Book of the Day Posted Sep 14, 2022

Book of the Day > Thomas Hoepker: The Way It Was

● Purchase ● Two road trips—one in black and white, the other color—across two Americas, nearly 60 years apart

Magnum photographer (and former Magnum president) Thomas Hoepker (born 1936) was 27 years old when he set out on his ambitious journey across the United States—one that took him from coast to coast and back again over the course of three months and resulted in thousands of photos. The year was 1963 and Hoepker had been commissioned by the German magazine Kristall to “discover” America through his camera. The photo reportages he made, published in five issues of the magazine across dozens of pages, revealed Hoepker’s complex, skeptical and sometimes melancholy view of the American every day, in big cities, small towns and all in between. His was an unromanticized vision in which the decadent existed alongside the desolate, the glitter with the grit.

As much as Hoepker recognized that the problematic American dream could go unfulfilled, he was fascinated with the country (settling in New York in 1976), and in 2020—at the age of 84 and after a successful career as a photojournalist and president of Magnum Photos—he once again set out on a road trip throughout the US. The Way It Was: Road Trips USA juxtaposes Hoepker’s color photographs from this trip with his original black-and-white images, taking us on a journey both through his changing sense of America and through time.

Book of the Day Posted Sep 13, 2022

Book of the Day > Johnny Ryan: Barely Human

● Purchase ● The cartoons that keep getting Johnny Ryan banned from Instagram, collected for the first time as one big ol' exquisitely gross picture book! Johnny Ryan's compulsion to flout any and all accepted standards of decency in his humor and cartoons have not only garnered him a tremendous following — Instagram has banned him multiple times with hundreds of posts scrubbed from those accounts. (He can be found, currently, at @johnnyryanjohnnyryan1). Guess what? We've got 'em! Over 500 of the grossest, crudest, most surrealistic, scatological, and of course hilarious cartoons you'll ever see, presented with loving care in this gorgeous, oversized collection with fine art paper. They may not meet with your approval, but you will laugh. Crafted throughout the pandemic and posted daily, these cartoons helped keep both the author and hundreds of thousands of others sane during the past two years. From conventional gag cartoons to pieces decidedly unconventional and almost Dadaist in their humor, these are some of the most visually imaginative — and comedically brilliant — single-panel cartoons ever conceived, whether in the service of boner jokes or sheer visual absurdism.

Book of the Day Posted Sep 10, 2022

Book of the Day > Colin Sussingham: Be L’eau

● Purchase ● Shot between 2019-2021 this body of work takes the audience into another dimension. A space that is colorful and dramatic, beautiful and eerie, where bodies are celebrated and the subject can let go. The pressure of water, the lack of visibility, gravity, and breath, are the forces that create the calm and the tension, the grace and the struggle, the release and the resistance.

Book of the Day Posted Sep 09, 2022

Book of the Day > Gio Castranova: Still Missing

● Purchase ● Still Missing is a beautifully designed art book exploring the folk art of lost & found pet posters. Featuring nearly 200 pages of high quality full-color images and illustrations.

Still Missing is a curatorial voyage through the world of lost and found pet posters that combines graphic and visual arts, illustration, and photography in a poetic and cohesive collage of raw emotion. Art connoisseurs and casual observers of all backgrounds, interests, and ages will find their own deep resonance within its pages.

A collection of art by everyone, for everyone, this book truly speaks worlds about the human condition. It’s strange, it's weird, it's funny, it's beautiful, it's creative and yes...it's also sad. From toucans to tortoises, roosters to ferrets and dragons to unicorns, it will always keep you guessing with what’s coming next.

What is the largest reward for a cat? What is the smallest reward for a turtle? What's the strangest pet name? What's the most unique poster material? What's the biggest or the smallest poster I've ever found? It's all in the details... Still Missing will answer all of these questions, while provoking even more.

