Book of the Day Posted Sep 27, 2019

Book of the Day > Tim Carpenter: Christmas Day, Bucks Pond Road

Book of the Day > Tim Carpenter: Christmas Day, Bucks Pond Road. Published by The Ice Plant. "In Christmas Day, Bucks Pond Road, his second book with The Ice Plant, Brooklyn-based photographer Tim Carpenter (born 1968) revisits the Central Illinois topography of his first monograph, Local Objects, with a sequence of 56 black-and-white medium-format photographs, all made on a single winter morning. In Local Objects he meandered this semi-rural Midwestern landscape through changing seasons in an abstract sequence, but here Carpenter follows a straightforward path, literally taking the viewer on a two-hour walk from point A to point B. Nothing much happens along this brief narrative arc—there are fallow fields, standing water, dormant trees, the occasional tire track on worn pavement—yet Carpenter explores the stillness of this outdoor space with a palpable, almost erotic anticipation, revealing intimate subtleties as the journey unfolds. Made with an intensity of attention and a lightness of touch, the photographs in Christmas Day, Bucks Pond Road are less about the confines of this specific time and place than about a poetic strategy for narrowing the distance between human desire and the factual content of the everyday world."
Book of the Day Posted Sep 26, 2019

Book of the Day > Ed Templeton: City Confessions #1: Tokyo

Please join us Saturday September 28th for a double book signing with our friends Ed + Deanna Templeton to celebrate the release of their wonderful new publications with SUPER LABO!
 
Book of the Day > Ed Templeton: City Confessions #1: Tokyo. Published by SUPER LABO. "I first came to Tokyo in 1998 on a skateboarding tour, and then again two times in 2001, first for a big citywide art exhibition called "Untitled 2001" and then again as a skateboarder later that year. Those first visits to Tokyo were full of walking and wandering and photographing in the streets when I wasn't skateboarding. Then in 2016 I came back to Tokyo as a tourist after a long absence. These more recent trips have been more focused on shooting photographs and observing the life and rhythms of the people of Tokyo. I like to find moments that speak to human existence and specifically to the customs and rituals of life in Tokyo."
 
"These photographs were taken during seven trips to Tokyo between the years 1998 and 2018, with the majority being shot between 2016 and 2018. "City Confessions #1: Tokyo" is the initial installment of Ed Templeton's new and ongoing series that will each feature a selection of photographs from an individual city the photographer has spent significant time working in and exploring. The "City Confessions" books will ultimately be gathered and slipcased together as a set, so don't miss out on this first volume!"
Book of the Day Posted Sep 25, 2019

Book of the Day > Humanscale Manual

Book of the day > Humanscale 1-9. Published by IA Collaborative. “In the golden age of American industrial design, Henry Dreyfuss Associates knew that there was more to design than just looking good. Products had to be good, crafted to work with the people who use them. With this in mind, HDA designers Niels Diffrient and Alvin R. Tilley created Humanscale, including its ingenious data selectors, providing access to over 60,000 human factors data points in one easily referenced, user-friendly "portfolio of information." With these beautiful booklets and interactive data selectors, designers, engineers, architects, and inventors can reference data that serves as a starting point to design products for people. Humanscale 1/2/3 provides data on human body measurements, guidelines for designing seating and work surfaces, and design considerations for wheelchair users, handicapped, and elderly people. Humanscale 4/5/6 provides data on human strength, safety, controls, displays, and the dimensions of human heads, hands, and feet. Humanscale 7/8/9 provides data on standing and seated workspaces, private and public spaces, body access, light, and color. Republished by global innovation and design consultancy IA Collaborative through its ventures program in 2017, the Humanscale Reissue brings back an icon-the tools to design for people.”
Book of the Day Posted Sep 24, 2019

Book of the Day > Grachtenhuizen; Amsterdam Canal Houses

Book of the Day > Grachtenhuizen; Amsterdam Canal Houses. Published by Lectura Cultura Books. "Amsterdam Canal Houses tells the story of four centuries of life on Amsterdam’s canals. In the 17th century these magnificent edifices were erected by the wealthiest merchants and patricians. In later centuries, they were home to their descendants or newcomers to the canals who renovated them. In over 400 pages, the doors of these urban palaces are opened. Over thirty houses are displayed in all their splendour; interiors of unparalleled opulence that few have ever seen. Meet the people who live here, who have succeeded in restoring and conserving historic interiors that are among the finest in the Netherlands."
Book of the Day Posted Sep 21, 2019

