Irving Penn regards the work of Issey Miyake

Penn shoots Miyake's work from 1975-1998. Pretty starck stuff so you really get to see the clothes and detailing. Superb collaborative project, and a nice overview of the development of Miyake's work.

Vivienne Westwood: A London Fashion

Published to coincide with an exhibition at the museum of london in the same year. Westwood afficianados, some eminent, others not so, are photographed and interviewed about their fascination/love of westwood.

Deluxe Magazine Issue 2.

The second and final issue of Deluxe, the cult (and very short lived) publication of the late seventies. Some top drawer shoots; 'Inside out', featuring Westwood, Quant etc. (amazing), 'Wet Dream' featuring YSL, Bill Gibb, Mr. Fish, and shot in Brighton (also amazing), Brian Eno on strange records, Allen Jones, Man Ray, Suze Randall, Lunch with Quentin Crisp and Arnold Schwartzenegger (yes really!), Pasolini, lots of Westwood and some other great shoots by Newman, Baker et al.

Deluxe Magazine Issue 1.

Great first issue of Deluxe (which only ran for 2 issues). Aside of the Peter Blake etc. what makes this of interest is the Seditionaries (Vivienne Westwood) presentation by Ku Khanh and the brilliant 'Wild on the Side Walk', shot by Newman and styled by Caroline Baker. Great. The other nice shoot is the 'Streetwalking Shocking' shoot by Norrie Maclaren, and its ace. Such a good magazine, ultra glam (its the seventies), but beginning to foreshadow the street culture later epitomised by the likes of i-D a few years later.

A Magazine Curated by Hussein Chalayan

The third in the 'A Magazine curated by..' series. Chalayan steps up and photographs Nicosa (huge tri-fold, very nice), portraits, landscapes, texts by Judith Clark, masks, lots of drawings, some lovely shoots, Nick Knight etc. A very personal volume in the series. Very strong work by Chalayan, quite beautiful.

A Magazine Curated by.. Issue 1!

Super rare, especially with the original bag. The first of the brilliant and essential series. Featuring Dirk Van Saen, very beautifully put together, with some very strong work, stellat shoots (Stoops is really on form), 10 pages of Hannelore Knuts, 5 brilliant a2 foldout posters (all present), Bernhard Willhelm, Raf Simons etc. In short- Amazing.

Sam Haskins - Five Girls

THE nude photobook of the sixties that defined the genre. Though Cowboy Kate is more famous (and has a sort of narrative) this is the book that started it all. Huge, amazing images, elegantly arranged and very well printed. Beautiful and classic stuff.

Ryan McGinley - Life Adjustment Center

Two themes are presented in this book, firstly a collection of b&w studio nudes many with wild animals, an extension of the studio series "Everybody Knows This is Nowhere". The second features one of McGinley's core elements as a photographer, “capturing his subjects in dreamlike compositions, rich in motion and color, during recent adventures on the road”. Super stuff.

Ann Demeulemeester - Summer 1988

Demeulemeester's second collection, shot by her husband Patrick Robyn. Such a beautiful object, very simple, haunting imagery,  thoughtfully put together and very nicely styled.

Bruce Weber - Branded Youth and Other Stories

Great work from Weber featuring Sean Penn, Juliette Lewis, Leonardo DiCaprio and Ewan McGregor amongst others. Essentially a celebration of youth, and the passage into manhood. Such a variety of narratives and work, from wrestling camp, Soweto townships and Vietnam, to midwest farmers and scouts.

Mario Testino - Kate Who?

 

Great book published by Phillips de Pury to coincide with their exhibition of Kate photographs by Testino. Large format, glossy and well produced with 18 incredible and iconic portraits, some over double spreads. The photographs themselves date from the mid-nineties to the present day, with a mixture of images that were taken for shoots and some that were private shots by Testino.

Nova 1965-1975 - Style Bible of a Decade

Killer compilation of groundbreaking magazine Nova. Where to start? Reads like a who's who of fashion, photography, journalism, design and styling in the late sixties and early seventies. Featuring some of the best work of Newton, Sieff, Fuerer, Moon, Duffy and Donovan. Lots of great styling By Baker and Parkin. And exhaustive amount of content including but not limited to Quant, Biba, Courreges, Paco Rabanne, Dior, Kings Road, Issey Miyake, Amanda Lear, Julie Christie etc. etc. Known equally for its excellent journalism and writing.

Steven Meisel - Four Days in LA: The Versace Pictures

Book issued to coincide with Meisel's show at the White Cube. The show, and book, comprise Meisel's LA campaign for Versace. Rather Tina Barney-esque and quite distinct and beautiful. Featuring Amber Valetta and Georgina Grenville dressed almost identically in every shot, with super opulent interiors, props and styling. Rather like a conceptual portraiture project.

'2000-1' Maison Martin Margiela by Mark Borthwick

he first item of Margiela's Line 13: Objects and Publications. Comprises of Borthwick's interpretation of A/W 1998-1999 (not 2000-2001!). Great collaborative piece chocked with images unpublished elsewhere that in many ways shows the best of both Margiela and Borthwick.

Hedi Slimane - Costa da Caparica

Ikko Narahara - Celebration of Life

Pretty great book- where Narahara and his wife travel from Manhattan (where they were living at the time), to a Rock 'n' Roll festival in McCrea Louisiana billed as the 'Celebration of life', reports from the time give mixed reviews of the festival, I guess the dream had died by the early 70's, but the book is pretty amazing. Acid stalls, people smoking opium, freak outs, hippies, bikers, dropouts, flower children, actual children, a baby elephant (real since you ask), lots of naked people covered in mud, swimming etc. So an excellent document of the time. The text is also really nice.

