Earth Day

Caring about our environment is always important, but perhaps extra so at this point in history as we seem to have gotten ourselves into a bit of a mess (the most startling thing to me is always that we still haven't seemed to got to grips with the problems (and solutions) they talked to us about at kindergarten - and that's over 25 years ago now!).

Caring about the environment every day is important, but so is the Earth Day Network.

"On April 22 [1970] 20 million Americans took to the streets, parks, and auditoriums to demonstrate for a healthy, sustainable environment. Denis Hayes, the national coordinator, and his youthful staff organized massive coast-to-coast rallies. Thousands of colleges and universities organized protests against the deterioration of the environment. Groups that had been fighting against oil spills, polluting factories and power plants, raw sewage, toxic dumps, pesticides, freeways, the loss of wilderness, and the extinction of wildlife suddenly realized they shared common values.

[...]

Now, the fight for a clean environment continues. We invite you to be a part of this history and a part of Earth Day. Discover energy you didn't even know you had. Feel it rumble through the grass roots under your feet and the technology at your fingertips. Channel it into building a clean, healthy, diverse world for generations to come."

Poems of Sorrow.

Poems of Sorrow. Photographs by Luis González Palma. Text by John Wood. Arena Editions, Santa Fe, 1999. 144 pp., 70 four-color illustrations, 10x10".

The first edition of this special limited edition of Poems of Sorrow is available to pre-order from photo-eye (only a very limited amount of copies available. The book is otherwise out of print). "This substantial collection perfectly embodies Palma's soulful and mysterious imagination with a stunning design and many previously unpublished images."

About the limited edition:
"The limited edition (of 100) is boxed, signed, numbered, and contains a 9X9" hand-colored (by the artist) silver print of the cover image."

"Guatemalan artist Luis Gonzalez Palma has gained widespread recognition over the past decade for his photo-based portraits that are rich with the symbolism of indigenous myth and culture, Catholicism, and humanity. The figures that inhabit Gonzalez Palma's mythic world-angels, devils, hybrid creatures, and enigmatic characters-transcend time and place, suggesting that mysticism and beauty are his ultimate subject matter. He has said, "I live in a country where there is mysticism and violence at the same time - where you are enjoying nature and the helicopters are flying overhead to bomb some region; where you know that as you are working, someone is being killed or someone is being baptized." Yet Palma's landscape is not that of Guatemalan politics, but that of the soul, portrayed in both its beauty and its sorrow.

Poems of Sorrow is the first major monograph on Luis Gonzalez Palma. Accompanying the plates is an insightful essay by John Wood.

Selected as one of the fifty outstanding book designs of 1999 by the American Institute of Graphic Arts (AIGA)"

Exit 33. ONCE UPON A TIME.....

Exit 33. ONCE UPON A TIME..... Edited by Rosa Olivares with numerous contributing photographers and writers. Olivares y Asociados, Madrid, 2009. 184 pp., 132 color and black & white illustrations, 8¼x10¼".

"Surveying a world of fairytales and the magical that has evolved through the practice of photography, Exit presents a collection of works and folios that are fittingly introduced by texts from Lewis Carroll and the Brothers Grimm. Fantastical photographic folios from Ute Behrend, Krista Steinke, Maggie Taylor and Arthur Tress, are complemented by works from some 23 other contributors. These include, Mat Collishaw, Annie Leibowitz, Tracy Moffat, Helena Blomqvist, Abelardo Morell, William Wegman and Miwa Yanagi. "

I'm a big fan of Exit and have written about other issues here and here.

Glad Påsk - Happy Easter!

Image from and by underbaraclara.

Glad Påsk - Happy Easter!

Nike for Nhu doung for weekday

Nike for Nhu doung for weekday. Photographs by Mathias Sterner.

Translucent, filmic, other-worldly, 1920s-30s strong old world beauty.

Landmasses and Railways.

Landmasses and Railways. Photographs by Bertrand Fleuret. Edited by Jason Fulford. J&L Books, 2009. 208 pp., 150 duotone illustrations, 6.7x9". Limited edition of 1000. Limited

"A photograph of an image of a woman with a triangular slice where her eyes should be, a two-page aerial shot of a forest, a train coming straight at us: Bertrand Fleuret's artist's book Landmasses and Railways juxtaposes such enigmatic and striking black-and-white images to create a pleasantly unsettling, difficult-to-decipher narrative. Edited by photographer Jason Fulford, whose own influential publications are helping to define a new generation of photobooks, this exquisitely designed 200-page volume is dreamlike, taking us on a journey through rural and urban landscapes, construction and decay, chaos and clarity."

A truly spectacularly beautiful book!

Bertrand Fleuret was born in France in 1969 and has studied both graphic design and photography. He now lives and works in Berlin. Click on his name to learn more about him and see more of his work.

