november-books

Wednesday, 11 December 2013

#commedesgarcons 1975-1981 and i-D 1-10

#billhenson and #paoloroversi on today's list

last list of the year! but don't worry, it's a good'un #katebush #cathy #justinekurland

i-D Magazine 1-10

Whats to say? The first 10 issues of one of the best magazines ever. Nothing like it existed before. From the pioneering 'straight ups' to introducing the world to Bodymap, Westwood/World's End, Judy Blame and Nick Knight to kickstarting the careers to many of today's fashion giants. Initially started as a document of street fashion and quickly developed into being one of the most influential magazines around. The first ten issues are full of raw energy, and count as a whos who of popular culture in the UK in the eighties, though nobody would have known it at the time. Magic.

A tomic masterpiece. From the publisher: "Sometimes, but very rarely these days, one can announce a real discovery in contemporary photography — a book that will emphatically place its author on the international map on the same level as such giants of photography as Robert Frank and Nan Goldin. After the international success of Lux et Nox Scalo is proud and excited to announce the definitive mid-life retrospective book on Australian artist Bill Henson. The book combines all groups of work that Henson has created up to the present: from his early Ballet pictures (1974), to his body and nude portraits (1977–1986), from his photographs of street-crowds (1979–1982) to his Baroque Triptychs (1983–84), from his fantastic combinations of pictures taken in the Australian Suburbs and Egypt (1985/86) to his Los Angeles and New York nightscapes (1987–88), from his famous cut-out collages shown at the centenary Venice Biennale in 1995, to the portraits of adolescents and his magical color compositions for the Paris Opera (1990/91), and, most recently, a haunting selection of his images of children adrift in the wilderness of night (1997-2004), many of these appearing for the first time. Bill Henson is a continent in photography to be discovered." Arguably one of the most beautiful books that exist.

Beautifully produced. Hopper's first published book of photography. Photographs 60's faces such as Warhol, Paul Newman, Burroughs, Jane Fonda, The Rolling Stones along with hippies, bikers, factory faces and so on. Pretty much a who's who of the sixties. Texts by Michael McClure and Walter Hopps. Divided into ", Artists and Collectors", "Hollywood", "Music", "Civil Rights March, Selma to Montgomery", "Mexico", and "The Scene". Great.

Flatsigned by Goldin to titlepage. Nan Goldin's masterpiece. Cited in Roth, Parr, The Photobook, The Open Book, Hasselblad Center, M. + M. Auer etc. "Nan Goldin's The Ballad of Sexual Dependency is a visual diary chronicling the struggle for intimacy and understanding between friends, family, and lovers—collectively described by Goldin as her “tribe.” Her work describes a world that is visceral, charged, and seething with life. Her lush color photography and candid style demand that the viewer go beyond the surface to encounter a profound intensity. As Goldin writes: “Real memory, which these pictures trigger, is an invocation of the color, smell, sound, and physical presence, the density and flavor of life.” Through an accurate and detailed record of her life, Ballad reveals Goldin’s personal odyssey as well as a more universal understanding of the different languages men and women speak, and the struggle between autonomy and dependency. Over the past twenty-five years, the influence of Ballad on photography and other aesthetic realms has continually grown, making the work a contemporary classic. Nan Goldin’s story of urban life on the fringe was the swan song of an era that reached its peak in the early eighties." Scarce signed and in such good condition.

This is the one. Has all the pre Paris collections, from the first campaign in 1975 running to the first years in Paris (1981/1982). Numerous Japanese photographers such as Kazumi Kurigami, Hajime Sawatari (!) and Daiho Yoshida, but the surprise is Bruce Weber, Deborah Turbeville and Sarah Moon. Also has the very early Lindbergh work. Just over 200 pages of brilliance. One of the most sought after (and rare) fashion photography/reference books ever produced. A beautiful object.

Surprisingly (for such a recent book) very scarce. Rather surreal and almost Fauconesque (well maybe not) landscapes populated by teenage girls. Kurland came to prominence in the show 'Another Girl, Another Planet ' with tableau landscapes of the wastelands at the edges of suburbs, populated by unsupervised children and teenagers. All of the work here was developed with a similar idea in mind, albeit on a much larger scale. "I'm always thinking about painting: nineteenth-century English picturesque landscapes and the utopian ideal, genre paintings, and also Julia Margaret Cameron's photographs. I started going to museums at an early age, but my imagery is equally influenced by illustrations from the fairy tales I read as a child." A superb work of what Kurland calls the "Degraded Sublime". Pretty magic.

Sold out immediately! Which came as a surprise to me, but is is probably his nicest book so far, beautiful production and such a beautiful, delicate object. Some commercial and personal work, a beautiful selection. A very personal book, really sums up his practice. This copy is also signed!