photographs” of memories for which they had no visual documentation, and annotated iconic images from different artists. After the first semester, Poor says, “one student told me he could now see fascination everywhere in San Quentin.”
 
When Poor received access to thousands of negatives in the prison’s archive, made by corrections officers of a former era, these images of San Quentin’s everyday occurrences soon became launchpads for her students’ keen observations. From the banal to the brutal, to distinct moments of respite, the pictures in this archive gave those who were involved in the project the opportunity to share their stories and reflections on incarceration.
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