Indie Photobook Week (part 3)

Books by Alec Soth

As a final installment of posts in honor of the 3rd annual Book Fair being held tomorrow at Philadelphia Photo Arts Center, I present my collection of books by Alec Soth. Most of these are published by Soth's own Little Brown Mushroom publishing venture. Little Brown Mushroom is one of the small book publishers that will be presented at the PPAC Book Fair.



Lonely Boy Mag
"A -1 : Alec Soth's Midwestern Exotica"
"A- 2: Boys and Their Cars"

The first book by Alec Soth I ever bought was Lonely Boy Mag, "A-1: Alec Soth's Midwestern Exotica" followed by "A-2: Boys And Their Cars". Both of these books were published in 2011. A-1 is a solo project by Soth, while A-2 includes the work of Todd Hido, Alec Soth, Chad States, and Peter Davidson. Todd Hido was the juror for this year's ONWARD competition, and I got him to sign my A-2 copy when he lectured at the ONWARD Summit back in January. Hido claimed it was the only copy he has ever signed. Chad States will be attending the PPAC Book Fair this weekend and I'm hoping I can get another "rare' signature. Both of these books are editions of 1000. A-1 is sold out, while A-2 is still available on the Little Brown Mushroom website.


Lonely Boy Mag  A-2
erotic dioramas by Peter Davidson


I won't go into the complete explanation of Soth's alter-ego Lester B Morrison here. It is too complex and would require a lengthy post of its own. Lets just say that Soth sometimes works under the pseudonym Lester B Morrison in order to explore an artistic and psychological sense of freedom.The name follows Soth's obsession with the initials LBM....(Little Brown Mushroom, Lester B. Morrison, etc) Here are three zines by Lester, all with titles containing the LBM initials. These are sold as a set of three in an edition of 500.



3 Zines by Lester B. Morrison
"Lester Becomes Me"
"Lonely Bearded Men"
"Library of Broken Men"



from "Library For Broken Men"




from "Lester Becomes Me"


House Of Coates is a more formal step into the world of Lester. It is published in a very unique format, being spiral-bound similar to a cookbook or shop manual. The book is written by Brad Zeller, who tells the story of the elusive life of Lester B Morrison. The images in the book supposedly come from a duct-taped shoe box that Zeller received in the mail containing over two hundred photographs taken by Morrison. This book was released in an edition of 1000 and sold out very quickly. It is now in a second printing of another 1000 copies.The first printing copies have a green cover, while the second printing cover is brown.

House Of Coates
First printing. (Edition of 1000)

from House Of Coates

Finally, Alec Soth and Lester B Morrison lead us to the book collector's dream (or nightmare), with the Steidl Mack publication of Broken Manual. It took four years to produce this book (2006-2010). An edition of 300, each copy is a unique hardcover book hand cut to receive the hidden paper bound Broken Manual inside. (see Peter Davidson's exotic dioramas from Lonely Boy A-2 above). The books were presented all together in an installation at Sean Kelly Gallery in New York last year before being distributed to collectors.


Broken Manual installation
Sean Kelly Gallery, NY
photo by Jason Wyche


Broken Manual installation
Sean Kelly Gallery, NY
photo by Jason Wyche



Broken Manual  (#265 of 300)


Broken Manual

Broken Manual is both a photo essay of men living off the grid, as well as an instruction manual for those who would like to do so (or only dream of doing so). Soth photographed monks, survivalists, hermits, and runaways in an array of haunting and intimate images. The photographs are interspersed with pages containing tips and techniques on escaping from civilization and how to stay hidden. Many of these instructions are repeated from Lester's trio of zines (see above).


Broken Manual

Broken Manual is quite incredible to browse through. Every little detail is amazing. The shell books are intentionally distressed and contain foxing to the interior linings. Pages are hand cut and glued to create the recessed area for the inserted manual. Glued to the inside of the book is a little booklet called "Liberation Billfold Manifest" which contains sample letters to leave behind for loved ones when the time comes to head for the hills. Also included is a signed 8" X 10" color print of Soth's transformation into Lester B Morrison... "Lester Becomes Me".

Broken Manual


Broken Manual

I agonized for months over the decision to buy this book. It is way beyond my usual price range. I had never bought a Steidl limited edition book before, although I have lusted over many of them.Several times I changed my mind and told myself I was crazy to spend that much money on a book. I started to think in terms of "investment" and "secondary market value", and that takes the fun out of collecting. The dozens of twenty dollar small edition photobooks in my collection are almost always purchased with an element of fun. If a few of them become rare collectibles, that will be great, but I don't buy them with that in mind. I don't regret buying Broken Manual, not one bit. I love it. It was important for me to complete my collection of Soth's books. But the stigma of "investment value" will always be attached to it, unlike any of the other books in my collection.

I am looking forward to nothing but fun at tomorrow's 3rd Annual Book Fair at Philadelphia Photo Arts Center. Several artists and publishers from my collection of books will be there and it will be nice to meet face to face. I attended the first Book Fair at PPAC in 2010. It was rather small, but what I saw there really jump started my interest in small independent book publishing. This year's fair has really grown in size with over thirty small publishers participating. Check out the list here.  And the Indie Photobook Library will be bringing along a first ever crowd curated exhibit from its collection. A list of the books IPL director Larissa Leclair will be bringing to Philly is listed here.

