While we're on the subject of self-published books, I thought I'd mention my most recent acquisition. Now, I'm not supposed to be buying any more photo-books at the moment, but when I saw the title of this one, I knew I had to check it out. Traffic Cones of Japan by Max Cameron does sound like a runner-up in the "Oddest Title of the Year" awards, but is exactly the sort of quirky, obsessive use of photography's superpower of documentary fidelity and an artist's ability to notice and connect [1] that combine so well with the book-form's own superpower of simultaneous serial and random-access presentation. Curiously, this sort of project seems to suit the culture and environment of the Far East : see Michael Wolf's ongoing series of thematic photographs of Hong Kong and Tokyo.
As soon as I saw a review (in PetaPixel, I think) I ordered a copy from Good Press (an interesting link, that, for any self-publishers out there). To my mind it's perfect: small, well-priced, unpretentious, obsessive, humorous, and the photographs are uniformly excellent. If you can find one (Good Press are already sold out), why not buy a copy and earn yourself some book-making karma-points by supporting a worthwhile project?
Thanks for the link to Michael Wolf, Mike. Prolific was the first word that came to mind when I looked through his website. Some interesting pictures there.
ReplyDeleteGood Press is about half an hour from me. I hadn't head of them till now but will pay a visit next time I'm in Glasgow.
Cheers,
Stephen.
Stephen,
ReplyDeleteI've got a few of those little Peperoni Books by Michael Wolf and they are very nice. "Tokyo Compression", of course, is what made his name.
Mike
Mike,
ReplyDeleteI had to Google "Tokyo Compression" but on seeing some of those photos, I immediately recognised them. (Wolf isn't a photographer I'd been much aware of for whatever reason.)
Peperoni books looks ike an interesting website — I'm off to look through their catalogue.
Cheers,
Stephen.