It's The Season of Books

This is one of the times of the year that publisher's reps come spinning through, seducing us with their wares for the fall. We've recently met with Phaidon and Taschen, and a few more are on the agenda for the next two weeks. (Which means, by the way, if you're trying to set up ANY kind of appointment with Javier or me, it's probably not going to happen. These times of the year are almost enough to convince one of us to get a day planner. Almost.)

Anyway, new stuff from Phaidon includes:
--a change in the 55's series (which is a series I LOVE.) They're switching them from tiny paperbacks to oversize hardbacks and adding in more photographers. Mary Ellen Mark is due out this fall in the new format. If you've ever seen her Indian Circus book, you are as excited as I am.
--a big fancy book on Dada billed as, "The most comprehensive assessment available of Dada as revolutionary cultural movement and mass-media intervention."
-- this crazy interesting monograph of Francesca Woodman whose backstory is fascinating and something like this: she was raised by artist parents who gave her a camera at a very young age and she took pictures like crazy; she killed herself at age 22. This is the most comprehensively illustrated monograph ever of her work.
--Vitamin Ph is the newest installment in the series containing Vitamin D: New Perspectives in Drawing and Vitamin P: New Perspectives in Painting. This one is New Perspectives in Photography and features the work of 121 living photographers.
--Japan Style is coming, and it looks at Japanese culture through its architecture, arts, crafts, cinema and literature.

So, Taschen. When that rep comes to town it serves to reinforce that we are no longer 25. I think, THIS WEEK, we managed to close Vito's, Erato, Mangia, Pestalozzi Place, and Riley's. If we were not as chipper this week as we should have been, blame Taschen. For the fall they have coming:
--a super-cool monograph of Jan Saudek. Some of my favorite shots by him are when he photographs the same woman at age 20, 30, and 40. I haven't figured out, yet, whether that series pumps up my self-esteem or smashes it, but they're always interesting.
--Berlin which is a book of photographs of that city. Who doesn't like Berlin?
--a new series in the Basic Art format starring composers. The first to be issued is Mozart.
--another new series in the Icons format, film stars beginning with Audrey Hepburn, Clint Eastwood, Orson Welles, Marlon Brando (the hottie), Charlie Chaplin, and Marilyn Monroe.
--a book based on the film Babel by Alejandro Gonzales Inarrito. It's the third film in the series comprised of Amores Perros and 21 Grams.
--lastly, something Russ Meyer would be quite fond of, The Big Book of Breasts, which is exactly that. A giant book full of giant boobs. In the meeting I exclaimed that this was clearly meant for men and lesbians because I suspect that no hetero woman would be even remotely excited about looking at a giant book of something she sees EVERY DAY. The response I got was, "So?" Anyway, the cool thing about this is that in the versions being sent to the rest of the world the cover is a pair of bare giant breasts, but in the US version we get a bra. It has some kind of mylar bustier that wraps around the book and hooks in the back, acting to preserve our American modesty. I found that version much sexier, but again I was overruled. (Our rep is a man, by the way.)

Cool, huh?

--Kelly