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.
Donkey Work!
Self Publish, Be Happy
Recently Received
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.
Dreams teem.
Hey, Les.
That Roman cave reminds me of my dreams, which of late have teemed with illicit and debased liaisons. I’m drawn to those eroded human figures on the columns, caryatid and telamon, degraded shadows of their full-bodied selves. Barely capable of breath, let alone any other engagement. Doomed to become less and less, Les.
Cheerily yrs,
Dear Lester
Good news. On Sunday I visited Herr Steidl in Germany. After a lot of sturm und drang, he agreed to publish our book this year!
I’m eager to get home and back to work on our manual. But now I’m in Rome. Today on a walk I saw something that made me think of you:
Y’rs,