To many of us our homes and work spaces must be kept and designed in a certain order for us to be comfortable so we can do what we do best. For over a year now, The Selby has been showing us the offices and homes of some of today’s most interesting creative talents. Todd Selby has created his own unique, intimate style, and now his photos are taking the form of a book.

One day, Todd decided to slip into the homes of designers and artists to discover intimate details, objects and places in their lives. Each month, he captivates the masses of his website with interior shots of these dwellings. This May, Todd will release his first book The Selby Is In Your Place, a 256 page tome featuring 30 professionals ranging from musicians to designers and writers. It will make a great feature on your coffee table, I assure you. (more…)

As one of the most iconic brands and logos in the history of fashion, Lacoste debuts a book on ‘how to live in Lacoste and how to be’. Since the birth of the iconic alligator - the world’s first clothing logo and the symbol of its French tennis-great namesake During the Roaring Twenties, Rene Lacoste was the best tennis player in the world, and put his favored tennis uniform (a white pique polo shirt) into production for the mass,  it revolutionized the standard stiff and starchy athletic attire, usher­ing in an era of sport styles that were as comfortable and functional as they were chic. (more…)

For years, Ron Galella, “the godfather of U.S. paparazzi culture,” has provided the world a glimpse into the off-limits world of celebrity. With Viva l’Italia!, a deeper and more probing Galella emerges. He sets out to find his own Italian roots, and in so doing, takes us on a viaggio as he combs his vast archive for images of Italian and Italian-American actors, artists, and fashion designers, along with a wide range of other cultural icons. Galella’s tour begins in Rome’s famed Cinecittà where Federico Fellini relaxes between takes on a film set. It was Fellini who proclaimed, “paparazzi are bandits of images,” coining the word with his character Signor Paparazzo in La Dolce Vita.

As he continues on, Galella presents us with rare portraits of Italy’s most famous sons and daughters, including Virni Lisi, Isabella Rossellini, Silvana Mangano, Marlon Brando, Monica Bellucci, Carla Bruni, and Sophia Loren. Never one to shy away from bad boys, he even includes the “Dapper Don,” John Gotti, emerging from federal court in Manhattan. The appeal and power of Galella’s beautiful photography is complimented by extemporaneous quotes he has amassed over a half-century of travel and celebrity encounters. “You look Italian,” quipped Anna Magnani as Ron captured her in Rome, during the filming of The Secret of Santa Vittoria, with Virna Lisi and Anthony Quinn. Some crossed the ocean, some changed their names, some were born in disparate locations as with Dean Martin of Steubenville, Ohio, and Frank Sinatra of Hoboken, New Jersey; but they all brought with them passion born of Italy-love of cinema, music, art, and fashion-as Galella triumphantly proclaims with Viva l’Italia! Available to purchase here.

Michael Jackson, the King of Pop, was a superstar of unprecedented and epic proportions, and is still the best-selling recording artist of all time. An icon raised in the spotlight, but ever reclusive and terribly shy, Jackson was the ideal subject for paparazzo extraordinaire Ron Galella, the nation’s most famous celebrity photojournalist. Galella shot Michael throughout his whole life. Finding intimate moments with the legend offstage, he captured candid, beautiful, unguarded portraits of the man behind the mask and a lifetime of style and glamour. Over the years Galella also captured Michael in the company of fellow celebrities-drawn, like Galella himself, to the biggest and brightest star of them all-including Muhammad Ali, Diana Ross, Chuck Berry, Brooke Shields, Jane Fonda, Liberace, Quincy Jones, Barry Manilow, Emmanuel Lewis, Don King, Liza Minnelli, Stevie Wonder, Lionel Richie, Sophia Loren, Sylvester Stallone, Ted Kennedy, Dionne Warwick, Whitney Houston, Donald Trump, Eddie Murphy, Elizabeth Taylor, Madonna, and Marcel Marceau. He was able to find the personal side of Michael in images of him with his children, his sister Janet and the rest of the Jackson family, and even his pet chimpanzee, Bubbles. In a tribute to the life and memory of Michael Jackson, Galella has compiled his comprehensive body of images of the King of Pop for the first time ever in Man in the Mirror: Michael Jackson. Available to purchase here.

