Last Thursday, Aperture opened its doors to celebrate the launch of the Tinyvices book series, which sees the gray lady of photography extending her hand to Tim Barber and the work of an exceptional five out of the hundreds of photographers represented by Barber’s online gallery. The series offers the freshest, and definitely the most affordable, work in Aperture’s new catalog, where it contends with such august masters as Josef Koudelka, Paul Fusco and Jock Sturges. This shadow loomed even at the launch party –- where Koudelka’s Invasion 68 Prague exhibition dominated the space (for those who haven’t seen these dizzying images of the spring thaw in Prague, they’re worth the trip).

But the Tinyvices set held their own, with the ladies kicking particular ass. Robin Schwartz’ portraits of her daughter plot an eerie narrative of daydreams, giving you the childlike pleasure of pointing out hidden and haunting elements to anyone looking along with you. Jaimie Warren gives us hilarious self-portraits — studies in the joys of attitude and superlative bad taste.

The boys aren’t too shabby either: Kenneth Cappello’s skaters and Jason Nocito’s disjointed sequences held a solid crowd around the projector. And I got my mood spun by Allan MacIntyre’s morphology of eviscerated dirt, which seemed the odd-one-out at a boozy launch.

All five books in the series are arresting and, thankfully, original (not a single image of a hollowed-out warehouse or dirty sink among them). Best of all, they’re cheap, small and fun enough to keep in the bathroom without feeling like an asshole.

Image courtesy Robin Schwartz.