Book of the Day Posted Dec 28, 2021

Book of the Day > Soviet Seasons: Photographs by Arseniy Kotov

● Purchase ● The post-Soviet republics seen over four different seasons, by acclaimed Russian photographer, Instagram sensation and Soviet Cities author Arseniy Kotov
 
In Soviet Seasons, Arseniy Kotov reveals unfamiliar aspects of the post-Soviet terrain in sublime photographs. From snow-blanketed Siberia in winter to the mountains of the Caucasus in summer, these images show how a once powerful, utopian landscape has been affected by the weight of nature itself.
 
This uniquely broad perspective could only be achieved by a photographer such as Kotov. Singularly dedicated to exploring every corner of his country, Kotov often hitchhikes across vast distances. On these journeys he chronicles not only the architectural achievements of the Soviet empire, but also its overlooked or simply undocumented constructions. He writes: “In this book I want to show how beautiful and diverse the cities and nature of this vast region are at different times of the year. I have traveled widely across Russia and its neighboring countries, where I captured the landscape of post-Soviet cities and witnessed the seasonal changes.”
Book of the Day Posted Dec 23, 2021

Book of the Day > Sophie Bramly: Yo! The Early Days of Hip Hop 1982–84

● Purchase ● The birth of hip hop in New York: rare images of the bands, the MCs and DJs, the artists and the fans, from Afrika Bambaataa and Run-DMC to Keith Haring and the Rock Steady Crew
 
This book features more than 150 rarely seen images documenting the rise of hip hop in the early 1980s, taken by French photographer Sophie Bramly. Bramly lived in New York during this period and became firmly embedded in the emergent scene. The book features many stunning, intimate images of a star-studded roll call of legendary hip hop figures, all of whom were only just getting known or in their ascendency. These include Kool Herc, Afrika Bambaataa, Grandmixer DST, Jazzy Jay, Red Alert, Grandmaster Melle Mel, Kurtis Blow, Lisa Lee, the Fat Boys, Run-DMC, Beastie Boys and many more.
 
Bramly knew that hip hop was becoming a cultural force rather than just a musical fashion, and spent many hours photographing the four essential elements of this new world: the emcees, the deejays, the graffiti artists and the break dancers. Here you will see legendary graffiti artists captured at work and play, such as Keith Haring, Dondi, Futura, Phase One, Zephyr and Lady Pink, and break dancers including members of Magnificent Force, Dynamic Breakers and the Rock Steady Crew.
 
Bramly’s photographs also chronicle the desolate cityscapes from which hip hop emerged; the energy of the fans who first embraced hip hop; and the crucial players behind the scenes (Bill Laswell, Bernard Zekri, Rick Rubin, Fun Gallery co-owner Patti Astor).
 
Finally, this book also includes a bonus section documenting the rise of hip hop in Europe. Bramly returned to France in 1984 to find herself once again at the center of a new cultural phenomenon, helping bring the first US hip hop artists to Europe, including Fab Five Freddy, Futura 2000, Rocksteady Crew and many more.
Book of the Day Posted Dec 22, 2021

Book of the Day > Danielle Mericle: The Dark Wood

● Purchase ● The Dark Wood explores broad questions of history and our collective ability to document and learn from the past. Through intertwined images of abandoned Greco-Roman casts, an ancient Sequoia forest and the artist’s own texts, Mericle invites us to consider history as a fluid process rather than a static truth.
 
The once highly valued casts – which appear in the book as original and archival photographs – were rejected as worthless copies during the early part of the 20th century, under the belief that they lacked the artistry and aura of the originals, despite the fact that many of the ‘originals’ were in fact Roman copies of Greek artifacts. During the two World Wars, many of these ‘originals’ were damaged or destroyed, and the casts are now considered some of the most authoritative versions available. A Sequoia forest in Northern California offers two important counterpoints. Ancient Sequoia tree rings chart the rise and fall of civilizations over the last 3000 years, including those that created the Greco-Roman artifacts. The tree rings position human history within a broader geological timeframe, lending an adjusted perspective to the human enterprise. The rings also reveal the complex history and shifting perspectives on the significance of fire in the region, with the dissonant histories of expansive logging practices, the conservation movement, Indigenous knowledge, and climate change playing out against the troubled fate of the ancient Sequoias.
 
Though we attempt to understand and preserve our past, the endeavor is subject to inevitable shifts in knowledge, the whims of ideology, and the vagaries of historical truth. With an epilogue that grounds the complex sequence of images in personal elegy, The Dark Wood re-calibrates our sense of scale by allowing us to locate a sense of mourning, loss and the specifics of our own narratives within the broad and unfixed framework of history.
Book of the Day Posted Dec 20, 2021

Book of the Day > Black Ivy: A Revolt in Style

● Purchase ● How Black culture reinvented and subverted the Ivy Look
 
From the most avant-garde jazz musicians, visual artists and poets to architects, philosophers and writers, Black Ivy: A Revolt in Style charts a period in American history when Black men across the country adopted the clothing of a privileged elite and made it their own. It shows how a generation of men took the classic Ivy Look and made it cool, edgy and unpredictable in ways that continue to influence today's modern menswear.
 
