I’ve been thinking about this article for some time and I guess there has never been a better time for it than now, especially when you look outside on that gloomy weather.
These days, your smartphone constantly alerts you to the amount of time spent on social media, so maybe it’s about time to put it away and figure out what to do instead. If you are still keen for some visual enrichment, the best option might be to grab a book, flick through it and finally enjoy being offline.
I am about to show you several book recommendations that should do the trick. And if this selection does not inspire you, trust me that at least these books fulfill their purpose as a nice decoration in your room. Once you’re done with them, you can use them as a support for your vase, as a place where you can rest your coffee, or just to fill up an empty space on your Ikea shelf … but after some time, you’ll find yourself opening this book again.
Helmut Newton – Sumo 20th Anniversary
When I first started with fashion photography, Helmut Newton was one of the first photographers who really impressed me. He was one of the most influential photographers of all time, who formed our understanding of how we see fashion photography these days. He first achieved international fame in the 1970s while working for French Vogue. What I love about his photo-works are his controversial scenarios, bold lighting, and his preference for locations over studios.
With SUMO, Newton created a photo book that stood head and shoulders above anything previously attempted. Now, this XL edition celebrates twenty years of SUMO, the result of a project conceived by Helmut Newton some years ago. Be aware, this book is pretty big and heavy, but it’s worth it. In case you would like to know more about Helmut Newton, I would suggest that you watch this documentary.
Peter Lindbergh – Untold Stories
Let’s stick with photography for one more recommendation. Here is another favorite photographer of mine, Peter Lindbergh. A master of his craft, Lindbergh’s humanist approach and idealisation of women sets him apart from other photographers as he provides a way to explore their soul and personality. He changed the standards of fashion photography in terms of retouching, considering that there is something else that makes a person interesting.
In this book, the photographer experiments with his own oeuvre and narrates new stories while staying true to his lexicon. With more than one hundred and fifty photographs from the early 1980s to the present, it offers new and unexpected insights into the work of the legendary photographer. The result is an intimate personal statement by Lindbergh about his work.
If you would like to see a documentary about him and the way he worked, watch this documentary.
Jean-Michel Basquiat
Jean-Michel Basquiat is considered to be one of the most successful artists of his time. The artist first appeared in the late 1970s with a group of graffiti artists under the tag SAMO, spraying caustic comments and fragmented poems on the walls of New York. In a booming art world, he was part of the underground scene of visual arts, graffiti, hip hop, and DIY filmmaking. I am still not sure if graffiti was the reason that brought me to this artist or his later art but whatever the reason, he was a big influence on me in my teenage years.
Basquiat’s expressive style was based on raw figures and integrated words and phrases. As a painter with a strong personal voice, he soon broke into the established milieu, exhibiting in galleries around the world.
This book – with more than five hundred pages – allows an unprecedented insight into Basquiat’s art, with pristine reproductions of his most seminal paintings, drawings, and notebook sketches.
While you are waiting for a delivery of this book, you should definitely check out these two documentaries: first & second.
Great Women Artists
The inside of this book is as visually arresting as its bright yellow cover. You’ll find full-page colour reproductions of artwork by four hundred women covering the last five hundred years. This book includes artists from contemporary favourites, such as Yayoi Kusama, to Renaissance artist Properzia de’ Rossi, (born 1490).
Also featured are artists who received incommensurate attention in their time such as Carmen Herrera, artists who were overshadowed by their partners like Leonora Carrington, and artists who, revered in their own time, later saw exclusion from written accounts or fell out of popular consciousness, for example Angelica Kauffman.
KATE by Mario Sorrenti
While not too many people know the fashion photographer Mario Sorrenti, I think there is no need for an introduction to the supermodel Kate Moss.
This gorgeously-produced photo book features intimate, beautiful portraits of a back-then-young and undiscovered Kate Moss, taken in the early 1990s by her then-boyfriend, Italian photographer Mario Sorrenti. Notably, the pictures were seen by Calvin Klein and inspired the campaign ‘Obsession’ which contributed to building Kate’s modeling career.
The elegant volume is presented in a grey, cloth-covered clamshell box and includes an introductory essay by Sorrenti, which puts the work into its uniquely personal context. This book, which celebrates the start of the highly influential aesthetic of 1990s fashion photography, is a must-have for Kate Moss’s fans, and for lovers of traditional portraiture and fashion photography.
Supreme
With a decade passing since Supreme’s last monograph with Rizzoli, the New York streetwear powerhouse is back with a new book, this time in partnership with Phaidon Publishings.
The 351-page hardcover book brings us an exclusive behind the scene look and documents the brand’s visual history from 2010-2018. Featuring over eight hundred images from photographers like Larry Clark, Ari Marcopoulos and David Sims. It includes a curated selection of lookbooks, and an index of T-shirts dating back to SS10, and highlights limited-edition pieces from collaborations with Nan Goldin, Comme de Garçons, and Nike. The book also features an introductory poem by Harmony Korine and an essay by pop culture critic Carlo McCormick.
