Events Posted Nov 15, 2025

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 22, 4-6PM: DANIEL ARNOLD IN DISCUSSION AND SIGNING AT ARCANA!

* 1930s Brooklyn-born newsie voice * EXTRA EXTRA! READ ALL ABOUT IT! DANIEL ARNOLD AT ARCANA NEXT SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 22nd FROM 4 -6PM! MAXIMUM FUN AND EDIFICATION! FREE DRINKS!

Okay, that's enough all-caps. You Are What You Do is the comprehensive new monograph from Daniel Arnold - one of New York’s most renowned and obsessive modern street photographers. Over the past fifteen years, Arnold has become a cult figure in the city’s visual culture, known for his raw, humanistic encounters with its citizens and for collaborations spanning from the Safdie brothers to the Met Gala and beyond. Rooted in a well-trodden lineage of New York street photography, Arnold’s work channels the chaos, chutzpah, humor and vitality that define the city, yet reveals something more: a tenderness and empathy that courses through every frame. There are genuine moments of sadness and grief mixed with joy, alongside spontaneous, unscripted scenes of pure street cinema, blended with candid images from fashion shoots and film sets, all sitting effortlessly within Arnold’s generous visual language. Working from a vast archive, this landscape-format book distills Arnold’s signature wry, tragicomic style into a spacious and classical book object. From the glamorous heights of high culture to the downtrodden and overlooked, You Are What You Do draws a wide, empathetic circle around New York’s characters and charm. A brand new example additionally SIGNED by photographer Daniel Arnold.

In order to make sure books are available for all attending our event today, we are pausing on-line sales for this title.

If you would like us to contact you if copies are available please let us know by sending an email to us here.

Events Posted Oct 23, 2025

Stillz signing "Bad Bunny 2019-2025" Sunday October 26th at Arcana

Join us at Arcana this Sunday, October 26th from 4 until 6PM to meet the photographer Stillz as he signs copies of his new book collaboration with Bad Bunny! The book will be available for purchase! All are welcome! If you can't make it, please feel free to acquire a copy via our website at this link. Hope to see you soon!

Events Posted Sep 24, 2025

Saturday 9/27: Lauri Gaffin Moving Still at Arcana!!!

Please join us Saturday, September 27th, between 4:00 and 6:00 PM as we welcome Los Angeles's own Lauri Gaffin to celebrate the release of her new Damiani publication, Moving Still: A Cinematic Life Frame-By-Frame!

Moving Still... is a personal portrait of filmmaking from set decorator Lauri Gaffin. With four decades of experience, Gaffin intertwines stunning behind-the-scenes photographs and intimate narrative to provide a rare glimpse into the fascinating world of cinema. The book highlights life on set for indie gems 'Fargo’ and ‘The Pursuit of Happyness’ as well as blockbuster hits such as ‘Charlie’s Angels’, ‘Iron Man’ and ‘Thor’.

Through her photographs and engaging anecdotes, Gaffin unveils the collaborative spirit that binds directors, actors, production designers and crew members together. The contrast of her thriving career and her complex emotional life are a throughline in the book. Gaffin's photography remains a steadfast beacon of inspiration even as she navigates the demands of production - deadlines, budgets and politics - and her family’s escalating turmoil.

So be here at Arcana next Saturday to meet and greet Lauri and pick up her fabulous new book! If you cannot attend and would like to purchase a signed copy of Moving Still: A Cinematic Life Frame-By-Frame, please place your order here!

Events Posted Sep 14, 2025

Book Signing + Discussion with David Alekhuogie and Awol Erizku 9/20/25!

PLEASE JOIN US ON SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 20th, 4-6PM TO CELEBRATE

DAVID ALEKHUOGIE: A REPRISE

BOOK SIGNING + DISCUSSION WITH AWOL ERIZKU!

Events Posted Sep 11, 2025

Susan Meiselas's "Nicaragua" is Our Book of the Day! And a Talk and Signing!

🚨reissued masterpiece alert … and a talk and a signing 🚨 Originally published in 1981, Susan Meiselas’ Nicaragua is a modern classic - a seminal contribution to the literature of concerned photojournalism that forms an extraordinary narrative of a nation in turmoil. Starting with a powerful and chilling evocation of the Somoza regime during its decline in the late 1970s, the images trace the evolution of the popular resistance that led to the insurrection, culminating with the triumph of the Sandinista revolution in 1979.

A brand new 2025 Aperture third, updated edition of this essential book is now available here from Arcana, AND ALSO… As the highlight of PAC LA‘s Year of the Woman programming initiative, in partnership with Eastman Museum Los Angeles and American Cinemateque, there will be an afternoon with the acclaimed documentary photographer and president of Magnum Foundation, Susan Meiselas. Susan’s talk will center around her Nicaragua work over multiple decades and the various forms it has taken, as a book, exhibition, and film, tracing the lives of her images as they have circulated and been repatriated, shifting their meaning over time.

MS. MEISELAS WILL BE SIGNING COPIES FOR ARCANA ON SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 13th AT SANTA MONICA’S AERO THEATER BETWEEN 2:00 AND 5:00 PM. RSVP HERE

If you can't make it but would like to buy a signed copy of Nicaragua you can do so here.