RULES
• All posters collected in Los Angeles County from 2010-2013 by Gio Castranova.
• Rules for collecting: to take a single poster, at least three identical posters must be observed within a given one block area, to not defeat the owners' quest of finding their animal.
• Respect, preserve and transmit the message of the poster as displayed when first encountered.

Book of the Day Posted Sep 08, 2022

Book of the Day > Yoshitomo Nara: Pinacoteca

● Purchase ● Recent works and a gorgeously crafted miniature gallery from the much-loved Japanese artist

From the outset of his career, Japanese painter and sculptor Yoshitomo Nara (born 1959) has fruitfully explored the relationship between art and the space in which it is placed. At the cornerstone of Nara's recent exhibition in Pace's London gallery was the most recent product of his ongoing study: a new multiroom installation that was reworked from an earlier project titled London Mayfair House.

Borrowing its title from the Ancient Greco-Roman term for a public art salon, Pinacoteca (2021) is a specially crafted, tiny, homelike structure that imitates an exhibition space. On the internal walls, the artist hung new paintings on wood and canvas as well as drawings on paper, used envelopes and cardboard boxes. On the external walls, which have been directly painted onto, Nara hung new paintings that are stylistically simpler and more graphic than the works inside the installation.

Yoshitomo Nara: Pinacoteca presents a close look at the structure, as well as the artist’s recent paintings, sculpture and works on cardboard also displayed in the exhibition. An essay by acclaimed music writer Simon Reynolds explores the relationship of music to Nara’s artistic production, and an essay by curator Stephanie Rosenthal dives deep into the role of built environments in the artist's oeuvre.

Book of the Day Posted Sep 07, 2022

Book of the Day > (Signed) Greg Girard: JAL 76 88

● Purchase ● "When I first arrived in Tokyo in April, 1976 the plan was to spend a few days and then continue on to SE Asia. I decided to stow my luggage at the airport that first night so I could just wander around. I had no idea where I was going to stay. I took the monorail from Haneda airport into the city and then rode the circle of the Yamanote line around Tokyo. When I arrived at Shinjuku I got off the train. It seemed the brightest, noisiest and most crowded part of town. I spent the night wandering around Shinjuku and nearby neighborhoods and by morning I knew I wanted to stay. It’s perhaps worth pointing out that in 1976 there was nothing to prepare a first-time visitor for Tokyo. “BladeRunner-esque” had yet to enter the language. At the time the notion that the future had arrived, and was alive and well in an Asian city, was simply not known. And so, to stumble across it was thrilling and eye-opening.“

Book of the Day Posted Sep 06, 2022

Book of the Day > Total Chaos: The Story of The Stooges as told by Iggy Pop

● Purchase ● Total Chaos: The Story of The Stooges as told by Iggy Pop is the first time the story of this seminal band has been told entirely in Pop’s own words.

Total Chaos: The Story of the Stooges as told by Iggy Pop (Updated and Revised) features even more new, never before seen photos than the original hardback book, plus an additional chapter from legendary vocalist of Black Flag, Henry Rollins. TOTAL CHAOS was already the definitive oral history in words and images of The Stooges. Now, updated and revised is the new 9.5" x 7" high quality paperback art book featuring all the hundreds of full color photos from the classic hardback plus new bonus material. There is no other book like this that documents one of the USA’s most influential groups in the words of Iggy Pop himself!

Author Jeff Gold and contributor Johan Kugelberg, noted music historians and collectors, spent two days with Pop at his Miami home, sharing with him their extensive Stooges collection and interviewing the legendary singer. Pop’s candid, bare-all responses left them with the almost unbelievable tale of the band he founded-the alternately tragic and triumphant story of a group who rose from youth, fell prey to drugs, alcohol, and music biz realities, collapsed and nearly 30 years later reformed, recording and touring to great acclaim. In 2010 The Stooges, credited with having invented punk rock, were inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. Their continuing influence can be felt today in the shape and sound of rock-n-roll music.