Join the powerHouse Arena
for the Exhibition Opening & Book Release Party for Man in the Mirror & Viva l’Italia.
Wednesday, January 27, 7-9 PM
37 Main Street, Brooklyn, NY
More Info: 718.666.3049
RSVP: maninthemirror@powerhousebooks.com

The Tao of Wu
Author: The RZA

RZA (of Wu-Tang Clan) is growing up… and now shared his life lessons with the rest of us. As RZA’s first book, The Tao of Wu offers spiritual advice, personal musings, and as well as advocacy for vegetarianism and tips for a mean chess game. This musician also writes of stories of saving Method Man’s life at a drug deal transaction, Buddhist principles, and many others that you’ll just have to read to hear directly from the horse’s mouth. Wu-Tang fans and distant admirers alike, read on! (more…)

Prestigious fashion photographer Steven Meisel has shot for Vogue Italy on numerous occasions, so many that’s his work is now being turned into a publication. The coveted publication brings together all the work he’s done for the magazine since 1988.

The book features the editorials and cover pages created by Meisel for Vogue Italy. There are 317 covers, no less, although since the edition closed Meisel has continued to decorate the covers of the publication with his photos. The book is a limited edition created by Mallard/Janvier and it reflects the fascinating relationship between the photographer and Vogue Italy. You can get your hands on the book for €49 at www.mallard-janvier.com. (more…)

Renowned fashion house Prada will be releasing a new book titled “Prada”. The 706-page retrospective publication, looks back at 30 years of innovation in the world of fashion, architecture, art, communications, and cinema.

“For Prada, fashion, luxury and style go beyond producing an infinity of clothes and shoes, so the book wants to illustrate the various aspects through which Prada expresses itself,” said Patrizio Bertelli, chief executive officer of Prada Group.

The book is published by Prada Progetto Arte, soon to be available through Prada flagship stores worldwide, select bookstores, and Prada.com. Retail is set at 100 Euros.

Let me take you back a few years. While attending college in Massachusetts, I worked in the school’s writing lab, teaching mostly international students about the proper use of commas and semi-colons. As a student writing tutor, many of my fellow tutors were professors. One of whom was English professor Laurie Stolarz. One day in the lab, Laurie was telling me about how she had just finished a teen fiction novel and that she was shopping it around to publishers, hoping to strike gold.

Fast forward a few years …

I’m now living in Texas, pursuing a graduate degree and working part-time in my favorite store, Barnes & Noble. One day, I was at work shelving books in the teen fiction section, when, what to my wondering eyes should appear, but a series of books - Blue Is for Nightmares, White Is for Magic, Silver Is for Secrets, Red Is for Remembrance - and all by … you guessed it.

It seems that everyone and his pet hamster are writing a book or screenplay (yours truly included). What makes all these people believe that they actually have something interesting to say is totally subjective. Most will not achieve the level of success that they fantasize about, but every so often, one star shines a little brighter than the rest. (more…)

Sunday, October 11, 2009
3:00 PM - 5:00 PM
157 Rivington Street
New York NY 10002
T. 212 253 2180

“The Front Door photos are a summation of everything I have ever learned. The photos are taken in front of the door at 161 Essex Street, which leads into Clayton Hats, Clayton Gallery and the Outlaw Art Museum. This also happens to be the place I live.

The front door represented two things for me: It was the Wall of Fame where I played host to many of the local graffiti writers and it was the background for many of the shots from the Hall of Fame The period represented is from 1985 to 2002. … The L.E.S. in the ’80s and into the ’90s was not the hip place it is today. For the most part, the photos were representative of people who lived in the section that outsiders considered dangerous and that was normally out of bounds for those who had no business being there.”

“For me, taking the front door photos was magic. It was like touching someone’s soul. We were sharing a moment in time together, in a very intimate and deep way. I always felt a union, a deep connection and respect for my subjects. We were one. We were exploring our inner selves to each other. I was saving a presence, a spirit, the image of a person from the moment, the here and now, for the future. All of us were the Lower East Side.”

Excerpts from essay by Clayton Patterson

We all know Shepard Fairey for his countless works of art for his company OBEY, but moreso after he created one of the most historical and iconic images possibly in the history of American presidential politics; the world-loved “Hope” portrait. But Fairey’s now legendary work was only one in a sea of stellar images inspired by Obama and his legendary quest for the White House. Fairey and Evolutionary Media Group founder Jennifer Gross collect much of the best of that historic time in Art for Obama: Designing Manifest Hope and the Campaign for Change, a 181-page compendium of the campaign’s artistry.

Flavorpill got with Fairey on the eve of Art for Obama’s release and just a day after the White House succumbed to conservative pressure and allowed noted Obama culture op Yosi Sergant to secede from the NEA limelight. Click here and read what he had to say.