Here you will see some famous, infamous and not so famous figures in Black culture such as Amiri Baraka, Charles White, Malcolm X, Martin Luther King Jr., James Baldwin, Miles Davis, John Coltrane and Sidney Poitier, and how they reinvented Ivy and Prep fashion—the dominant looks of the time. The real stars of the book—the Oxford cloth button-down shirt, the hand-stitched loafer, the soft shoulder three-button jacket and the perennial repp tie—are all here. What Black Ivy explores is how these clothes are reframed and redefined by a stylish group of men from outside the mainstream, challenging the status quo, struggling for racial equality and civil rights.
 
Boasting the work of some of America's finest photographers and image-makers, this must-have tome is a celebration of how, regardless of the odds, great style always wins.
Book of the Day Posted Dec 17, 2021

Book of the Day > Bruce Weber: All-American XXI: Time Will Tell

● Purchase ● Our human capacity for transformation, and the freedom that implies, is very much at the heart of this latest edition of Bruce Weber’s “All-American” journal. Time will tell what any of us become—and the subjects of this year’s volume reveal the myriad ways that mutability can be a power and a revelation. Bruce’s long-time friend Kurt Markus shares photographs of his children, who now, as adults, reflect on the experience of being his subject. Patrice Calmettes, the beloved Parisian character, opens his personal archive—sharing images of ‘70s and ‘80s decadence with his evolution as a photographer. Noted film and stage biographer James Grissom offers a personal essay about the desires and perils of growing up in Baton Rouge. The paintings of the American artist John Koch suggest a
world of mystery and secrecy among the virtuoso compositions of his domestic scenes. And in this 21st edition, Bruce Weber celebrates a group of powerful women whose dedication to changing the world is a continual inspiration. Cheryl Little, Esq. and the Honorable Rosemary Barkett articulate the contradictions and paradoxes of our national debate over immigration. Gianna Cerbone’s devotion to Long Island City affirms the old-school values of community connection. And the model-turned-animal rights advocate Jane Gill narrates her story, and in so doing, demonstrates how one’s ability to adapt is at times a salvation.
Book of the Day Posted Dec 17, 2021

Book of the Day > Bruce Weber: The Golden Retriever Photographic Society

● Purchase ● The photographer and filmmaker Bruce Weber is associated with a wide array of imagery: humanist portraits of artists, actors, and athletes; fashion spreads charged with emotion, irreverence, and nostalgia; lyrical tributes to eroticism and an arcadian vision of the American landscape. All these things—and golden retrievers, too. Since the very beginning, Weber has been accompanied on his travels by a pack of these benevolent canines, who have populated his photographs for fashion campaigns, prominent magazines, and the pages of his personal scrapbooks in equal measure. The Golden Retriever Photographic Society is Weber’s first career-spanning collection of these photographs, one he describes as his most personal. In the introduction to the monograph, Weber remarks, “People sometimes say to me, ‘In my next life, I want to come back as one of your dogs.’” Paging through this volume, we understand the sentiment. For five decades, these golden retrievers have been foils for Weber’s imagination, storybook characters in the expansive life he has created with wife, Nan Bush. This book celebrates the human-animal bond, illuminating how connection to one’s pets can fuel creativity, provide companionship, and foster an abundance of joy.
Book of the Day Posted Dec 15, 2021

2021 Staff Holiday Picks > RUSSELL'S PICKS

● Purchase Here ● Motor City Underground: Leni Sinclair Photographs 1963–1973 ● Arthur Jafa: Magnumb ● Peter Schlesinger: Eight Days In Yemen ● Moki And Don Cherry: Organic Music Societies ● Pete Thompson: ’93 Til ● Agnes Martin: Paintings, Writings, Remembrances ● San Quentin Project ● Lee Lozano: Drawings 1958-64 ● Joseph Rodriguez: LAPD 1994 (Signed) ● Jean Dubuffet: Brutal Beauty
Book of the Day Posted Dec 10, 2021

2021 Staff Holiday Picks > SAM'S PICKS

 ● Purchase Here ● Hugo Huerta Marin: Portrait of an Artist - Conversations with Trailblazing Creative Women ● William Eggleston: The Outlands ● Philip Guston: Now ● Dazed: 30 Years Confused ● Richard Kern: Baron ● Joel Sternfeld: American Prospects ● Legendary Authors and the Clothes They Wore
Book of the Day Posted Dec 09, 2021

2021 Staff Holiday Picks > KEVIN'S PICKS

● Purchase Here● Rick McCloskey: Van Nuys Boulevard 1972 ● Gregory Crewdson: Alone Street ● Grand Tour: The Golden Age of Travel ● Carpenters: The Musical Legacy ● All In The Family: The Show That Changed Television ● Richard Seifert British Brutalist Architecture ● Clements Design: Eight Homes ● The Beatles: Get Back ● Fairfax Architecture: Los Angeles Standards

Book of the Day Posted Dec 08, 2021

2021 Staff Holiday Picks > SHANNON'S PICKS

● Purchase Here ● Grief and Grievance: Art and Mourning in America ● Jack Davison: Photographs ● Max Knight: Cats in Windows ● Marina Luz: A Library of Mis-Remembered Books (Signed!) ● Jenny Odell: Inhabiting the Negative Space ● Maggie Nelson: On Freedom ● Mira Calligraphiae Monumenta ● Erik Kessels & Thomas Sauvin: Talk Soon

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