Book of the Day > Printed in North Korea: The Art of Everyday Life in the DPRK

Book of the Day > Printed in North Korea: The Art of Everyday Life in the DPRK. Published by Phaidon. "Never-before-seen North Korea - a rare glimpse into the country behind the politics and the creativity behind the propaganda. This incredible collection of prints dating from the 1950s to the twenty-first century is the only one of its kind in or outside North Korea. Depicting the everyday lives of the country's train conductors, steelworkers, weavers, farmers, scientists, and fishermen, these unique lino-cut and woodblock prints are a fascinating way to explore the culture of this still virtually unknown country. Together, they are an unparalleled testament to the talent of North Korea's artists and the unique social, cultural, and political conditions in which they work."
Book of the Day Posted Sep 20, 2019

Book of the Day > The Family Acid: California

Book of the Day > The Family Acid: California. Published by Ozma Records. "For more than 50 years, Roger Steffens has traveled the electric arteries of the counterculture embracing mind-expanding experiences, deep social connection, and unadulterated fun at every turn. And he’s captured it all on film. After serving in Vietnam during the final 26 months of the ‘60s, where he won a Bronze Star for founding a refugee campaign that raised over 100 tons of food and clothing, he spent a year lecturing against the war before settling in Marrakech. Finally returning Stateside in 1972, he immersed himself in the vibrant bohemias of Berkeley, Los Angeles, and beyond, touring his highly-acclaimed one-man show, “Poetry for People Who Hate Poetry.” A psychedelic polymath, Steffens worked as an actor, poet, editor, archivist, lecturer, author, NPR radio DJ and interviewer and, yes, photographer. Driven by his own insatiable curiosity and passion, he was on a perpetual quest for the eccentric, the outlandish, the transcendent. Just as often, it found him, smiling, a camera in one hand and a joint in the other. He met his wife Mary under a lunar eclipse in a pygmy forest in Mendocino, California while on LSD. Soon after, they conjured up a daughter, Kate, and son, Devon. Family vacations took the foursome up and down the West Coast, from the gritty glam of Hollywood’s Sunset Strip to reggae festivals in Humboldt, fiery protests in Berkeley to the ancient redwoods of Big Sur and the wilds of Death Valley. Along the way, they’d rendezvous with likeminded freaks, artists, musicians, and writers, from Bob Marley and Timothy Leary to actor John Ritter and war photographer Tim Page, the inspiration for Dennis Hopper’s character in Apocalypse Now. This book is a collection of snapshots taken between 1968 and 2015 during Roger, Mary, Kate, and Devon’s freewheeling adventures across the visionary state they call home. Think of it as a family album belonging to a very unconventional family."
 
Book of the Day Posted Sep 19, 2019

Book of the Day > Joel Sartore: The Photo Ark Vanishing

Book of the Day > Joel Sartore: The Photo Ark Vanishing. Published by National Geographic. "Celebrated National Geographic photojournalist Joel Sartore continues his Photo Ark quest, photographing species around the world that are escaping extinction thanks to human efforts. Joel Sartore's quest to photograph all the animal species under human care celebrates its 15th year with this glorious and heart-wrenching collection of photographs. The animals featured in these pages are either destined for extinction or already extinct in the wild but still alive today, thanks to dedication of a heroic group committed to their continued survival. From the majestic Sumatran rhinoceros to the tiny Salt Creek tiger beetle, Sartore's photographs bring us eye to eye with the kaleidoscopic diversity of shapes, colors, personalities, and attitudes of the animal world. In these vivid pages, Sartore singles out the species most likely to disappear in the next decades, as well as some that have already been lost. Alongside these indelible images are the words of scientists and conservationists who are working to protect and restore populations of endangered species. With Sartore's distinctive portrait photography, he invites us to look closer--and to care more."
Book of the Day Posted Sep 18, 2019

