Dashwood Books has established itself as something of a mecca for anyone looking to add to their collection of photography books. Nestled in the ground floor of a historic building on Bond Street in New York, you’ll find the latest quality books on contemporary photography from the 1960s to the present day. From rare and out of print editions to hand made zines and small run books, Dashwood has long represented the best in independent publishing across America, Europe, and Japan.

If David Strettel, the man at the helm of Dashwood, were to have a ‘modus operandi,’ it would be to promote the photo book as an art object in its own right, and to highlight the artistic essence that publishing is capable of offering. Aside from the bookstore, Dashwood has it’s own publishing operation, albeit a small one. This outlet has allowed Strettel to seeks out ways in which to bring new photography to the people, at reasonable cost, without forsaking the acute sense of aesthetic and the importance of tactility with which Dashwood makes its mark. Strettel’s most recent release of seven moderately priced monographs, marks the start of an annual series showcasing a mix of established and emerging photography.The series has been produced in small of editions of roughly 500 copies each. Both individually and as a set, they evoke his initial vision of a lo-fi sensibility met with a quality production value that sees them sit nicely next to works by Ryan McGinley, Juergen Teller, Taryn Simon and others.

Jim Mangan

Together with the creative directors, Water NYC, who designed five of the seven books and supervised production, Dashwood came up with a loose structure so that there would be no specific design aesthetic that would dominate the collection. The physicalities of the books – paper, size and so on – are consistent, but each artist was encouraged to imbue their book with his or her own personality so that each book is nevertheless unique.

Andreas Laszlo Konrath, whose book Back to Mystery City features in the series, employed the help of Brain La Motte, his co-designer at the publishing company they run out of Brooklyn called Pau Wau Publications. Dashwood has previously stocked many of the zines and photo books that Pau Wau have put out, and so a collaboration grew over the years, until Strettel came up with the proposal for the series and invited Andreas as photographer and Brian as designer to come on board. Konrath’s book documents his trip to Finland to hang out with the Perus Skate crew. This personal story makes for an interesting parallel to the fashion and portraiture that Konrath is best known for.

Above left: Andreas Laslo Konrath. Above right: Sam Falls

In Soviet Beauty Queens – for which Strettel himself selected the images from the Archive of Modern Conflict – he presents a collection of photographs taken between 1988 – 1990 in Leningrad at various beauty contests and at the Leningrad Beauty Institute. Though not favored by the Soviet Union, by the time of its collapse beauty contests became a symbol of Perestroika and the bizarre, beautiful and awkward moments of the women exercising in anticipation of a contest, would be somehow tragic were it not for the fact that this is liberation in action.

The other artists, Ari Marcopoulos, Betty Tompkins, Sam Falls, Janette Beckman and Jim Mangan, cross between documentary, fine art and portraiture, providing a provocative, surreal, comic and beautiful offering in their own right. These artists, like Konrath and La Motte, have a similar history with Dashwood and so each book was a collaborative effort that was conceived organically. They represent a shared desire to create something which is both intimate and accessible. These books aren’t just for the collectors out there; with a $25 tag per book, you have the choice to buy them individually or as a set and their affordability ensures that a wider audience can walk home with their very own piece of art. And therein lies the end goal; the joy for any artist that as many people as possible might enjoy their work. With that in mind, we here at Dossier will certainly be stopping by to pick up our own set.

The series is available at Dashwood Books, 33 Bond St., New York City. The shop is open 7 days a week, Monday through Saturday from noon – 8pm and Sunday from noon – 7pm.

This Long Century has made another update to their collection contributions. A collaboration between Georgina Lim, Stefan Pietsch, Jason Evans and Kate Sennert, the site now features five more contributers. The recent update includes work by Gerard Malanga, Lesley Vance (pictured above) and Ari Marcopoulos.

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.

The list of subjects for the films — many of them unsurprising, as they’ve already made appearances modeling Kimmel’s clothes  – reads like a who’s-who of the contemporary art-world: Ryan McGinley, Francesco Clemente, Leo Fitzpatrick, Adam McEwan, Glenn O’Brien, Michael Nevin, Dan Colen, Klaus Bisenbach, George Herms, Chris Bollen, Nate Lowman, Aaron Young, Jena Malone, and, of course, Gerard Malanga himself.  (The list goes on from there — there are over thirty of the short films — to include the likes of David Blaine and Willem Dafoe.) You can watch all of the screentests over at Kimmel’s website, and Kimmel’s own screentest (which, oddly, is left out on his own site) above.

(This is not, I should note here, the first film project for Kimmel.  Just last year, along with Ari Marcopoulos and Neville Wakefield, he produced a short skateboarding video called To Almost Die For Suits, in which skateboarders Noah Sakamoto and Patrick Rizzo longboard down a long and steep street in Claremont, California while dressed in Adam Kimmel suits.)