MC’s Gift Guide: Art & Photography Books
Christmas is next week and it is coming up quicker than you probably realized.
That seems to be the theme of this year at least, everything happening at what feels like the speed of light. In a daze, days just blend into each other. Well, thankfully it’s almost over and if you haven’t already bought any presents for your loved ones, we’re here to help. Here is a mix of some new and classic photobooks that your friend who brings their camera with them everywhere will enjoy. There’s also some for your skateboarders, music fans and surfers too in there, this is Monster Children after all, we know they’re around.
Jacob Rosenberg: Right Before My Eyes
Right Before My Eyes is a document of the Bay Area hip-hop and skate scenes between 1988-1998. Two scenes connected by Jacob Rosenberg who was there to capture it all, making both skate videos and music videos around SF and Oakland. The book is full of never-before-seen photos and Hi8 video stills of Del the Funky Homosapien, Souls of Mischief, De La Soul and Public Enemy, as well as of the skate scene at Embarcadero in a period where San Francisco was skateboarding’s Mecca. Right Before My Eyes is the perfect gift for your Mike Carroll, Public Enemy loving friend.
Self-Published
Joe Dilworth: Everything, All at Once Forever
Everything, All at Once Forever is a collection of photographs of the late 80s and early 90s London indie music scene. The book features early photographs of the likes of Stereolab, Teenage Fanclub, and My Bloody Valentine. Joe Dilworth was a part of the scene taking photos and playing the drums in Th’ Faith Healers whose last song on their 1993 album Imaginary Friend, “Everything, All at Once Forever” was the inspiration for the books title. The book showcases the musicians and music fans everywhere from in the wild at the grimy pub shows to the more intimate at the squats they called home. It is an amazing document of a scene full of twenty-something year old’s who were unknowingly amidst being responsible for so much of what the nineties underground indie rock scene was coming to be.
A perfect gift for the shoegaze, indie rock nerd.
Published by Kominek Books
Arto Saari: Bike Path
Bike Path is the documentation of Arto Saari’s new home, Oahu’s North Shore. The title inspired by the bike path that he walked or rode along on his way to the beach every day, enamoured by the path and what it represents he started documenting it and the people who inhabited it. The book in its final form featuring photographs from the bike path to the surf, the surfers and beachgoers who exist and enjoy the spaces, celebrating the freedom, rebellion and beauty found in places once unassuming.
This book is selling quick, so you might have to look around to find a copy, but it is perfect for your surfer friend. And while on the topic of Superlabo Tokyo, have a look at Ed Templeton’s City Confessions books they have published, they’re also incredible.
Published by Superlabo
Jerry Hsu: The Beautiful Flower Is the World
Jerry Hsu’s esteemed 2019 photobook who’s first edition sells for upwards of $400, was reissued this year with a second edition. Now once again available to buy in stores, The Beautiful Flower Is the World is the perfect gift for your friend who loves to giggle and tell you about all the silly things they saw walking on the way to meet you for dinner. The photographs captured on mostly a blackberry phone, originally for Jerry’s blog Nazi Gold are documentations of the oddities within the everyday from funny graffiti to misspelled signs and bootleg t-shirts.
Published by Anthology Editions
Nan Goldin: This Will Not End Well
This Will Not End Well is the first book that presents an overview of Nan Goldin’s work as a filmmaker. Known more for her work as a photographer and in particular her seminal 1986 autobiographical series, The Ballad of Sexual Dependency. This Will Not End Well instead is comprised of nearly a dozen slideshows and films she has made over her career, telling stories of the trauma of her family history to a journey into the darkness of addiction. It is a really nice overview of her work.
Saying all this is with the assumption that who you are buying for already has Nan Goldin’s The Ballad of Sexual Dependency on their bookshelf, however, if you know they don’t please disregard this and buy them that it is a true necessity.
Published by Steidl
Jim Goldberg: Coming and Going
Jim Goldberg is a photographer who needs no introduction. Published by Mack in 2023, Coming and Going is the photographer’s unique autobiography, full of photographs, handwritten annotations, letters, diary entries, collages, and other ephemera to telling the story of Jim’s life visually. The book captures Jim’s early life as a photographer to meeting his ex-wife, defined by a polaroid of her labelled ‘This is the moment I fell in love’ to the birth of his daughter. Jim’s ability to convey story through imagery in this book is unique and makes the book a must need for any photography fan.
While this book was published last year there are still copies available and it is well worth trying to get one before they’re all gone.
Published by Mack
Sophie Calle: True Stories
I truly believe one of the greatest gifts I’ve ever gifted is this book. I bought it for my sister two years ago and we have both been obsessed with it ever since. True Stories is the unorthodox memoir of French writer, photographer, installation artist, and conceptual artist, Sophie Calle. It was first published in 1994 but has regularly been reissued and expanded since. In stories that are never longer than a few sentences and always accompanied by photographs, she gives away fragments of her amazing, chaotic life. Telling tales of her early childhood to her work as an artist to her relationships both romantic and with her family and cat, Souris. Writing in a way just as unique as her, Sophie Calle’s writing is poetic, lighthearted yet cruel, brutally honest, and funny. True Stories reminds you that you have one life, and you may as well do the craziest things you can think of because even if the outcome isn’t great the story will be.
This book is the perfect gift for your art friend if you’re on a budget, its small, readily available and the cheapest book on the list. Saying that, however, it is just as necessary for an art and photography enjoyer as any other.
Published by Actes Sud