Monday, 25 July 2016

Carol Jerrems A book about Australian Women

Jerrems could be, along with Rennie Ellis, one of the most important photographers to come out of Australia. During her short life (she died at 30 in 1980) Jerrems was a tough and dedicated photographer, she spent most of her time hanging out with Sharpies (A little like skinheads), went to places nobody else would go and went to find people everybody else wanted to hide. This- the only book published during her lifetime and the only significaly book of her work, is full of shots of women of all ages, backgrounds, class and race, and it's incredibly beautiful. Jerrems has since been contextualised with Mary Ellen Mark, Nan Goldin and Larry Clark, and has been the subject of a documentary 'Girl in the Mirror'. A lost underground classic, that had she lived, would have been the first book in a brilliant career.


Nobumi Kurimoto Girl's Fashion 1970-1988

Tokyo. CBS. 1987. First Edition. 8vo, 320pp. Cream wraps in silver dustwrapper with Obi. Hundereds Black & White plates. Text in Japanese. 

Killer reference. Kurimoto's shots of girls on the street from 1970-1987, in Tokyo, Yokohama, Kyoto, Yokohama and the like, arranged by year and roughly grouped by style. There's so much material it's insane, all from a time before people were quite so self aware infront of a camera. So- 320 pages of natural styling, accessorising and youth fashion, with pretty much everything here! Very brilliant.


Guy Bourdin 1980 Pentax Calendar

Tokyo. Pentax Corp. 1980. First Edition. 38 x 53cm. 12pp + cover, bound with acrylic clip. A little chipping to edges and a little roll from being stored in a tube. 

Scarce- especially considering the fame of the images. Wow!


Yuko Nakamura Harajuku UFO

Tokyo. Self Published. 1980. First Edition. Oblong 8vo, Unpaginated (ca 120pp). Printed boards in printed slipcase as issued. Numerous Black & White plates. Text in Japanese. 

One of the holy grails of youth culture documentary. Exeedingly rare. Counterculture as expressed through dress and detail. Nakamura caught the details and mood of late 70s teenagers perfectly. Teddy boys, Rockers, Glam rockers, Dandies, Skateboarders, Mods and early punks are all present, and they all look like they're having fun too! Has a feel of a fly on the wall documentary of an alternative universe. One of the best.


Osuma Nagahama Hell's Angels


Tokyo. Keibunsha. 1981. First Edition. Small 4to (unpaginated ca 250pp). Black cloth in Dustwrap with Obi as issued. Numerous Colour and Black and White plates. Text in Japanese. 

Raw photodocumentary on Hell's Angels in San Francisco and New York spanning 1968-1980. Rough, tough and very much the real deal. Deserves it's notoriety.




i-D Magazine No.1-10

London. TJ Informat Design/Better Badges. August 1980-December 1982. First Edition. Oblong 8vo. 10 vols. ca 38pp each. Printed wrappers. Numerous Duotone and Black & White plates. Including the scars flexi that was issued with no.3. 

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.


Tony Keeler Ibiza a dream..

Barcelona. Spectrum . 1973. First Edition. 4to, Unpaginated (ca 120pp). Gilt stamped boards. Text in English. Numerous Black & White plates. 

The glory days of hippy Ibiza before house music came in and changed everything. Kaftans, sun bleached landscapes, aristocratic drop outs and the cream of late 60s/early 70s bohemia. Ultra beautiful.


Dario Lanzardo Immagini dal Rock

Torino. Gruppo Editoriale Forma. 1982. First Edition. 4to, Printed wraps as issued. Numerous Black & White and colour tinted photographs. Text in Italian. 

Stupendous book on youth culture and the scene in Italy during the late 70s. Mods, punks, disco kids and live concerts with the Stones, Lou Reed etc. Most of the photographs are grainy, with 1 or 2 colour tints. Very new wave!


David Hamilton Intimacies

New York. Bloomingdales. 1977. First Edition. Small 4to. 28pp. Printed wrappers as issued. Numerous Colour plates. In an L.A. times envelope, postmarked August 1977. 

Just one year after Bloomingdales commissioned Bourdin for the incredible 'Sighs & Whispers', they comissioned Hamilton to shoot 'Intimacies', feeling that after the controversy of 'sighs', something softer was required. Hamilton delivers probably his best work- the colour work is phenomenal, with all of the hallmarks of 'good' Hamilton, and none of the pitfalls of his later work. Quite why it is so rare is unknown, it is possible that it was withdrawn before publication as the only 2 copies I have ever seen have been for review. This copy was sent to Doris Grumbach, feminist writer and essayist, who at the time was writing for the NY Times book review.


James Wedge Photo Graphics Ltd folio

London. Photo/James Wedge. 1973. First Edition. 4to, 16pp. Printed wraps. Numerous colour plates. 

So rare, with only a handful of copies produced, most of which were lost. 16 pages of the best Wedge has produced, some has been seen in The James Wedge book, Ritva campaigns and Nova. Super super good.


Masahisa Fukase Karusa / Ravens (The Solitude of Ravens)

Tokyo. Sokyusha. 1986. First Edition. 4to, 132pp. Blindstamped cloth in card slipcase. 63 Black & White plates. Text in English and Japanese. 

Cited in both Parr and Badger's "The Photobook: A History Volume I" and Kaneko and Vartanian's "Japanese Photobooks of the 1960s and 70s", and described by the BJP as 'an obscure masterpiece' when it was nominated as the most important photography book of the past 25 years. "The depth of solitude in Masahisa Fukase's photographs makes me shudder" - Akira Hasegawa.