Book of the Day Posted Sep 01, 2022

Book of the Day > Ewan Telford: Ecology of Dreams

● Purchase ● The last outpost of the West, Los Angeles might be described as the culmination of U.S. cultural history. The L.A. of The Ecology of Dreams is not that of ‘Tinseltown’, sun and surf, as it is commonly (mis)understood, but that of a 21st Century megalopolis after forty years of neoliberal capitalism: a city of corporate empires and militarized police forces, gated communities and environmental catastrophe. L.A. is also a city of deep mystery and strange beauty.

Ewan Telford grew up in Edinburgh, Scotland. He holds a BA in English and Philosophy and an MA in Film Production. He moved to New York to work in the film industry, as a storyboard artist and art director for feature films and commercials. He also spent some time directing music videos and commercials. In recent years he has used photography to explore the ideas that interest him, often with text, because it offers more possibility. He has made photographs and printed them since childhood. Ewan currently lives in Los Angeles.

Book of the Day Posted Aug 30, 2022

Book of the Day > Gregory Bojorquez: Eastsiders

● Purchase ● Book Signing > Gregory Bojorquez: Eastsiders. Published by Little Big Man.

Please Join Us Saturday
September 3rd, 4:00 - 6:00 PM

Eastsiders is the brand new collection of Gregory Bojorquez' images spanning over twenty-five years of the noted Los Angeles photographer's vision. "This book showcases the robust body of work of Bojorquez, photographs depicting the complex, but also celebratory, reality of Los Angeles’s vast Eastside. Not only the tattoos, clothing, and walls related to La Vida Loca, but also the mothers, the gardens, the children, the working men, the decorated lowrider cars, the spirit of resiliency." - Luis J Rodriguez

Gregory Bojorquez was born in Los Angeles in 1972. He started photographing in his teens, and set about documenting the subjects and stories that interested him personally. The intimate images he captured in East L.A. were not the product of structured photo sessions or assignments. They were shot from the perspective of a young man hanging out with friends and neighbors. In the late 1990s Gregory began photographing for the L.A. Weekly and was added as a staff photographer. Assignments for magazines and commercial work for major record labels naturally followed. His portraits of personalities such as Snoop Dogg and Mike Tyson appeared in publications such as Rolling Stone and For His magazine. In 1999 Gregory became instrumental in the early beginnings of DUB Magazine where he was brought on as Photo Editor and a feature photographer for a period of more than seven years. Since that time, Gregory's photographs have been exhibited internationally in gallery shows, museum exhibitions, and art fairs including Photo London, Paris Photo, and Art Düsseldorf. His work is represented by Galerie Bene Taschen in Koln, and by Little Big Man in Los Angeles; who has published this spectacular volume. @bojorquez5 @littlebigmangallery

Book of the Day Posted Aug 27, 2022

Book of the Day > Wolfgang Tillmans: To look without fear

● Purchase ● Encompassing photography, installation, print media, video and more, this publication is the most comprehensive account of Tillmans’ wide-ranging career to date

A visionary creator and intrepid polymath, Wolfgang Tillmans unites formal inventiveness with an ethical orientation that attends to the most pressing issues of life today. While his work transcends the bounds of any single artistic discipline, he is best known for his wide-ranging photographic output. From trenchant documents of social movements to windowsill still lifes, ecstatic images of nightlife to cameraless abstractions, sensitive portraits to architectural studies, astronomical phenomena to intimate nudes, he has explored seemingly every genre of photography imaginable, continually experimenting with how to make new pictures and deepen the viewer’s experience.

Published in conjunction with a major exhibition of Tillmans’ work at the Museum of Modern Art, this copiously illustrated volume surveys four decades of the artist’s career. An outstanding group of writers offer diverse essays addressing key threads of his multifaceted practice, and a new text by Tillmans himself elucidates the distinctive methodology behind his system of presenting photographs. Wolfgang Tillmans: To look without fear grants readers new insight into the work of an artist who has not only changed the way photography is exhibited but pointed contemporary art in dynamic new directions.