SSK Press

Artists' Books & Cookies w/ ForYourArt, Fundación Alumnos47 & Ooga Booga! July 05 2014, 1 Comment

Jason Jaworski X Ooga Booga X Artist Books and Cookies X ForYourArt X SSK Press

Hi all!

We're so excited to announce that our most recent photobook sea was selected to be part of the third edition of Artists' Books and Cookies!

Presented by ForYourArt, Fundación Alumnos47 and Ooga Booga, Artists' Books and Cookies brought together hundreds of artist books, cookies and viewers from all over Los Angeles to Ooga Twooga, Ooga Booga's newest downtown location!

For years I've been a huge fan and lover of Ooga Booga, one of my favorite shops and stores in all of Los Angeles, so this was super exciting news for me :)

Many thanks to ForYourArt, Fundación Alumnos47, Ooga Booga and especially everyone that was able to make it out to the event!

For photos of the event please click here.


SSK Press X The Independent Photobook July 05 2014, 0 Comments

Jason Jaworski X The Independent Photobook X SSK Press

It's a great pleasure to announce that our two most recent photobooks, ROME ALONE and sea were recently featured on The Independent Photobook blog!

Started by Jörg Colberg and Hester Keijser, The Independent Photobook is a blog that showcases and announces independently published photobooks from around the world which are not available through Amazon or other standard outlets.

You can view the books here (ROME ALONE) and here (sea).


SSK Press X emmcmakeabook July 05 2014, 0 Comments

Jason Jaworski X emmcmakeabook X Apartment Project X SSK Press

Hi all! 

We're excited to announce that a few of our old A Thousand Words zines were recently part of the 4th edition of emmcmakeabook (Even my mum can make a book) at the Apartment Project in Berlin! 

Long ago having sold out, the zines will soon be digitized for FREE in the coming weeks!

Thanks so much to Timothée Huguet, Kristina Kramer, Gamze Ozer and especially to everyone that came out! 

Jason Jaworski X emmcmakeabook X Apartment Project X SSK PressJason Jaworski X emmcmakeabook X Apartment Project X SSK PressJason Jaworski X emmcmakeabook X Apartment Project X SSK PressJason Jaworski X emmcmakeabook X Apartment Project X SSK PressJason Jaworski X emmcmakeabook X Apartment Project X SSK Press


SSK Press X The Indie Photobook Library July 05 2014, 1 Comment

Jason Jaworski X Indie Photobook Library X SSK Press

Hey everyone! 

We're excited to announce that our most recent photobooks ROME ALONE and sea are now part of The Indie Photobook Library!

Founded by Larissa Leclair in 2010 and featured in publications around the world including TIME and fototazo, The Indie Photobook Library is an archive of self-published and independently published photobooks. 

You can view our books in the online archive here (ROME ALONE) and here (sea).

Our stockist & collections page has also been updated here.

 


SHELF : Sergio Larrain by Sergio Larrain April 20 2014, 1 Comment

Sergio Larrain photobook by Sergio Larrain SSK Press Blog FeatureSergio Larrain photobook by Sergio Larrain SSK Press Blog FeatureSergio Larrain photobook by Sergio Larrain SSK Press Blog FeatureSergio Larrain photobook by Sergio Larrain SSK Press Blog FeatureSergio Larrain photobook by Sergio Larrain SSK Press Blog FeatureSergio Larrain photobook by Sergio Larrain SSK Press Blog FeatureSergio Larrain photobook by Sergio Larrain SSK Press Blog FeatureSergio Larrain photobook by Sergio Larrain SSK Press Blog FeatureSergio Larrain photobook by Sergio Larrain SSK Press Blog Feature

Sergio Larrain by Sergio Larrain 
Hardcover, 1st Edition 
Aperture, 2013 
420 Pages

I was lost when I first discovered Sergio Larrain. Living under a bride in the 15th arrondissement and surviving through my false impersonations as a bus boy to collect tips and leftover scraps of food, I had wandered to a city I had dreamed of as a child and as a child those machinations I started to build of myself as a man slowly started to fall away, like the rubbing of stones or a collection of rocks in a tumbler- the rough edges of my youth started to smooth themselves out along numerous and many other roads which led from my journey as a kid in San Ysidro to Paris, arriving via foot from Frankfurt.

