Book of the Day Posted Sep 25, 2025

Book of the Day: Live from My Studio

From the publisher: "LIVE FROM MY STUDIO is the first book to showcase the art of Edie Baskin. The pioneering, 2x Emmy-nominated photographer and art director created the signature look of a show that would transform television and popular culture and influence the people and events that have shaped our lives for 50 years. Her iconic hand-colored portraits of the stars of rock, screen, stage, and television were a signature of the show, broadcast to tens of millions of homes every week, reflecting the show’s wit, charm, and mischief -- and captivating generations while reviving a long-lost art form." Book of the day. 
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!
Book of the Day Posted Sep 21, 2025

Book of the Day: Yves Saint Laurent and Photography

From the publisher: "Yves Saint Laurent collaborated with some of the greatest photographers of the 20th century. For over four decades, until the closing of his fashion house in 2002, Saint Laurent and his creations were captured by cutting-edge photographers – including such legends as Richard Avedon, Irving Penn, David Bailey, Helmut Newton, William Klein, Sarah Moon, Annie Leibovitz, Paolo Roversi, and Juergen Teller – resulting in iconic pictures that helped shape his own image as well as that of his brand. Yves Saint Laurent and Photography shines new light on the world of the genius couturier, tracing both the course of fashion and the history of 20th–century photography. This beautifully designed book features an astonishing range of imagery: breathtaking fashion photographs of subjects such as Audrey Hepburn, Catherine Deneuve, Naomi Campbell, and Kate Moss; portraits of Saint Laurent; and never-before-seen archival documents." Book of the day!
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!
Book of the Day Posted Sep 13, 2025

Book of the Day: Chanel Haute Couture by Sofia Coppola

From the publisher: "At the age of fifteen, Sofia Coppola took up a summer internship at the Chanel studio in Paris, moving from her family home in Northern California. This indelible experience initiated a relationship with the fashion House which has flourished over decades and resulted in numerous collaborations. The latest is this luxurious and compelling volume, in which Coppola uses her signature style of collage and assemblage to present a bespoke visual history of Chanel’s Haute Couture designs. The story of the Haute Couture House unfolds across this 450-page tome through unseen sketches, photographs of Chanel clients wearing creations, runway photographs, and archival ephemera. Encompassing the distinct eras of Chanel’s lead designers – Gabrielle Chanel, Karl Lagerfeld, Virginie Viard – their teams, their famous clientele, and the models of each period, as seen by renowned photographers, this book is a definitive guide to the extraordinary creations that have influenced generations of designers and a piece of fashion history in its own right. Conceived with the support of Chanel and designed by Anamaria Morris for Joseph Logan Design Co-published by Éditions 7L and Important Flowers." Book of the haute day!
Book of the Day Posted Sep 12, 2025

Book of the Day: Richard Prince - Early Photography 1977-1987

From the publisher: "This book was published on the occasion of three exhibitions by Richard Prince at Gagosian—Early Photography, 1977–87 at the Grosvenor Hill and West 21st Street galleries in London and New York, respectively, and The Entertainers at the Davies Street gallery in London. (The New York exhibition brought together the works from the two London exhibitions.) The presentations featured many of Prince’s iconic cowboy, girlfriend, and advertisement photographs, as well as the complete series of The Entertainers (1982–83), a rarely seen set of manipulated photographs that evoke the adult entertainment theaters prevalent in New York’s Times Square in the early 1980s. Writings by the artist and source material from his time working in the tear-sheet department at Time magazine are also included. The catalogue reproduces the over seventy exhibited works and archival materials along with installation photography, supplemented by rarely seen documents and work prints from the artist’s archive. An illustrated eight-section essay by Sydney Stutterheim follows the structure of Prince’s circa 1977 text “The 8-Track Photograph,” illuminating his foundational project in depth and connecting it to multitrack recording in music. Stutterheim explores the origins, processes, components, and lasting significance of “rephotography,” through which Prince appropriated images from advertising and the lifestyle press, redefining the concepts of authorship and originality." Book of the day.
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.
Book of the Day Posted Sep 10, 2025

Book of the Day: Mimi Plumb - The Reservoir

From the photographer, via the publisher: “From 2021 to 2023, I photographed around two reservoirs in the Central Valley of California experiencing a twenty-three year megadrought. The Reservoir weaves together images of the drying lakes and people seeking a leisurely day at the beach. They bring their dogs, babies and baby carriages, inner tubes, kayaks, rafts, umbrellas, coolers, and tents. As the summer progresses and the waterline recedes, families walk over a mile to reach the beach. At times, the sky is colored with smoke from nearby forest fires. The photographs in The Reservoir are part of an ongoing exploration in my work of how droughts, climate change, and ever-present anxiety collectively maps onto life in the American West.” — Mimi Plumb. Book of the day, from Nazraeli Press.
Book of the Day Posted Sep 05, 2025

Book of the Day: Richard Avedon -- In the American West

From the publisher: "An exquisitely produced new publication of In the American West: Photographs by Richard Avedon, a landmark project of classic American photography. First published by Abrams in 1985 in conjunction with the groundbreaking exhibition at the Amon Carter Museum in Fort Worth, Texas, the book is now available in this lush 40th anniversary edition. Richard Avedon was the greatest American photographer of his generation. For In the American West, he traveled for five years, meeting and photographing the ordinary people populating America’s most extraordinary landscape. The resulting book includes 103 meticulously printed black-and-white photographs, an essay by Avedon on his working methods and portrait philosophy, and a journal of the project by Laura Wilson. The reissuing of this legendary book, out of print for more than a decade, is a major publishing event in the photography world." Book of the day in the West!
Book of the Day Posted Sep 04, 2025

Book of the Day: Wolfgang Tillmans - Things matter, Dinge zählen

From the publisher: "Very few artists mirror our recent past as profoundly as Wolfgang Tillmans in their work. On the occasion of his exhibition Weltraum at the Albertinum in Dresden, Tillmans has created a unique artist's book that places his four decades of artistic practice in a thoughtprovoking dialogue with the past and present of East and West Germany. Things matter, Dinge zählen intertwines excerpts from a 1987 Dresden inventory catalogue with Tillmans' 2003 catalogue If one thing matters, everything matters for Tate Britain, in which he devised a speculative catalogue raisonné of his early work. The resurgence of these two out-of-print titles is combined with a conversation in which Tillmans reflects on his artistic beginnings and analyses their aesthetic and social implications today." Buch des Tages!
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