Your favorite coffee table books (photography, artist monographs, fashion bible, etc)

[BECOMING-INTENSE]

Atta Kim: On-Air
Christopher Phillips
ICP/Steidl(2006)

[fncyths]

Just preordered "Whitewash" by LA photographer Nicholas Alan Cope




And for you New Yorkers, the book launch will be at Mondo Cane in Tribeca on March 28th.

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feature from nowness:

"White Heat
The Unequivocal Geometry of Los Angeles is Captured in a New Monograph

The arresting lines and bright facades of Los Angeles’ architectural landscape are captured in these stark black-and-white images from photographer Nicholas Alan Cope. Taken from Whitewash—a monograph due for release by Powerhouse Books early next month—the images look to portray the dramatic contrasts created by the interplay of the city’s understated modernist structures and the bleaching effect of the severe California sunlight. “My work as a photographer began by focusing on the essential components of Los Angeles architecture and I spent two years working to create a set of parameters for photographing the city,” explains Cope, whose work has featured in Vogue Japan, GOOD magazine and Interview, with commercial clients including Toms shoes, HBO, Virgin Atlantic and Free People. “This is Los Angeles as its most stripped down and raw.” Whitewash comes with a foreword from Californian fashion designer Rick Owens, included here.

I moved to Paris from Los Angeles 10 years ago and haven’t been back since. But this is exactly how I remember it. Bright hot incessant clear light, casting blackety-black shadows from Brutalist blocks that take the history of architecture and silently reduce and contain it like lunar tombs. Or Aztec temples morphed into foam-core cartoons.

This kind of light makes decisions easier, more black and white. Good vs bad, pure vs impure, aspiration vs collapse. Determined grim optimism vs self indulgent despair. The suggestion of an old Hollywood monolithic black-and-white movie set encourages self invention and self consciousness as you make your way down an imaginary long white staircase. There’s not another living soul on the set and the spotlight is on you, wiping out any flaw or imperfection, hallucinating yourself into who you wanna be...

Exactly how I remember it...

Rick Owens, November 2012"

[Faust]

I thought I'd post here as well, my conversation with the legendary publisher Gerhard Steidl.

Also, for those of you who don't know, we do a lot of book reviews on sz-mag.com in our culture section.

[Faust]

I dare you to keep this on your coffee table.

[k3mist]

^ wow. at first i was like, yeah why not..when i clicked and read the info, yeah maybe not.

anyway, this is whats on my table right now

[interest1]

I dare you to keep this on your coffee table.

go, God, go!

[MJRH]

faust, it's only too easy: for my atheist friends, it's the impotence or outright maleficence of religion; for my religious friends, an indifferent world ignoring the beauty of a spirituality which nonetheless continues to envelop all manner of brutality; and for everybody else, it's a thought-provoking dialectic

[AngelofDeath]

Got the big book of Rick for Christmas. Absolutely beautiful.

Though, it does look a little awkward on the table completely dwarfing my volumes of SZ Mag.

[Faust]

faust, it's only too easy: for my atheist friends, it's the impotence or outright maleficence of religion; for my religious friends, an indifferent world ignoring the beauty of a spirituality which nonetheless continues to envelop all manner of brutality; and for everybody else, it's a thought-provoking dialectic

[Faust]

Luke Powell - Afghan Gold.

This book is brilliant.

[returningson]

go, God, go!

People's faces when they open it are worth the price by itself!

[ulrich133]

I finally bought The Art of Rhinoceros Horn Carving in China the other day...can't wait for it to finally arrive :)

[returningson]

[QUOTE=ulrich133;454509]I finally bought The Art of Rhinoceros Horn Carving in China the other day...can't wait for it to finally arrive :)

DO NOT QUOTE IMAGES ON THE SAME PAGE

those pieces are stunningly beautiful. I went to an exhibit a while back that showcased a couple of those. The miniscule details actually require you to stare motionless for at least a minute to focus and see it all. Looks like a great read!

[550BC]

Nicholas Alan Cope - Whitewash
One of my favorite books when it comes to minimal architecture in black and white photography.

[Faust]

/\ Also, everyone should check out the fantastic article our arts editor did on Nicholas Alan Cope and Dustin Arnold in Volume 5.