Araki - Sniper Shot

 

One of Araki's harder edged books, comprising alot of the work he did for SM Sniper magazine (which is/was a bondage publication), so its mainly girls tied up in hotel rooms, getting caught in fishing nets, occasionally being punished and this type of thing. Plus a little backstage-ish stuff and a dash of humour. Seedy and glamorous at the same time. Great.

Andy Warhol - Blue Movie

Super book of the film starring Viva and Louis Waldron. The complete dialogue interspersed with lots of stills. Very nicely put together, quite a beautiful object. "A Warhol film promises or presupposes nothing," Parker Tyler writes, "and achieves, therefore, everything."

Soviet Beauty Queens

"Although beauty contests did not find favor in the Soviet Union until the late 1980s by 1991 before the collapse of the Soviet Union the soviet beauty queen had a become symbol of perestroika itself. These photographs were taken 1988 - 1990 in Leningrad at various beauty contests and at the Leningrad Beauty Institute, an academy preparing aspiring beauty queens for competition and acquired in St. Petersburg by The Archive of Modern Conflict." amazing.

The Philosophy of Andy Warhol: From A to B and Back Again

Brilliant autobiography from the pope of pop art himself. HIs thoughts on Love, Beauty, Fame, Work, Sex, Time, Economics etc. Formed primarily from conversations between him, Bob Colacello and Brigid Polk. Beautiful David Bailey dustwrapper, which was not used for the U.S. issue.

Sappho by the Sea : an illustrated guide to the hamptons

What to say about such a book? Well, if you like David Hamilton et al. but with a heavy dash of humour this may appeal to you. Essentially a photo-narrative of 2 'friends' on their visit to the Hamptons, and its actually pretty stylish, great trenchcoats, florals, knitwear, tailoring, very much influenced by the better fashion shoots of the time. But of course, the 2 friends are rather intimate, so there's a fair bit of nudity/lingerie to boot. Also full of useful tips about the Hamptons. So, conclusion- great all round, if not a little odd.

Kate by Kate Moss

Published to celebrate her 21st birthday. Brilliant book charting her career from childhood snaps, to her first shoot to '95. Images were personally selected by her, and she also contributes a foreword. Some amazing contributors (Helmut Newton, Paolo Roversi, Corinne Day, Juergen Teller, Nick Knight etc.), brilliant.

The Illustrated Delta of Venus

Nin's Delta of Venus accompanied by the photographs of Bob Carlos Clarke. Echoes of Sarah Moon and David Hamilton filtered through a rather surrealist new wave sensibility a la Penny Slinger.

William Levy - The Virgin Sperm Dancer

Cult counter-culture classic by Levy, designed by the great Anton Beeke, and photographed by Ginger Gordon. An ecstatic journey of a boy (Joop) transformed into a girl (Joopie) for one day only, of her erotic adventures in Amsterdam, magic centrum. Doesn't leave too much to the imagination. Tip!

Ossie Clark : Fashion Designer 1942-1996

Catalogue from the exhibition organised by Celia Birtwell following the tragic death of Ossie Clark, which essentially provided the groundwork for the V&A show. A very personal book, full of images, texts, drawings, quotes from both Ossie and Birtwell as well as Patti Boyd, Bianca Jagger, Hockney etc.

Robert Heinecken - He:/She:

Legendary and very scarce artist's book from the late and controversial Heinecken, who made it originally whilst teaching in Chicago. The New York times described it thus:  "In the 'He/She' pieces the sexual content is mostly implied by the text, since only a few of the Polaroid prints are sexually explicit. 'He' and 'She' characters talk somewhat disjointedly about such matters as kissing and going to bed, but the main thrust of the dialogues is to explore what Heinecken has called 'relational possibilities.' The pictures, which often have little to do in any obvious way with the dialogue they frame, seem simply to offer a visual set of relational possibilities that interact with those of the text." Wonderful to see in such a good condition, and of course, signed.

Barbara Hulanicki - From A to Biba

Superb First Edition/First Impression autobiography of the legendary Barbara Hulanicki, the full Biba story from Barbara's early life to the initial mail order dress to the end of Big Biba, some unpublished photographs, an essential introduction. Very charming and informative.

Cathy - Kate and John Carder Bush

Very beautiful. "Cathy gives a fascinating glimpse into the childhood of a young person who has grown into the remarkable and famous adult. As she poses for the photographs, often at times snatched after school, an image builds up of what this little girl's world was like. These innocent moments are linked with the thoughts and memories of her photographer-brother as he printed and prepared the pictures for publication. Cathy contains neither gossip nor scandal. It is a gentle, very personal view of childhood, and for those already familiar with Kate as a modern-day artist, it is a treasure-trove of echoes and evocations." A magical book.

DIck Jewell - Hysteric Glamour

Beautiful and difficult to find softcover issue of Jewell's amazing Hysteric Glamour. Has found photo's, loads of great London characters, some Kinky Gerlinky stuff, Leigh Bowery, Rachel Auburn, club kids, mods, skins, Gregory Isaacs, the telly- basically, a chronogy of his work from 1969-1998. Brilliant. Still very heavy though.. Recommended.

Sonomama - High Fashion in The Japanese Countryside

Amazing (and very large) personal project by Hirokawa, where he photographs ordinary people of the coutryside (elderly fisherman, farmers, wash house women etc.) at work and leisure in some of the more conceptual pieces by Comme Des Garcons, Issey Miyake, Kansai Yamamoto, Monsieur Nicole, Obscure Desire of Bourgoise, Yohji Yamamoto etc. with a short text by Leonard Koren and a lovely interview. None of his subjects have any interest in fashion, so the images are really natural, everybody is smiling and looks like they're having a thoroughly good time. Very interesting and really nice.