Book of the day > Peter Schlesinger: A Photographic Memory 1968-1989. Damiani.

“The photographs of artist Peter Schlesinger are a visual diary of an extraordinary life that intersected with some of the brightest names in the worlds of art, fashion, and society. Schlesinger’s remarkable journey began in 1966 when as an 18 year old student at UCLA he met the artist David Hockney. The two moved to London, where Schlesinger was introduced to the city's fashionable bohemian society. There, as well as on trips, Schlesinger met and photographed some of the great personalities of the day, including Cecil Beaton, Paloma Picasso, Grace Coddington, Tina Chow, Christopher Isherwood, and Manolo Blahnik – to name just a few.

This beautifully produced book presents an overview of 30 years of photographic work from Schlesinger’s archives. In addition to intimate portraits, the book includes Schlesinger’s evocative still lives, which convey the romance, humor, and elegance of their time. This is the first monograph to present the full range of Schlesinger’s photographic work.”

Book of the day > The Belgians: An Unexpected Fashion Story. Hatje Cantz. Surreal, avant-garde and explicit are three keywords that are commonly associated with Belgian fashion. This exhibition catalogue gives a unique historic overview of Belgian fashion, starting with the legendary Antwerp Six--including Dries van Noten, Walter Van Beirendonck and Ann Demeulemeester--and leading up to the individualistic creations of Martin Margiela, A.F. Vandevorst and Raf Simons. The catalogue also highlights the work of several influential players in various fashion and art disciplines. Additionally, it touches upon the importance of the fashion academies, especially the Antwerp Academy and La Cambre in Brussels, and documents emerging talent such as Jean-Paul Lespagnard and Christian Wijnants.

‘Throwback’ item of the day > Robbie Conal Poster. Firmly in the lineage of 20th Century political artist/satirists John Heartfield, Hans Haacke, and Klaus Staeck, Robbie Conal (@robbieconal) is renowned for his midnight guerrilla postering raids of the Los Angeles urban landscape. This poster featuring the image of former Supreme Court Justice (and anti-abortion proponent) William Rehnquist was acquired directly from the artist's studio at the time of its release in 1992 - and is NOT a later reprint. $ 20, available at arcanabooks.com.

Book of the day > Christian Patterson:  Bottom of the Lake. Koenig Books. “Bottom of the Lake is a 256-page facsimile of artist Christian Patterson's family telephone book for his hometown, Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, printed in 1973, soon after Patterson's birth.
This artist's book includes found markings and reproductions of materials inserted in the phone book in addition to Patterson's drawings, photographs and marginalia. This book-within-a-book carefully combines the fact-based phone book with the artist's highly subjective re-imagination of his hometown, playfully juxtaposing different documentary forms and ways of seeing to create a deeply personal, darkly humorous "other" book.
The experience of reading Bottom of the Lake extends beyond its pages with an interactive feature: a telephone number attached to the book connects users with over 100 audio experiences, mixing field recordings, found archival material and performances that recreate the artist's hometown.”

Today we feature High Desert Test Sites Postcards !

Each year a carefully curated selection of limited-edition artist postcards is produced to benefit High Desert Test Sites, a Joshua Tree based non-profit that supports intimate and immersive experiences and exchanges between artists, critical thinkers, and general audiences – challenging all to expand their definition of art to take on new areas of relevancy.  Sales of the postcards help support future HDTS programming & submissions for new postcards are due October 1st. Available in Joshua Tree and from Arcana ! @highdeserttestsites

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."

PLEASE JOIN US SATURDAY, OCTOBER 3rd,
4:00 - 6:00 PM FOR A BOOK SIGNING

ALINE SMITHSON
SELF & OTHERS:
PORTRAIT AS AUTOBIOGRAPHY

Self & Others: Portrait as Autobiography is a near-twenty year culmination of portrait photographs captured by award-winning photographer, writer, and educator Aline Smithson. Beginning with her earliest black and white silver gelatin prints, she photographs the world around her considering the poignancy of childhood and the pathos of aging and relationships. The book continues with her hand-painted photographs - including her defining series, Arrangement in Green and Black: Portrait of the Photographer’s Mother - where she combines humor and family to create a universal expression of motherhood. The book is completed by her most recent color projects that revisit beauty, the essence of childhood, and an examination of created realities. Aline brings a background in painting and fashion to her images, but at the heart of her work is her ability to recognize the inner self of her subjects. The photographer considers all her portraits a reflection of herself and the stories she wants to tell, and in that way, has created a visual language that is her own unique autobiography.

To read more about and see images from Self & Others: Portrait as Autobiography, check out The New Yorker's recent "Photo Booth" feature on Aline and her work! And if you are unfamiliar with Aline's influential photography blog Lenscratch.com, by all means click here!

‘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.”