Book picks similar to
A Time Before Crack by Jamel Shabazz


photography
non-fiction
art
picture-books

Fuck You Heroes: Glen E. Friedman Photographs, 1976-1991


Glen E. Friedman - 1994
    Friedman's uncompromising look at the radicals of youth culture in the extreme worlds of skateboarding, punk and rap. From day one behind his camera, Friedman has had an unerring ability to be in the right place ahead of everybody else. He was a teenaged photographer for 'Thrasher' and 'Skateboarder' magazines, he created the seminal one-hit punk fanzine 'My Rules', worked with Black Flag and Suicidal Tendencies in their early days, wrote for Maximum Rock & Roll, did street promotion for Def Jam's west coast office and shot sleeve photos for everyone from Minor Threat to Public Enemy. This book presents the photographic distillation of Glen's ethic: it's about the perfect shots of the people who live by the touchstones of intensity and integrity.

Freight Train Graffiti


Roger Gastman - 2006
    Until now there was almost no written insight into this vast subculture, which inspires fascination across America and around the world. As dazzling as the art it celebrates, the book is packed with 1,000 full-color illustrations and features in-depth interviews with more than 125 train artists and "writers." Hundreds of never-before-seen photographs span the style's evolution, while the authoritative text from an all-star team of authors provides unprecedented perspective, including the first-ever written history of "monikers," the precursors of graffiti, developed by hobos and rail workers to communicate en route. Bound to surprise graffiti artists, graphic designers, and urban culture buffs alike, this book will inspire anyone who has ever been interested in graffiti.

Betty Page Confidential


Stan Corwin Productions - 1994
    Betty Page Confidential includes a biography of the reclusive goddess, an official Betty Page trivia quiz and 100 photos.Betty Page Confidential is the ultimate book on this 1950s icon.

"Giant" Size


Andy Warhol - 2006
    The book features 2,000 images and documents, many previously unpublished. Note: PBS-TV's American Masters will broadcast a 2 hour Warhol documentary by Ric Burns to air in May 2006.

Subway Art


Martha Cooper - 1984
    Two gifted photographers have documented every aspect of this extraordinary urban subculture, complete with 239 full-color photographs.

Magnum Magnum


Brigitte Lardinois - 2007
    "Magnum Magnum" brings together the best work, celebrating the vision, imagination, and brilliance of Magnum photographers, both the acknowledged greats of photography in the twentieth century--among them, Henri-Cartier Bresson, Robert Capa, Eve Arnold, Marc Riboud, and Werner Bischof--and the modern masters and rising stars of our time, such as Martin Parr, Susan Meiselas, Alec Soth, and Donovan Wylie. Organized by photographer, the book harks back to the agency's early days and the spirit that made it such a unique and creative environment, one in which each of the four founding members picture-edited the others' photographs. Here a current Magnum photographer selects and critiques six key works by each of the sixty-nine featured photographers, with a commentary explaining the rationale behind the choice. This new edition provides a permanent record of iconic images from the last sixty years and an insight, as seen through the critical eyes and minds of Magnum photographers, into what makes a memorable photograph. 9.5" x 11.5," 413 illustrations in color and duotone.

Net of Being


Alex Grey - 2012
    His painting Net of Being--inspired by a blazing vision of an infinite grid of Godheads during an ayahuasca journey--has reached millions as the cover and interior of the band TOOL’s Grammy award–winning triple-platinum album, 10,000 Days. Net of Being is one of many images Grey has created that have resulted in a chain reaction of uses--from apparel and jewelry to tattoos and music videos--embedding these iconic works into our culture’s living Net of Being. The book explores how the mystical experience expressed in Alex Grey’s work opens a new understanding of our shared consciousness and unveils the deep influence art can have on cultural evolution. The narrative progresses through a successive expansion of identity--from the self, to self and beloved, to self and community, world spirit, and cosmic consciousness, where bodies are transparent to galactic energies. Presenting over 200 images, including many never-before-reproduced paintings as well as masterworks such as St. Albert and the LSD Revelation Revolution and Godself, the book also documents performance art, live-painting on stage throughout the world, and the “social sculpture” called CoSM, Chapel of Sacred Mirrors, that Grey cofounded with his wife and creative collaborator, artist Allyson Grey.

The Ongoing Moment


Geoff Dyer - 2005
    With characteristic perversity - and trademark originality - THE ONGOING MOMENT is Dyer's unique and idiosyncratic history of photography. Seeking to identify their signature styles Dyer looks at the ways that canonical figures such as Alfred Stieglitz, Paul Strand, Walker Evans, Kertesz, Dorothea Lange, Diane Arbus and William Eggleston have photographed the same scenes and objects (benches, hats, hands, roads). In doing so Dyer constructs a narrative in which those photographers - many of whom never met in their lives - constantly come into contact with each other. Great photographs change the way we see the world; THE ONGOING MOMENT changes the way we look at both. It is the most ambitious example to date of a form of writing that Dyer has made his own: the non-fiction work of art.

