Wednesday 4 April 2018

Elein Fleiss, Olivier Zahm / Purple 1-16 (complete run)



Edition : First / Paris / Purple Institute / Summer 1998 - Winter 2003 / Softcover / Near Fine
17 Volumes, all 8vo, 200-500pp each. Numerous Colour and Black & White plates. Text in French and English.

A true high point in fashion publishing. Both a landmark in the Parisian new wave and a pioneer in the anti fashion aesthetic which came to typify the late nineties- Purple also popularised a generation of underground stars and helped to usher them in to the mainstream. Claude Closky, Viviane Sassen, Bless, Wolfgang Tillmans, Veronique Branquinho, Mark Borthwick, Boudicca, Helmut Lang, the good Terry Richardson, Bernadette Corporation, Juergen Teller and so many more. It's also easy to forget that the late nineties were a time before big houses poached St. Martins students upon graduation and high street brands were using big name photographers to shoot their campaigns- Avant garde fashion was still very DIY, underground and non commercial, and of course in pre internet times, very much focussed around a few places and people. Fortunatly Purple was there to capture it all! The magazines influence cannot be underestimated.

Katsumi Watanabe / Shinjuku Guntoden 66/73



Edition : First / Tokyo / Baragaho Sha / 1973 / Softcover. / Near Fine
Small 8vo, 128pp. Printed wrappers. Numerous Black & White plates. Text in Japanese.

Printed in either 500 or 1000 copies, nobody is quite sure, with half being lost to water damage. During the late sixties and early seventies Watanabe earned his living as a portrait photographer, shooting his subjects on the street and then selling them prints for 200 yen. This book is a collection of shots from the period with Watanabe's printed annotations underneath- prostitutes, gangsters, cross dressers, night faces, gay men and party goers. The most authentic portrait of an underground world, which Watanabe was himself a part of for many years.

Alexander Mcqueen, Craig Mcdean / Givenchy 1997-2000



Edition : First / Paris / Givenchy / 1996 / Softcover. / VG+
8 volumes, various sizes and paginations. Printed wraps as issued. Text in English and Japanese.

Collection of runway and editorial material produced by Givenchy during McQueen's reign. Covers a couple of the more known collections.

Rob Gretton, Tony Wilson / Fac51 The Hacienda Newsletter no.6



Edition : First / Manchester / Factory / Undated (but late 1982) / Softcover. / VG+
15 x 21cm. 8pp including covers, photocopy pages.

One of the few Factory related things not to have its own catalog number. So, the year is 1982, the Hacienda has been open only for a few months, and things are going both swimmingly and disasterously by reading the contents. Listings for Grand Master Flash, ACR, video nights, letters with Jon Savage. Bernard Manning on the cover- who was supposed to be compere on the opening night but commented on stage "I've played some shit-holes during my time, but this is really something" and then walked off. He also remarked to New Order- 'Stick to your day jobs, cos you're not cut out for clubs'. He later returned his fee, and by even their own accounts, was probably right. A bit of a disaster. But a beautiful one.

Daido Moriyama, Takuma Nakahira / Bye Bye Photography (Farewell Photography)



Edition : First / Tokyo / Shashin Hyoronsha / 1972 / Softcover. / VG+ / VG+
Small 4to, Unpaginated (ca 312pp). Printed wraps with dustwrap. Numerous Black & White plates. Text in Japanese. Some foxing to covers and endpapers, and small scrape to rear of dustwrapper.

One of the definitive books of the 20th century. "Inspired by William Klein's blurred photos of New York street life, Andy Warhol's silk-screened productions and Jack Kerouac's free-spirited travel writing, Moriyama developed a new and radical approach to producing images. These broken, rough and blurred black and white photographs paved the way for what would become his future trademark style. No prints or negatives exist for the material presented." A groundbreaking classic, still as poignant as when it was first produced.