In Rome, In California
Carrie Thompson – I Hope We Go Together
The extraordinary Carrie Elizabeth Thompson has an exhibition up at the XY and Z gallery in Minneapolis.
There will be a reception for Carrie on July 8th from 6-9pm. The gallery will also be open regular hours (M 11-7/ F&Sa 1-9/ Sunday 12-5) until August 2nd. Stop by and check out the show.
Also check out this interview with Carrie and the other 2009 McKnight Fellows here.
New Arrivals
Book Covers
Following up on yesterday’s (weirdly controversial) post, here are some examples of book covers that I’ve agree to:
If this topic is of interest to you, be sure to check out Covering Photography.
This is annoying
Ten years ago I made this picture:
In 2006, a publisher (Little, Brown and Company) asked if they could purchase the rights (and Photoshop a child in the snow). This was their proposal:
I said no. Three years later, I stumbled across this book at Barnes and Noble:
Now I hear that Winter’s Bone became a movie and won the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance.
I can’t wait to see the poster.
Trent Parke book signing
Trent Parke and his publisher are in New York City this Thursday night for a book signing at Dashwood Books. Come say hi.
LBM Book by Trent Parke!
In the spirit of the classic Little Golden Books for children, Little Brown Mushroom is releasing a series of photographic storybooks for grown-ups. Our first book, Bedknobs & Broomsticks, features photographs and story by Trent Parke and design by Hans Seeger.
I was recently at a party chatting with the writer Geoff Dyer. Out of the blue, Dyer said, “I think Trent Parke is a photographic genius.” I responded by saying that not only do I agree, I believe in him so much that I’m publishing his book. Shockingly, this is Parke’s first book in ten years.
Priced at only $18 and limited to a numbered edition of 1000, this one is going to go fast.
Buy the book here
Steidlville
Back in Göttingenon this week:
For a better glimpse behind the scenes – and for some excellent recipes, buy this book:
Tobias Zielony: Story/No Story
A few weeks ago at the Fotobook Festival in Kassel, the folks at Schaden showed me their single copy of Story/No Story by Tobias Zielony. The book wasn’t for sale yet, but I knew I had to get my hands on it. Yesterday the book arrived and I was relieved to find it was as great as I’d remembered. The book is made up of thirteen chapters documenting young people in various locations around the globe. Usually photographed at night, the teens are invariably drawn to generic locales like car parks, gas stations and other public spaces. As the book’s title suggests, their is no story. But this, in fact, is the story of so many young people around the world. They gather at night and wait for something to happen. In an interview included in the book, Zielony quotes one girl he photographed who said, “We’re not bored. Boredom is just a word for what we do anyway.”
One might think that thirteen chapters of kids loitering might be, well, boring. But Zielony’s book is almost cinematic. Flipping through the pages, I feel like I’m floating around the world at night. “There’s a latent narrative,” Zielony says in the book’s interview, “It’s in the situations, in the youth’s imaginations. You can’t say that nothing is happening. My photo series disclose this potential narrative.
Kiefer v. Morrison
I saw some photo collages by Anselm Kiefer at Gagosian yesterday. They reminded me a bit of Lester B. Morrison’s Lost Boy Mountain.