Another day, another Ari Marcopoulos book. The epic photographer of emotive portraiture, who has been around for a number of years, has put together a new book – or has he?
More a catalogue than an actual book, it is compiled to coincide with the exhibition Ari Marcopoulos: Within Arm’s Reach, at the Berkeley Art Museum. Once again Ari has teamed with a clever designer and an interesting European publishing company (JRP/Ringier, that’s why they look good?) to produce a beautiful object.
The book feels like a retrospective and the images are ones we have seen before, published numerous times in other Marcopoulos books or zines. The question to be asked: did we need another book by Ari this year?
Regardless it is a very interesting to go through his early work including his portraits of Basquiat and Warhol, his New York Hip Hop work, his Beastie Boys era, 90s skaters down at the Brooklyn Banks, him being on the slopes with his snowboarder series all the way through to his intimate family pictures capturing his own sons growing up, and lastly to more recent snapshots from his Astronauts zine – all in one digestible pressing. It’s a great book for fans of Marcopoulos but don’t look for new material; just for another well-made carrier for his history. 
Maybe this is Ari’s point: each time he publishes a book he represents a new way to look at the same bodies of work, making the volume an artifact in itself. It’s like the pair of your favorite sneakers that just came out in the new color edition.
Beautifully printed with the photographs on glossy pages and with the text on pink matte paper in the back of the book, the print fits well in New York’s Dashwood Books, where it was up for signing. Here you can find other Ari books including two they published themselves: The Chance Is Higher and Astronauts, among other beautiful photography books, including rare editions and handmade zines, etc. Well worth a stop on a day in the city.
Ari Marcopoulos: Within Arm’s Reach is at Berkeley Art Museum until February 7th, 2010.
