Puffin Designer Classics by Penguin

To celebrate the 70th birthday of the Puffin children's books imprint 6 limited edition titles are to be released on the 2nd of September. Limited to 1,000 copies of each title, packaged in a Perspex slipcase, they are available to pre-order now from Amazon at much reduced prices.

Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens, with cover design by Sir Peter Blake

James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl, cover design by Antony Gormley

The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett, cover design by Lauren Child

Little Women by Louis May Alcott, cover design by Orla Kiely

Treasue Island by Robert Louis Stevenson, cover design by Frank Gehry

Around the World in Eighty Days by Jules Verne, designed by David Adjaye.

Much like the Penguin Designer Classics released to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the Penguin Classics imprint these are sure to sell out quickly and become collector's items.

UPDATE: There is now a minisite with some great pictures of these at Puffin.

Fiume (River) by Guido Guidi

I mentioned in my last post on Takashi Homma's Vedove/Widows that I had ordered Fantom Books next publication Fiume (River) by Guido Guidi. It has arrived in the post this morning, nice fast service!

Published in an edition of 350 this is still available at the time of writing - order yours now before they are all gone.

More conventional in format than the Homma book, this nonetheless is produced to very high standard, the images are big, clear and beautifully reproduced.

I will certainly be keeping an eye on Fantom's website for future publications.

Vedove/Widows by Takashi Homma

I have several books by Japanese photographer Takashi Homma, this is the most recent.

Published by Fantom Editions of Italy this is a limited edition on 350, now sold out.

Vedove/Widows uses a range of unconventional binding techniques to create a more interesting object.

Two volumes, separately bound, divided by thick card. This is all held together by a heavy duty elastic band that fits neatly in cut out notches to the top and bottom.

From the Fantom editions website: 

Fantombooks has just released its first volume, Vedove/Widows by Takashi Homma, curated by Francesco Zanot and designed by Fabrizio Radaelli. 

The book, extremely accurate in concept and printing, is published in an edition of 350 copies (2 volumes: pages 16 + 55, cm. 23 x 17) and will be available online at fantomeditions.com and in few selected bookshops.

The project is the result of the cooperation between Andrea Botto and Francesco Zanot, respectively director and curator of the annual Rapallo Fotografia festival, who entrusted the Japanese photographer to work around the theme of memory and personal archives in Rapallo and in the Italian region of Liguria.

During his stay in the area, fascinated by the pictures stored in the archives of Genoa and Rapallo, Homma explored the need to preserve personal and intimate memories, especially after a loss.

Thus he shot eleven portraits of widowed women - witnesses for their dead partners’ memories - and captured a glimpse of the places where the widows live. This work being the subject of the exhibition at Castello di Rapallo.

He also re-photographed the snapshots of the widows’ family albums, exclusively published in the book which represents therefore an integral part of the project and the exhibition. 

Born in 1962 in Tokyo, where he lives and works, Takashi Homma studied photography at Nihon University College of Art. In 1984 he started to work in advertising and in 1991 he moved to London. In 1999 he won the Kimura Ihei Commemorative Photography Award for his project Tokyo Suburbia, now an extremely rare cult book.

Fantombooks is the book series arising from Fantom magazine, a new international photographic quarterly edited between Milan and New York by Selva Barni and Cay Sophie Rabinowitz, and published by Boiler Corporation, Milano. The series will release only a few carefully selected titles, each designed by a different art director, produced in its own specific format and distributed through selected bookstores worldwide.

Fantom have just release a new book by Guido Guidi, I have ordered this today.

Tereza Zelenkova - Supreme Vice and Watch Your Skin Peel

Tereza Zelenkova is a Czech photographer based in London. I have two of her hand made artist books, the first is Supreme Vice.

It is large format and bound in a simple but effective way with three rivets through onto hard board at the back. The paper quality is very high and it is nicely printed, very gothic feel to it.

This edition is signed and numbered, limited to 150 copies. There is another version of this book due to be produced by Morel books this summer, should be one to watch I have some of their other publications and they are excellent.

The second book is Watch Your Skin Peel. This is actually earlier, from 2009, but in some ways more interesting. It is printed throughout on translucent paper and aged with tea or similar.

There is some very nice layering in the book, most of the pages are curled and buckled from the tea staining - I don't know if this is deliberate, but I like it.

