The galleries are closed.
The owners are perhaps dipping their toes in the sand and sea. Like you probably are.
The new work is waiting to be hung and viewed, once we all return to our routines.

When I was a kid, this last weekend meant the final gasp of vacation, school supplies had to be bought, summer events were almost done, camp was coming to a close, and with that, the friends that you made in the summer were going back to their routine. Never did see Laurie from somewhere in Pennsylvania again.

But now the good news.

The fall will bring some crazy good new photographic exhibits. It always does. Start it all off with a bang.
For the next few months we’ll be traveling all over the world to see what we can see. And share it all with you.
Interviews, photos, press and ,of course, pertinent giveaways.
Heading out to NY, Paris, Miami and of course, Los Angeles.
Some cool exhibits coming to your town? Let us know and maybe write a bit about it. Share it with the rest of us.

So while we wait wait for the galleries and museums to visually stimulate the heck out of us, we can take a look at the bookshelf.
Wipe off the tanning oil, keep the mustard on the plate, and take off the shades.

2 books we keep going back to and will recco for different reasons.

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One of the most beautifully produced, single minded, high quality books in recent years has been the Chuck Close book “A Couple Of Way of Doing Something”.
Produced in tritone, this faithfully reproduced volume of 22 portraits from a limited edition set of oversized daguerreotypes (yes, we said daguerreotypes !) sets each image on it’s own page.
The portraits are coupled with a poem by Bob Holman, who runs the Bowery Poetry Club, about each subject.
Only 56 pages and 15.2 x 11.6 x 0.6 inches, this is a book that you can absorb and enjoy in a shorter period of time, with a unique photographic experience for your investment.

Then there is the Henri Cartier-Bresson Scrapbook.

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“Henri Cartier-Bresson was taken prisoner by the Germans in 1940. After two unsuccessful attempts, he managed to escape in 1943. During this period, the Museum of Modern Art in New York, assuming that the photographer had died in the war, started preparing what they thought would be a posthumous exhibition of his work. When he reappeared, Cartier-Bresson was delighted to learn of the exhibition and decided to review his entire oeuvre and curate it himself.

In 1946 Cartier-Bresson traveled to New York with about 300 prints in his suitcase, bought a scrapbook, glued in the photos, and brought that album to MoMA’s curators. His exhibition there, a celebration of his survival, opened on February 4, 1947.

In the 1990s, Cartier-Bresson once again turned his attention to this scrapbook. Following his death in 2004, the Fondation Henri Cartier-Bresson, the present owner of the prints, finished the job of restoring them, making it possible to bring a large body of his extraordinary work to the public, images that have now become a memorial collection after all.”

Reproduced with a textured cover, good not cheapy-cheap, this is a full look at a bizarre time in one of the most famous and influential photographers of the 20th century life.

You can spend real time on this one, and the story behind it only adds to your viewing. Kind of like the Mark Twain quote “The reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated” And this time the answer is a visual journal.

So there you have it. 2 books to pull from your bookshelf and rediscover.
What was that? You don’t have these?
OK, we can help out there.

One of these books will be given away free this week in the NEWSLETTER. Just remember to sign up to receive it. On the right hand column you’ll see the sign-up block.
And now, it’s all going to be in there. In your email. Every Weds. at 9:00AM PST.
Details, special words, the whole ball of wax.

Wait till you see whats coming for next weeks giveaway! In the bag category this time.