Book of the Day > Amir Zaki: California Concrete

Book of the Day > Amir Zaki: California Concrete. Signed by the Photographer. Published by Merrell. "California is the birthplace of skateboard culture and, even though skateparks are found worldwide today, it is where these parks continue to flourish as the sport evolves and architects, engineers and skateboarders collaborate to refine their designs. The artist Amir Zaki grew up skateboarding, so he has an understanding of these spaces and, as someone who has spent years photographing the built and natural landscape of California, he has an appreciation of the large concrete structures not only as sculptural forms, but also as significant features of the contemporary landscape, belonging to a tradition of public art and Brutalist architecture. To create the images in this book, Zaki photographed in the early-morning light, climbing inside the bowls and pipes while there were no skaters around. Each photograph is a composite of dozens of shots taken with a digital camera mounted on a motorized tripod head. The look of the resulting images is unusual in that Zaki’s lens is somewhat telephoto, which has the effect of flattening space, yet the angle of view is often quite wide, which exaggerates spatial depth. The technology also allows Zaki to photograph certain areas from difficult positions that would otherwise be impossible to capture. In his text, Tony Hawk – one of world’s best-known professional skateboarders – describes how Zaki’s photographs of empty skateparks and open skies evoke memories of the idyllic freedom that he felt when he first visited a skatepark as a child and saw skaters flying like birds in and out of the concrete pools and bowls. Hawk has skated in some of the parks featured in this book, and for him several of Zaki’s images, taken from the skater’s perspective, recall the experience of trying to learn a particular trick. In his essay, the Los Angeles-based architect Peter Zellner charts the beginnings of modern vertical skateboarding in the mid-1970s and the subsequent proliferation of purpose-built skateparks, and he draws parallels with the almost simultaneous reinvention of American landscape photography, when photographers turned their lenses away from the natural world and refocused on the man-made landscape. Zaki’s remarkable photographs of strangely supernatural skateparks, devoid of their users, inherit this reinvented tradition by finding beauty in a seemingly denatured concrete suburbia." PLEASE NOTE: THERE WILL BE A RECEPTION WITH AMIR ZAKI FOR AN EXHIBITION OF THESE PHOTOGRAPHS AT THE FRANK M. DOYLE ARTS PAVILION AT ORANGE COAST COLLEGE IN COSTA MESA THIS SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 21st, 2019 FROM 3:00 TO 5:00 PM.
Book of the Day Posted Sep 15, 2019

Book of the Day > Betye Saar: Call and Response

Book of the Day > Betye Saar: Call and Response. Published by Prestel & Los Angeles County Museum of Art. “This publication presents Betye Saar's sketchbooks--which she has kept during her entire career--for the first time and offers insights into the artist's creative process. A child of the Great Depression and one of the only African American students in her UCLA art program, Betye Saar has, over the course of more than six decades, made work that exposes stereotypes and injustices based on race and gender. From early prints and watercolors to Joseph Cornell-inspired assemblages and full-scale sculptural tableaux, her work has inspired generations of artists. This ingeniously designed publication plays off the format of Saar's original sketchbooks. Made throughout her extraordinary career, Saar's sketches are an integral part of her creative process and offer a greater understanding of the themes woven into her finished works, which are also featured in the book. Saar's sources and influences range from Simon Rodia's Watts Towers and Haitian Vodou fetishes to Australian Aboriginal paintings, Native American leatherwork, and African American history, literature, and music. An original, intimate, and valuable resource for Saar's many fans, this book will also educate future generations about Saar's significant contributions to American art.”

Book of the Day Posted Sep 13, 2019

Book of the Day > Legaspi: Larry Legaspi, the 70s, and the Future of Fashion

Book of the Day >  Legaspi: Larry Legaspi, the 70s, and the Future of Fashion. Published by Rizzoli. "The first volume documenting the life and work of Larry Legaspi, the designer behind the iconic looks for musical acts including KISS, LaBelle, George Clinton, and Parliament. One of the unsung heroes of fashion in the '70s, Larry Legaspi was a designer ahead of his time. Crafting a space-age look in silver and black leather, Legaspi created the look for the defining musical acts of the era, including KISS, Labelle, George Clinton, and Parliament. Dying of AIDS in 2001, Legaspi left twin legacies as both designer and curator that remain largely unexplored. This volume, authored by Rick Owens, fills in crucial gaps in the knowledge of Legaspi's work and impact on the fashion world, while providing a dynamic visual presentation of the life and work of a legend. Filled with a blend of previously unpublished photographs of Legaspi's creations as well as new images of Owens's work, this stunning volume tells the story of the designer's subversive sensibility. An essay by André Leon Talley and interviews with Patti LaBelle, Paul Stanley, Valerie Legaspi, and Pat Cleveland offer a intimate glimpse into Legaspi's world."

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