It lasted less than a year, but to this day I still think about it constantly, either that time spent living in the airport for those few days, or of Frank the angel janitor who helped guide me to the right road on that walk which seemed never ending and ongoing through what felt like two seasons of winter and snow, nearly dead but still moving, toes black, the strange demon of a man behind me now but in my midst then, his hand clasping an adjacent door frame while watching me sleep, a knife in my hand, and that continuously tenuous meander of a wander that led me to the City of Light.

Immediately upon arriving in Paris, just as when I had landed in Frankfurt, I became overcome with an unnatural fear that eventually turned into a drive to keep moving. Time can too often feel like a glacier with its slow movement and large egress, but during that time my days bled into one another with such a vim and vigor that it was hard to keep track of whether the sky had in it a sunset or sunrise.

One day, after settling into a makeshift home under the Mirabeau, I woke up surrounded by the tapping and chirping of birds all around me. Blue shadows began to attach themselves to every object as the sun slowly started to rise and shone its face just up down the road. I gathered my things and tied them together with a sweater and stuffed the pile behind a tree. From there, I started walking, admittedly stuck in that moment of youth where anything and anyone given the right air and aura can cause one to fall in love. And in that particular particulate of quiet, when the sun had yet to reach the portion of sky that surrounded me, walking down that street with nothing in my pockets but my hands to keep them from the cold, before dawn, along a river vermicular, a small shudder of a name as if spoken through lace or written in silk, all the pastels of a pearl: her face, drawn in the blue light of morning.

A small girl about my same age, she was sweeping up a curb corner, her head covered with a maid’s hat. I saw her from a distance at first and slowly started to edge toward her, a smile being the only thing I had to offer. She turned to me, her profile glinted in the soft dawn: a face replicating almost exactly the famous Vermeer painting of a girl with a pearl earring. We both smiled at each other and just as I was about to get close enough to where my hello to her would have been audible with a whisper, she turned around, listening to a voice calling her inside, and disappeared inside the café doors, where I could hear a man screaming at her in an indecipherable French. Now I wasn’t trying to be some creepy stalker, but how often does one come in contact with someone whose string instantly gets tangled with your own? So I waited a few minutes, hoping she would come out and I would be able to tell her simply that I thought she was beautiful and walk away. Suddenly a window opened. On the second floor, her head poked out, laughing as she saw me waving from below. Shaking a rag outside the building, she said something in French, which I didn’t understand. Communication hopeless, I said you’re beautiful as much as I could without words before the voice of the man became audible again and she disappeared back inside the house.