Always nice to see hand stitching on a book, the lack of perfection makes it seem like a one off. This edition is limited to 100 signed and numbered copies.

dumbsaint editions volume 1 'amwell, continuum' by Raymond Meeks

I love the photobooks by Raymond Meeks, but usually they are out of my price range. This one has the brilliant idea of a variable price structure, the more you pay the more you get. I have just gone for the $92 option with two prints, an amazing price. I suggest you get yours now, I'm sure these won't last long.

Many thanks to Conscientious, a great blog for finding interesting things.

Estate by Jake Dow-Smith

This is a hand made limited edition of just 10 books, it is a curated collection by Jake Dow-Smith featuring works by:

Daniel Augschoell Alexander Paul Brandes Alexi Hobbs Marlon Kowalski Jake Dow-Smith Sean Stewart Will Govus Carlo Van De Roer Pete Halupka Justin James Reed Matthew Genitempo Hin Chua Pedro Alfacinha Frankie Pike

Andrew Nemiroski Bryan Schutmaat Julia Grassi Katharina Schumacher Maximilian Haidacher Hannah Whitaker Grant Willing Keith Davis Young Austin Irving Jessica Williams Ernest Protasiewicz Felicia Honkasalo Sam Williams

The two volumes are copies of one another except that the black book has the images and the red book has the names of the contributors without the images.

Really nice to see the exposed hand stitching.

The books feature a huge variety of paper stocks, overlays and cutouts, it has clearly been planned and thought out very well.

I bought my copy from Jake via triangletriangle, they sold out it two hours, so I was very lucky to get one.

There are plans to make a regular edition of the book this summer. I do hope this happens, this deserves to be seen by a wider audience.

Nothing but home by Sebastien Girard - Special edition

Nothing but home by Sebastien Girard

This book has been very well received and has quite a lot of attention on the internets, there is a good review of it at photoeye by Shane Lavalette.

This is the special edition which is limited to 100 signed and numbered copies, it also comes with a signed and numbered print. The standard version has a blue cover and is limited to 500 copies.

Both the special and standard versions are now sold out, but you can still get the standard version at photobookstore.

Dream House by Gregory Crewdson

I found this in a local bookshop today, hadn't heard of it before. I assumed it was a new publication, so bought a copy, it cost me £44.50.

Having Googled around a bit it would seem that it is uncommonly rare! It's published by Photology whose website is a lesson in how to make navigation as difficult as possible, it was also lacking in information.

The book was published in 2009, yet there are no images of the cover on the web, and no online bookstore currently have any stock. Amazon have one used for $193 in the US and one for £123 in the UK, otherwise nothing.

Any information on this title would be greatly appreciated, it's still in the shrink wrap, so I won't be opening it.

Bedknobs and Broomsticks by Trent Parke

I must have been good lately, because the postman brought me this today as well. I have to confess I didn't know who Trent Parke was when I ordered this book, but clearly I did the right thing as it sold out it's run of 1,000 in about a day.

I got it from Little Brown Mushroom, who I can't recommend highly enough, especially if you are an Alec Soth fan like me. Check out their blog, it's a really good place to find photobook recommendations.

The images in this book are stunning and it is a nice quirky take on presentation; hard to believe it was only $18.

If you missed out on this sold out run, don't lose heart as there is always ebay, though apparently you will need $95 to secure a copy, at the time of writing anyway!

Poplar Forest by Rob McDonald

A great new photobook from Rob McDonald who I know from one of his previous books Birdhouses, another fantastic publication.

As with Birdhouses this comes with a signed and numbered print, very nice it is too.

The production values of this book are very high, the text is beautifully letter pressed and the paper stock is very high quality. It has a lovely tactile feel to it.

At $55 this is a bargain, there is also a deluxe version for $275. Sadly I could not stretch to that this month! Get you copy here now, I'm sure it won't last long.

Mariken Wessels: Queen Ann. P.S. Belly cut off

This is a great publication from a new Dutch imprint Alauda Publications. Today I was lucky enough to receive the deluxe version, limited to 75 copies it comes with signed original prints, and a thing of beauty it is too!

The standard version looks to be a bargain at €35, get one before they are all gone.

The deluxe version seems to be selling pretty well also, mine is number 43 of 75.

See more of Mariken's works on her website.

New blog, first post...

We'll call this a test, trying to work out the best way to get my own picture as the background.