NY Art Book Fair

Of course all my favorite things in life are bulky and heavy. Books being on the top of my list. This weekend is a great opportunity to add to my ever expanding collection at the fifth annual NY Art Book Fair. Sponsored by Printed Matter, the fair is FREE! hosts over 200 international presses, booksellers, antiquarian dealers, artists and publishers from twenty countries, offering the best in contemporary art book publishing. Check it out at PS1 starting Friday and take a stroll around the corner to grab some buffet Indian eats at Five Star. Not bad for a day's work!

PogoBooks

PogoBooks is an independent publisher of limited edition art books and zines based in Berlin, Germany. Founded in 2010, PogoBooks' focus is on publishing Photography. Our goal is to make original art accessible to everyone. We create books and zines that start dialog and conversation, with a high priority placed on quality and content. We publish art-books and limited edition zines. All our books and zines are monographs.

Love their recent monograph from Seoul-based photographer Hasisi Park!! Check out the work above and below!

Report from TAIPEI: MARK LEE PING-BIN

Seasoned cinematographer Mark Lee Ping-Bin is finally gaining more recognition with a new book, Poet of Light and Shadow, and documentary, Let the Wind Carry Me. Linked often with director Hou Hsiao-Hsien (who calls him, affectionately, A-Bing) and overshadowed by fellow DP Christopher Doyle, Lee has steadily established himself as a technical master of "glamorous realism." He avoids HD whenever possible, and his shots are fluid and heart-breakingly gorgeous. See In the Mood for Love, Millennium Mambo, The Vertical Ray of the Sun (credited as Pin Bing Lee on imdb.com). The book reprints his fine art photography, poems and interviews.

On set, Hou likens his right-hand man to a soldier. Lee runs on self-deprivation: no bathroom breaks or family visits (his teenage son in Los Angeles struggles to understand his absenteeism). His mother, however, figures prominently in the documentary: in Taiwanese fashion, a true mama's boy! His favorite movie is Close Encounters of the Third Kind.

Bedknobs & Broomsticks

In the spirit of the classic Little Golden Books for children, Little Brown Mushroom Books is releasing a series of photographic storybooks for grown-ups. LBM is the self-published books from photographer Alex Soth and friends. Their first grown-up storybook, Bedknobs & Broomsticks, features photographs and story by Australian photographer Trent Parke and design by Hans Seeger. With his fierce photographic style, Parke takes readers along a magic bed of free association from Down Under. Priced at $18 and limited to a numbered edition of 1000. Treguna, Makoidees, Trecorum, Sadis Dee! Click here for more info or to buy the book!

Grotesk Book Launch

Rainy Fridays

I woke up this morning feeling a little blue and thought about one of my favorite books growing up, Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day. Poor Alexander, "went to sleep with gum in my mouth and now there's gum in my hair and when I got out of bed this morning I tripped on the skateboard and by mistake I dropped my sweater in the sink while the water was running and I could tell it was going to be a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day." Written by Judith Viorst and illustrated by Ray Cruz this classic makes waking up on the wrong side of the bed a little easier for everyone. happy friday!!

Alain de Botton: The Pleasures and Sorrows of Work

Years ago, a good friend recommended a compact and curious book, The Art of Travel by the British author/thinker Alain de Botton. It took me a couple of years and a trip to Havana to really delve into the book, but it connects the idea that travel and adventure is a basic human yearning and we can visit the various aspects of this fundamental urge to art throughout the ages. A fascinating read that I recommend to anyone. His newest book, The Pleasures and Sorrows of Work takes a similar philosophical approach to exploring the range of occupations we choose and what they do or dont mean to us. Im ordering it today but you can see clips below from his recent conversation at the NYPL! Thanks Nima!

PSFK Snapshot: Brooklyn

"Half guide book, half trends report," the folks over at PSFK launched the second book from their "Snapshot" series highlighting venues and interesting happenings from around our beloved borough. On a secondary note, its interesting that PSFK choose the self-publishing tool/website, Blurb, to publish their series! Cop it here.

Reading Material

From the TheMoment Blog:Who says print is dead? Koji Suzuki, the Tokyo-based author of smash-hit horror novels like the “The Ring,” has found a new publishing medium: toilet paper. Suzuki has teamed with Hayashi Paper Company, which makes novelty printed paper products for public restrooms, to manufacture rolls of toilet tissue stamped with a nine-chapter horror novella called “Drop.” The story, about a goblin living in a public restroom, places the reader at the center of the tale, and each roll contains several copies of the novella so that you can easily pick up the narrative where you left off. (A friend of mine in Tokyo said it’s so scary, she was frightened to be alone in the bathroom.) A roll of “Drop” costs 210 yen, which, at just over $2, is a fair price for disposable art.

Coreen Simpson and The Black Cameo

Photographer and accessories designer Coreen Simpson talks with The FADER about her new book, The Black Cameo in a great Q+A!

We first came across Coreen Simpson via her iconic collection of street style portraits of impossibly stylish black men and women on the NYC nightlife scene of the 1980s that we published back in FADER #33. Simpson also happens to have a good helping of style herself, working as a jewelry designer throughout her photography career. Her new book, The Black Cameo, pays homage to the accessories sensation she started back in the late '80s—chic black and white cameos with the profile of a black woman. Before her pieces, black images on jewelry of this kind were pretty much unheard of, and when her collection launched at the Studio Museum of Harlem there were literally hoards of women lining up to get them. We chatted with Simpson about her days street-vending on 57th street, about the origins of the cameo and why, in her opinion, personal style is the only thing that we really own.

Read the full interview here.

Book Review: On Beauty by Zadie Smith

On Beauty by Zadie Smith

Everyone (who reads) typically has their own strong opinions about Zadie Smith’s best work to date. The majority scream WHITE TEETH, the minority, AUTOGRAPH MAN, never do they say ON BEAUTY. On Beauty is my pick because of Ms. Smith’s clever way of weaving complicated subjects like the politics, religion, fragility of adult relationships, sexual objectification of women by youth, beauty or color, the complexities of being bi-racial and of belonging in sub-cultures that create the characters’ identities (young vs. old, black vs. white, rich vs. poor, educated vs. street, religious vs. secular) as well as create conflict among the family. It’s a beautiful book with a clever storyline and the million witticisms we know to expect from the du jour Brit author and while the story is true to its soul and doesn’t climax frantically, the subject and characters stay in your mind long after you’ve put it down.

On Beauty by Zadie Smith

Subway Art: 25th Anniversary Edition

Listen to Henry Chalfant and Martha Cooper talk about the global impact of Subway Art, 25 years later. Celebrating a quarter-century of graffiti, the two photographers are re-releasing this seminal book in a large format with Chronicle Books.