Events Posted Aug 18, 2025

Arthur Jafa Book Signing and Discussion at Arcana 8/23

Please join us this Saturday, August 23rd, between 4:00 and 6:00 PM as we welcome Los Angeles' own renowned Arthur Jafa to celebrate the release of his new publication Live Evil. In addition to signing copies, he will engage in a discussion of the book and his work with art historian Julian Myers.

"Having worked in film and music for decades, American artist Arthur Jafa garnered acclaim in the art world in 2016 for his video work "Love is the Message, the Message is Death." Composed of found images and videos, his oeuvre revolves around Black American culture, the history of slavery, and ongoing structural and physical violence against Black Americans. As Jafa put it in his 2003 text “My Black Death”: “The central conundrum of black being (the double bind of our ontological existence) lies in the fact that common misery both defines and limits who we are. Such that our efforts to eliminate those forces which constrain also function to dissipate much which gives us our specificity, our uniqueness, our flavor by destroying the binds that define we will cease to be, but this is the good death (boa morte) to be embraced." Bringing together affective memories that touch on US history, violence, repression, modalities of survival and how these exist in the production and dissemination of images, music, sound and time-based media, Jafa reflects on the ontology of race and Blackness.This richly illustrated catalog reproduces key works from Jafa's wide-ranging oeuvre and explores the philosophical, historical and artistic implications of his practice, featuring essays and a series of conversations between Jafa and key practitioners working in the fields of cinema, arts and theory."

Due to a limited supply of books being air freighted to us for the event, we have had to cease taking pre-orders. If you would like us to let you know if we have signed copies left after the event, please email us. Books will be available at the event, one per person, first come - first served. Thanks for your understanding!

Events Posted Aug 16, 2025

Todd Hido Book Signing and Discussion with Marina Luz Saturday 8/16!

Please join us Saturday, August 16th, between 4:00 and 6:00 PM as we welcome iconic photographer Todd Hido to celebrate the release of his updated and expanded Aperture monograph Intimate Distance.

In addition to signing copies, he will engage in a discussion of the book and his work with fellow Bay Area artist Marina Luz.

"Well known for his photography of landscapes and suburban housing and for his use of detail and luminous color, acclaimed American photographer Todd Hido casts a distinctly cinematic eye across all that he photographs, digging deep into his memory and imagination for inspiration. Newly revised and expanded, Intimate Distance: Over Thirty Years of Photographs, A Chronological Album includes ten years of new work since the book’s first publication, including breathtaking new images from his travels to Iceland, Norway, and Japan, where he brings both a familiar eye and an expansive new vision.

Though Hido has published many smaller monographs of individual bodies of work, this volume gathers his most iconic images along with many unpublished works to provide the most complete and comprehensive monograph charting his career to date. The book is organized chronologically, showing how his series overlap in exciting ways. David Campany introduces the work and looks at the kind of cinematic spectatorship it demands. Katya Tylevich muses on the making of each of Hido’s major monographs: 'The photographs lead as far as human-made roads go. They reach the periphery of utility wires, footprints, and paths already taken.' From exterior to interior, surface observations to subconscious investigations, from landscapes to nudes, from America and beyond, this midcareer collection reveals how Hido's unique focus has developed and shifted over time, yet the tension between distance and intimacy remains.”

Events Posted Aug 07, 2025

UPCOMING EVENTS!

Please join us for these upcoming events at the store (and beyond it)!

All events are free, no purchase required, and open to all. No RSVP needed.

SATURDAY, AUGUST 16th, 4:00 - 6:00 PM
TODD HIDO: INTIMATE DISTANCE
BOOK SIGNING + DISCUSSION WITH MARINA LUZ

SATURDAY, AUGUST 23rd, 4:00 - 6:00 PM
ARTHUR JAFA: LIVE EVIL
BOOK SIGNING + DISCUSSION

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 13th, 2:00 - 5:00 PM
SUSAN MEISELAS: NICARAGUA
BOOK SIGNING + DISCUSSION
**AT THE AERO THEATER IN SANTA MONICA**
IN CONJUNCTION WITH PAC-LA

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 20th, 4:00 - 6:00 PM
DAVID ALEKHUOGIE: A REPRISE
BOOK SIGNING + DISCUSSION WITH AWOL ERIZKU

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 27th, 4:00 - 6:00 PM
LAURI GAFFIN: MOVING STILL
BOOK SIGNING

Events Posted Jul 12, 2025

Book Signing 7/26/25: RICHARD MISRACH: CARGO!

Please join us on Saturday, 7/26 (4:00-6:00 PM) for a book signing with Richard Misrach for his new Aperture book: CARGO!

If you can't join us, you can order a signed copy for shipping or pickup here.

Events Posted Jun 08, 2025

Upcoming Book Signings at Arcana!

SATURDAY, JUNE 14th, 4:00 - 6:00 PM

BOB WAYNE: REEL TO REAL TALES... NOTES FROM BOTH SIDES OF THE RECORDING CONSOLE
BOOK SIGNING + DISCUSSION