The book is available as a hard back (1000 copies) or in a limited edition comprising of:
"A portfolio of six original 16" x 20"matte baryt prints, together in a slipcase.
This is a special edition of five portfolios, each handmade by Fleuret. The cover of each slipcase has an additional print tipped in."

Both editions of the book are available to buy at the publisher or over at photo-eye.

Moi Ver: Paris.

Moi Ver: Paris. Photographs and book design by Moi Ver. Text by Christoph Schifferli and Fernand Leger. Edition 7L, Paris, 2002. 80 pp., 80 black-and-white illustrations, 9x11½".

"In Paris, [the] quintessential avant-garde book, Moi Ver succeeded in blending dynamic photographic montage with elaborate graphic layouts. Utilizing the double-spread as one unified place, each turn of the page not only surprised but accentuated the charged rhythm built into the book itself. The bulk of information in these pictures documents mundane street activities in the cobblestone-covered Paris of the late 20s. But the method in which Moi Ver chose to present his material, in its kaleidoscopic layering and frenzied repetitiveness, emphasized an experiential approach to picture construction - as if we, the viewers, were walking about, bombarded by noise and reflected light."


Moi Ver was a lithuanian photographer and painter who is mostly known for producing "fascinating avant-garde photomontages". He initially studied painting - taking courses with Paul Klee, Wassily Kandinsky, and Joseph Albers at the Bauhaus, and thereafter attending Ecole Photo One in Paris.

Moi Ver: Paris was originally published in 1931 by Editions Jeanne Walter with an introduction by Futurist Fernand Leger. The book has long been out of print and the original is extremely rare.

This reproduction of Moi Ver: Paris "brings back into circulation one of the seminal photographic books of the century".

FILE

FILE. 56pp., illustrations, 39x30xm. Printed on improved newspaper with a 300 gsm uncoated cover. Accompanied with a DVD featuring over two hours of short films, music videos and interviews; as well as a commissioned limited print.

FILE is a new bi-annual magazine that focuses on graphic design, art and visual communications with the aim of being a "survey of the current visual culture".

This first issue includes a DVD featuring short films, music videos and interviews as well as a limited print by Geoff McFetridge (each issue will have a commissioned print by a different artist). The magazine itself is printed on newspaper paper with a cover made of 300gsm uncoated paper.

For more of the content and were to buy (either press "buy now" or go to "news" for stockists in London) go here - or to their flickr here.

Old Rare New. The Independent Record Shop.

Old Rare New. The Independent Record Shop. By Emma Pettit. Essays by Sean Bidder, Bob Stanley, Byron Coley, James Dean Bradfield, Devandra Banhart and more. Black Dog Publishing, 2009. 192 pp., 160 color and black & white illustrations, 8½x10½".

"There is nothing quite like the feeling of thumbing through LP after LP in a dusty old record shop, only to stumble upon some hidden treasure, new obsession or forgotten love. Old Rare New: The Independent Record Shop is a homage to the holy places of music collecting, complete with their particular anecdotes, peculiar characters, and unique environments.

Emma Pettit, formerly of the Institute of Contemporary Arts, has travelled across the UK and America into these eclectic spaces of musical exchange, interviewing record shop owners, collectors and musicians to provide a rich account of the increasingly rare independent record shop. Featured shops include Rough Trade East (London), Sister Ray (London), Vinyl Exchange (Manchester), Other Music (New York), Aquarius Records (San Francisco), Amoeba Records (California) and Jazz Record Mart (Chicago). The first comprehensive look at these important institutions, Old Rare New: The Independent Record Shop is an essential read for the musically inclined.

Featuring contributions by James Dean Bradfield (Manic Street Preachers), Simon Reynolds, Devendra Banhart, Billy Childish, Bob Stanley (Saint Etienne), Sean Bidder (Vinyl Factory), Byron Coley (Ecstatic Yod), Rob Da Bank (Bestival) and Bonnie 'Prince' Billy. "

Alphabet Truck.

Alphabet Truck. Photographs by Eric Tabuchi. Unknown publisher, 2008. The book consists of 26 loose plates in an edition of 500. Also available: limited edition of 26 / 1 for each letter, accompanied with a signed and numbered photograph.

"With this edition of Alphabet Truck, Eric Trabuchi completes a work representing several thousands of kilometers traversed over these past four years. The missing link between The back of trucks passed while driving from Los Angeles to Santa Barbara by John Baldessari and Auchan, and the letters of Claude Closky, Eric Tabuchi pushes the burlesque or compulsive logic of his piece in an almost derisory search for what could constitute its Danish and Japanese origins. Through language (Alphabet) and displacement (Trucks), Alphabet Truck therefore questions, beyond its formal aspects and references, the notions of membership, identity and coeducation. "

I am endlessly interested in "found" typography as well as the incidentals of life.

I took a deep breath

Images from coffre à trésors. Quote from The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath

I took a deep breath and listened to the old bray of my heart: I am, I am, I am.

The sky is blue, the sun is in full force, we have spring.