Tomboy Style: Beyond the Boundaries of Fashion


Lizzie Garrett Mettler - 2012
    They are bold, brazen, fierce—and sexy. They aren’t known for following rules, they are known for doing—and wearing—whatever they want. Tomboy captures the tomboy’s style, her je ne sais quoi, her wardrobe, and most importantly, her spirit. Throughout the twentieth century, the mass marketing of gender stereotypes meant tomboys cropped up against the odds, trends, and ads. As menswear-inspired fashions for women have exploded into the mainstream under the helm of designers and stylists ranging from J.Crew to Rag & Bone to Boy by Band of Outsiders, acceptance of both the word tomboy and the women associated with its edge has been set into play. But a tomboy is not just about style—tomboys are measured in equal parts wardrobe and spirit.A visual history that chronicles the past eighty years of women who blur the line between masculinity and femininity, Tomboy explores the evolution of the style and its icons. Vivid commentary illuminates the tomboy’s history and captures a diversity of women who are bound together by their inherent ability to seamlessly blend a rugged sensibility with classic, understated elegance.

The Rise of David Bowie, 1972-1973


Mick Rock - 2016
    With it landed Bowie s Stardust alter-ego: A glitter-clad, mascara-eyed, sexually-ambiguous persona who kicked down the boundaries between male and female, straight and gay, fact and fiction into one shifting and sparkling phenomenon of 70s self-expression. Together, Ziggy the album and Ziggy the stage spectacular propelled the softly spoken Londoner into one of the world s biggest stars.A key passenger on this glam trip into the stratosphere was fellow Londoner and photographer Mick Rock. Rock bonded with Bowie artistically and personally, immersed himself in the singer s inner circle, and, between 1972 and 1973, worked as the singer s photographer and videographer.This collection, featuring around 50 percent previously unpublished images, brings together spectacular stage shots, iconic photo shoots, as well as intimate backstage portraits. With a lenticular cover of different headshots, it celebrates Bowie s fearless experimentation and reinvention, while offering privileged access to the many facets of his personality and fame. Through the aloof and approachable, the playful and serious, the candid and the contrived, the result is a passionate tribute to a brilliant and inspirational artist whose creative vision will never be forgotten.

Pictures of Walls


Banksy - 2005
    

Expressive Photography: The Shutter Sisters' Guide to Shooting from the Heart


Tracey Clark - 2010
    You not only see the image, you feel it. But how do you capture shots like that with your own camera? How do you make your photographs worth the proverbial thousand words? From portraits to landscapes, still-lifes to documentary shots, Expressive Photography will not only show you why certain images sing, but will also teach you how to create your own compelling photographic images-one click at a time.Visually stunning, and unique in its collaborative approach, this book brings the spirit of the immensely popular Shutter Sisters' blog to the printed page through the voice and photography of its founding members.

On Photography


Susan Sontag - 1973
    Sontag develops further the concept of 'transparency'. When anything can be photographed and photography has destroyed the boundaries and definitions of art, a viewer can approach a photograph freely with no expectations of discovering what it means. This collection of six lucid and invigorating essays, the most famous being "In Plato's Cave", make up a deep exploration of how the image has affected society.

Graffiti World: Street Art from Five Continents


Nicholas Ganz - 2004
    Offering a unique insight into the very essence of graffiti and its creative explosion over the past thirty-five years, it takes us on an adventure throughout the Americas and Europe to almost every corner of the globe." With over 2,000 pictures of artworks from more than 180 international artists, no other book is remotely so comprehensive or up to date. Nicholas Ganz combines his own first-hand experiences with quotes from the artists themselves to offer a true insider's perspective to the key trends and style developments that have made graffiti what it is today: a global phenomenon.

A Little History: Nick Cave & Cohorts, 1981-2013


Bleddyn Butcher - 2014
    And then enthralled. He set about trying to catch their lightning in his Nikon F2AS.That quixotic impulse became a lifelong quest. A little history got made on the way.Collected here for the first time are the fruits of his labour. A Little History is an extraordinary document, tracking Nick Cave's creative career from the apoplectic extravagance of The Birthday Party to the calmer disquiet of 2013's Push The Sky Away via snapshots, spotlit visions and sumptuous, theatrical portraits. It mixes the candid and uncanny, the spontaneous and the patiently staged, and includes eyeball encounters with Cave's baddest lieutenants, men for the most part who long since burned their own bridges down. Butcher's Nikonic eye defines moment after arresting moment in Cave's glorious, sprawling story: it's a splendid testament to two brilliant careers.