The rest of the day went by in a blur. I watched the city wake and fall asleep from the left bank of the Seine. It is astounding sometimes how the mere meeting of someone can completely transform your headspace. Every morning I would return to that café but she was never there. I found out later that her and her father had a traveling cleaning service and most likely wouldn’t be back at that location for another week. I waited. When the week came and she wasn’t there I was devastated. Walking along the street, I entered a small bookstore to get my mind off things. It’s funny sometimes how huge something can feel in the moment when in hindsight it is but a minor quibble. Inside the store I was greeted by an old man. He showed me around the shop, pointing out different sections. After the tour, which I took in order to be polite, he asked me when the last time I showered was. Embarrassed, I told him that I couldn’t remember. 
“Well, we have rooms upstairs, a bathroom you can use?” he said. 
Certainly red with embarrassment by now, I thanked him but declined. 
“You a writer?” he pressed on. 
I told him I was practicing. To which he replied that I could stay there as long as I wanted if I was willing to work in the shop, write a short biography about myself (nothing long, he said), and clean up every now and then. “You can also help cut my hair,” he said, “I use a candle.” 
Dumbfounded, I stepped outside with him and sat on a bench while he told me about his shop. I looked up at the awning and its name immediately snapped into recollection from the numerous Henry Miller books I had been reading up to that moment. I immediately told him yes. 
“People don’t last here long,” he softly warned, “but it’s a great place to call home if you don’t have one.” 
For a week I stayed there, working in the shop, cleaning here and there and working on a short biography for him- a part of my rent. Soon however, it grew to be too much structure. For some reason it is hard for me to fit in a place whose walls are permanent. One day, while helping him burn portions of his hair, I told him I would be leaving to which he started laughing. 
“I was surprised you lasted this long!” he chuckled. 
On my last day working in the shop a man came in with a stack of books to donate. They belonged to his wife whom he had recently divorced. 
“She just left them- I want to get rid of the whole stack.” When I asked if he wanted to sell or donate, he said to “just have them, that way she can’t say I sold them. I donated them- to you- for a good cause.” And with that he walked out the store, the bell on the top corner of the door chiming as his steps sounded off further and farther away. I took the books to a nearby desk and started making piles of them to organize between genres for the shop. Mostly art books and catalogues, the last few in the pile were a novel by Borges, a collection of poems by Neruda and a curious volume of photographs titled after a Chilean city called Valparaíso by a photographer named Sergio Larrain.

For the rest of the day all I did was look through the book, obsessively pouring through its images one after the other. The next day I left the shop to go back living under the bridge, taking the book with me, each day waking up to look at it before going on my morning walk through the city.

One day, while walking through a market, I came upon a lone bill of 10 euros on the floor. I looked around to see if anyone had dropped it and, after an admittedly quick perusal, I picked it up and stuffed it into my pocket. A cause for celebration, I went to the same café where I had spotted the Vermeer girl a few weeks ago. Nighttime now, I entered the doors to a rather crowded room. People were chatting and smoking in nearly every seat. I found an empty table under a large mirror near the window and sat down, ordering a dish of chicken and some water, my first paid meal the entire time I was there. As the food arrived an old woman with a Spanish guitar walked in and sat down on a chair near the opposite side of the room and started to play a set of songs by the Chilean singer Violeta Parra. I was entranced. A nameless woman, with no sign or CD for sale, just a guitar and her fingers moving artfully up and down the neck of the instrument while she sang in a continuous key. Time, as it can, started to slow down for me, and all sound started to drop out save for hers. I watched her as she stared at the same corner of ceiling singing. At the end of her set I took out the few euros I had left after my meal was paid and offered them to her as a token of appreciation to which she denied, smiling shyly before putting her guitar on her back and walking away down the avenue, stray leaves falling and flickering around in pools of lamplight nested against a curb.

A day later and I was at the same café, a small refraction of light from the mirror behind me shining onto the stage. I came again for a meal, this time only able to afford a soup. Luckily, I had lined my pockets with plastic bags and while the bartender was busy behind the counter I took whatever remaining pieces of food were left on the emptied tables and put them in my pockets for later, mostly just bread and a few stray pieces of meat. The woman came in again and I sat closer this time. As she started to play I leaned against the edge of the table in front of me where after a few songs I began to zone out- carrying my vision to the empty space of wall behind her, the lyrics from her song blending blissfully with those smaller and larger sounds from outside: cars milling and mulling about, people walking, screaming, running and that soft breath of a sound almost imperceptible unless concentrated on with one’s ears: the wind. My vision occupied the space of that wall for several songs, the paint having numerous runs in it, countless coats having covered its surface. I thought of everyone in my life up until then, everyone I’d ever left, followed, or failed. How far away we were now-

A sudden nudge to my arm interrupted my thought: a man plopped down in the chair next to me. Drunk, he mumbled a few words to himself while holding his head up with his left hand while the other had in it a glass of wine which he moved involuntarily as though he were scanning the surface of the table- his entire upper body bobbing around like a buoy on the surface of the ocean.