L'Hiver de L'Amour Bis

Paris. Musee D'Art Moderne. 1994. First Edition. 4to, 96pp. Numerous Colour and Black & White plates. Text in French and English. 2 pieces of epherema inserted- Gray Goo flyer by Dike Blair , and an Ami Garmon booklet from the show. 

Brilliant 1994 book from the exhibition of the same name, curated by Purple magazine titans Zahm and Fleiss. Shows some super Margiela work, Larry Clark, Viktor & Rolf, Inez van Lamsweerde, Dike Blair, Carsten Holler, Alix Lambert, Wolfgang Tillmans, General Idea, Hans Ulrich Obrist, Anders Edstrom etc. So basically an exhibition of what would have appeared in Purple at the time. Design negation at its best.


Studio Alchimia La superficie modificante

Milan. Alchymia/Centro Xerox. 1980. First Edition. Small 4to. Unpaginated (ca 48pp). Spiral bound wraps as issued. Colour photocopy pages. Numerous Colour and Black & White plates. Text in Italian and English.

The Alchymia (sic) research program into decor, in collaboration with the centrodomus. Split into sections, architecture, furnishings and objects, cars, fashion. Full of Memphis-esque patterns, hand tint photocopies and textiles patterns. The whole books is produced on a colour photocopier, and is about as good as a research project or potential sourcebook could get!


Le Palace Agenda 1982

Paris. Societe de Presse. December 1982. First Edition. 8vo, Unpaginated (ca 300pp). Printed boards as issued. Numerous Colour and Black & White plates. Text in French. 

A strange one- in thats it's a diary for 1983, probably given away at the time. The clincher though, is that every other spread is a photo spread- making it the only book on Le Palace published by Le Palace, and to be fair, it's the best book on Le Palace. The majority of the photographs are by Roxanne Lowit and Dominique Lauga, and most of them I haven't seen before. Pretty incredible.


Deborah Turbeville Maquillage 1975

New York. Rizzoli Gallery. 1975. First Edition. 4to. 36pp. Printed wraps as issued. Profusely illustrated in duotone. 300 copies were signed and numbered by Turbeville, with the first 50 copies being accompanied by a silver gelatin print. This is copy number 13, though the print is not present. It does however, appear that this was Turbevilles own copy, as she has made annotations to titlepage. Covers a little creased and stained. More images available on request.. Softcover.. Book: VG+. .

Scarce, especially when signed. Her first book, commissioned by Rizzoli gallery in 1975. An incredibly beautiful piece of work that foreshadows her obsessions and future career.


Guy Debord Memoires

Copenhagen. Privately Printed. 1959. First Edition . 4to. Unpaginated (64pp). Wraps in sandpaper dustwrapper. Full colour pages. Text in French. Printed in an edition of between 200 and 500 copies at the workshop of Verner Permild, though the actual number produced is unknown. 

One of the rarest (and by contrast most famous) artist's books. A legendary artefact of the twentieth century.




Mark Borthwick Xerox (all 4 volumes) 1978 / Syntheric Voices / Margiela 2000-1 / Social Documentaries Amid this Piste

New York. Self Published. ca 2002. First Edition. small 4to, 4 volumes (200-240pp each). Printed wraps. Numerous Black & White plates. 

A complete set of Borthwick's self published photocopy books. All four titles are quite something as single volumes, but all four together are really a tour de force. Inspirations, d.i.y. shoots, personal work, Margiela, Purple, Hussein Chalayan, Chloe Sevigny, sketches and writings. Self published 'photocopy' versions, which Borthwick produced himself around 2002. He did them in a very small print run, though the total number is unknown. Rendered in grayscale tones, the work is much more unified, and typifies Borthwick's obscure and quotidien style. Social documentaries is signed to titlepage. Incredible!


Mickey Demourelle Mardi Gras in New Orleans

London. Self Published. 1970. First Edition. Square 8vo, Unpaginated (ca 120pp). Stiff printed wraps as issued. Numerous Black & White plates. A little rubbed and soiled. Stamped by Demoruelle to cover and signed by him to the last page. .

Local man Demoruelle shoots Mardi Gras, but ignores the floats and performers to document the crowd, the streets, the drunks, the sailors and the families. A very striking, natural and individual document of a very special (and long gone) phenomenon, Demoruelle has an excellent eye for detail and a natural flair for capturing the somewhat ethereal spirit of New Orleans in the late sixties. Really the best book on the subject.




Bruce Weber Men & Women : Images from Nicole

Tokyo. Doeisha. 1983. First Edition. Folio, 102pp. Printed wraps as issued. Numerous Black & White plates.

Absolutely astounding book comprising shots Weber took at Gilgo beach NY for Nicole. A lost Bruce Weber classic, and maybe his best book.


Steven Morrissey New York Dolls

Manchester. Babylon Books. February 1981. First Edition. Small 4to. 48pp. Printed wraps as issued. Numerous Black and White plates. Text in English. In superb condition with a little toning and rubbing to covers. 

The young Morrissey's ode and love letter to the New York Dolls. Some excellent images and sharp and astute text by Morrissey. The Dolls were a huge influence on Morrissey- he was president of their UK fan club. "Some bands grab you and they never let you go and, no matter what they do, they can never let you down ... the Dolls were that for me." Fandom aside, Morrissey has produced a brilliant book on what is a quite important chapter in the history of popular culture, the Dolls not only signified the end of the 60s, but crossed boundaries in taste, dress and sexuality. Very scarce, the book was written and published before Morrissey then became famous with the Smiths. An important and informative piece of cultural ephemera.