Hope to see you at the Book Fair if you are planning to attend. If not, I will be posting photos and a review here on PHOTO/arts Magazine. 








Indie Photobook Week (part 2)


Animals That Saw Me.
Volume One. 

Photographs by Ed Panar. 
The Ice Plant, 2011. 80 pp., 36 color and 4 black & white illustrations, 7x8½". 


Animals That Saw Me by Ed Panar

The second book I'll feature this week in honor of the 3rd annual Book Fair at Philadelphia Photo Arts Center on Saturday is Animals That Saw Me by Ed Panar. This is such a fun book.I found it by browsing through the lists of best photo books on Photo-Eye. This was on Darius Himes' favorite picks for 2011.

The first thing to love about this book is the beautiful cloth cover and bright yellow liner. I've read reviews calling this a children's book, and in some ways it has the classic look and feel of a vintage child's book. Full of whimsical and fun images, each one of a personal encounter between Panar and an animal. Here is the publisher's description of the book..

Roaming the natural and urban world with a camera for over 16 years, often alone, on foot, keeping a low profile, Ed Panar has repeatedly been caught in the act of photography—not by other people, but by a random assortment of familiar animals: cows, cats, frogs, dogs, turtles, deer, geese…you name it. The animal sees Ed, and Ed sees the animal; an unspoken message passes between them. If he’s lucky, the moment is captured on film, cataloged, tagged for future reference. In Animals That Saw Me: Volume One Panar brings together the first collection of his most surprising and unexpected encounters with ordinary beasts—a brief, deadpan field study of the uncanny moment of recognition between species. As we question exactly what these animals may have seen, the pictures serve as a reminder that we must appear at least as strange and exotic to them as they do to us. 


I'm thrilled to have a signed copy of this book in my collection. Ed Panar will be at the Book Fair on Saturday to sign copies of this book as well as his other books, and I look forward to meeting him in person.




Indie Photobook Week (part 1)

In anticipation of the third annual Book Fair at Philadelphia Photo Arts Center in Philadelphia on May 5th, I thought it would be fun to spend the week featuring some of the photobooks recently added to my collection. I'll stick to the genre of small edition, independently published books... my favorite kind. I wish I had the budget to buy as many of these collectible books as I would like. Instead, I browse the internet selectively and usually add one new book each month to my collection. My preference is for signed editions under 500, at around twenty dollars each.

First up is a fun little book by Joseph Putrock called Twentysix Gas Cans.

Twentysix Gasoline Cans by Joseph Putrock

A nice little take-off of the iconic Twentysix Gasoline Stations by Ed Ruscha, published in 1962. Putrock offers us relatively banal images that when presented in series attain a subtle irony and charm. The ubiquitous red gasoline can showing up in various suburban settings. Its a fun book to browse through and I found myself chuckling as I turned the pages, wondering where the little red can would appear next. Twentysix Gasoline Cans is printed in an edition of 300. I got number 13 with a nice note from Putrock thanking me for buying the book.

Twentysix Gasoline Stations by Ed Ruscha

The book is the first venture into photobook sales by Small Batch Editions. I asked Melissa Stafford, who runs SBE, to tell me a little about this book and plans for future offerings...

Yes, Twentysix Gasoline Cans is our first book release - sort of an experiment to see how limited edition artist books would be received (and so far, the feedback has been really encouraging).
 Joe's book came to me already packaged, but in the future (as I would love to release more titles going forward), Small Batch Editions will have a greater involvement in shaping the project and designing the final output. All of the editions on SBE come from series / bodies of work, and publications are the next inevitable and natural progression to help photographers fully realise their ambitions. Our aim is to publish books that are more objects, and smaller runs (under 500)  
 As of right now, we have a few projects in the works, including 'From a Small Island', a work in progress from photographer Andrew Jackson (www.writtenbylight.com). 'From a Small Island' examines the legacy and lives of migration. Jackson's parents both came to Britain from Jamaica in the 1950's, and the project is an opportunity to explore that generation and their experiences in England since their journey.
We also hope to put out more projects from Joe Putrock, who is working on a series of conceptual photo books with subjects ranging from something as specific as parking lots to things as grand-reaching as the universe. 

Melissa Stafford is an independent curator and art consultant based in Upstate New York. Melissa made a name for herself as the Director of Carrie Haddad Photographs, in Hudson NY, a position she held from 2008 to 2011. Previously, she was Assistant Director of the Carrie Haddad Gallery in Hudson, NY for nearly six years. Throughout her time with Haddad, Melissa played an integral role in the mounting of more than 75 exhibitions. In addition to Small Batch Editions, Melissa is director of Stafford Contemporary, representing a select group of artists working in a wide variety of artistic approaches, including, photography, works on paper, sculpture, paintings, video and installations.

Small Batch Editions

Stafford Contemporary

Joseph Putrock

Third Annual Book Fair at Philadelphia Photo Arts Center