The woman finished her set and immediately the man next to me started to clap loudly before slamming his glass down onto the table along with a few coins before wishing everyone a goodbye. I smiled and nodded him away as he walked out the door. Turning around, I noticed the woman packing up and again I offered her a small token of appreciation. She said no and then pointed at the book on my table- Valparaíso. Through her broken English and my broken Spanish I came to understand that she was from Chile, working in a bakery and playing music in a few café’s throughout the week. “Never for money,” she said- “only to be happy.” Before I knew it, our conversation had brought us to a table by the window. The bartender gave her and myself a drink on the house. She took out her bag and showed me pictures from her hometown in Chile, her daughters and grandchildren all in a large group in the background. “I love Paris,” she said, “but miss family very much. I am here 18 years with my boyfriend. We never marry, but we stay together the whole time, in love like children- youth love, me entiendes?” 
I nodded, completely touched by her story. 
“Two years ago, my boyfriend, he- he died,” she started to clasp her hands together, moving the tips of her fingers over her knuckles, “I work in bakery now, me and his sisters- good people.” From there her hands started to wander and tap the surface of the book. 
“This book- like magic, beautiful book.” She would go on to tell me that the man she was with collected books and this was her favorite because it was of Chile. 
“All his books we give away to university after he died,” she leaned in and smiled, “should have kept this one,” she said tapping its surface, smiling still. 
The conversation carried on for a while, switching focus from her to me and then back to her again. I told her of the Vermeer girl I had fallen for to which she laughed, saying not to worry, “many more, many more.” 
Eventually, once the candles started to be blown out at the tables around us, she said she had to go. Smiling simultaneously we both got up and I walked her to the door, grabbing the copy of Valparaíso from the table. We hugged again and she walked away into the waving lamplight, which, diffused through the many branches and trees, seemed to move and chase after her. I looked down at the book in my hands and flipped through it once more before chasing after her myself- calling her name. She turned around and I offered up the book to her. She smiled and refused, waving her hands, “no no no no no.” I relented with a smile and she eventually agreed under the condition that I would come see her play at the café at least once a week. “You give gift to me, I give gift to you.” I nodded and smiled, handing off the book to her with a hug before saying goodbye, her figure dissolving into the background of Rue de la Convention. After a walk, I returned to that small section of mine under the bridge, eating the spare pieces of meat and bread from the bags in my pockets and admiring the night sky.

And I can still see all those stars, burning like smaller and smaller fragments and filaments of flame: a meandering ochre of oranges, reds, yellows and that faintest hue of blue from the morning I saw that mysterious girl who seemed to step out of the Vermeer. As I remember it now, years later and multiple thousands of miles away in a small apartment in Los Angeles, the voice of the singer still whispers to me, the gaze from the Vermeer girl is just as hypnotizing, and all those images from Valparaíso when summoned blink back in a zoetrope of movement, the jump cuts and motion of which I still cherish to this day whenever I’m lost in thought or kept wandering in place. 

*     *     * 

This new monograph of photographer and artist Sergio Larrain from Aperture is as close to perfect a summation for the artist’s work that I can imagine. From the opening facsimile letter of his to an aspiring nephew photographer, to the large and vast collection of both renowned and newly unearthed Larrain images, to the sprinkling of texts, drawings and poems from his hand interspersed throughout the book- it is at once new and old, encompassing within itself as an object the best of what a great Larrain image has, a breath and lightness coupled with a simultaneous depth and deep heart. Elegantly designed by Xavier Barral, the book is large but not uncomfortable to hold, encompassing the artist’s entire oeuvre from the beginning work in his native Chile to his later work with Magnum around the globe in Italy, London, Peru and Bolivia among others. A series of images entitled “simple satori” at the end bookends the collection of work perfectly as a simple breath and step of the artist’s later work created in solitude, a personal sunrise of work that matches in complement the previous bodies shown throughout described by the book’s brilliant editor Agnes Sire as “a cosmogony of stone.” Finally, a superb and insightful contributing essay by Gonzalo Leiva Quijada entitled Lights in the Labyrinth ends the book along with an addendum of transcriptions and translations of the letters that opened the book. Out of all the work, this is where the great discovery for me was- the Sergio Larrain as a writer. The first letter to Sebastián Donoso, a nephew of his interested in photography, is so perfectly poignant it reads almost as if Larrain knew it would be kept for preservation. The insight and wisdom in the letter recalls to mind Rilke’s famous collection of letters to Franz Xaver Kappus in Letters to a Young Poet. Following that is further correspondence with Larrain between photographer Henri Cartier-Bresson and editor Agnes Sire, both collections revealing further Larrain’s great gift with prose. In addition to the correspondence collected, there are texts and poems interspersed throughout the book by Larrain, either detailing a specific series of photographs or expounding upon the “simple satori” he so greatly cherished later in life through haiku. Overall, Larrain’s writing is all at once elusive and direct, contradictorily containing a spare quality to it along with great depth. Like all great books and works of art, Sergio Larrain is a photobook that leaves you both satisfied and wanting more.

Now if only we could be given a follow-up book collecting to the other letters and texts written by Larrain... 

- Jason Jaworski
Los Angeles, CA

Sergio Larrain by Sergio Larrain - Available Here.

Valparaíso by Sergio Larrain - Available Here. 

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If you'd like to see your own photobook or photo-zine featured here on SHELF feel free to send us a copy and we will upload it ASAP. Email info@sskpress.com for more details :)

 


DAILY - Eight April 20 2014, 0 Comments

Sony RX100 Photograph of street art graffiti in Kaohsiung Taiwan by Jason Jaworski

Kaohsiung, Taiwan.


FOUND - Seventeen April 20 2014, 0 Comments

Found Polaroid Photo of family at beach from New York, NY - Collection of Jason Jaworski / SSK Press.

Found Polaroid Photo from New York, NY.


SHELF : NIAGARA by Alec Soth April 16 2014, 0 Comments

Niagara photobook by Alec Soth SSK Press Blog FeatureNiagara photobook by Alec Soth SSK Press Blog FeatureNiagara photobook by Alec Soth SSK Press Blog FeatureNiagara photobook by Alec Soth SSK Press Blog FeatureNiagara photobook by Alec Soth SSK Press Blog FeatureNiagara photobook by Alec Soth SSK Press Blog FeatureNiagara photobook by Alec Soth SSK Press Blog FeatureNiagara photobook by Alec Soth SSK Press Blog FeatureNiagara photobook by Alec Soth SSK Press Blog FeatureNiagara photobook by Alec Soth SSK Press Blog Feature

NIAGARA by Alec Soth 
Hardcover, 1st Edition 
Steidl, 2006 
144 Pages 

My first true love was with a bookstore. That kind of extreme and inextinguishable longing that so often pervades one’s self so strongly that if you were to separate from the other it would be disastrous for both parties. This particular bookstore whom I fell for was quiet. Smaller than most. Previously an old movie-house, redone to hold books instead of people, there was a marquee awning marking its outside, with the names of new arrivals and bestsellers blinking back in the slightest almost indistinguishable flicker as to catch one’s eye. I can’t say that I didn’t fall for it immediately.

My father introduced me to her. Every Saturday, he would take us, my sister and I, and we would do our normal dance of searching and sifting until we had the one book we were each allotted, and only if we had finished the previous one acquired. Opening the doors and passing the old popcorn stand that now housed staff picks and bestsellers, I would run inside and poke around, through each genre and section searching for that one lucky book that I would take home with me. At that time I was going through a phase of reading the largest books I could find. The reasons being that I grew up next to a Pizza Hut whose BookIt program rewarded children for reading books with free pizza. The larger the book and the more elucidating the report one wrote, the more pizza one was able to acquire- the perfect bribe for a child. So from that and then on it was multiple trips to the library, large books of all sorts, from Crichton and King, to Joyce and Vollman. One day, I found an interesting loophole with this section called “poetry”, a new genre for my six-year-old self. It seemed these books (the anthologies and collected works) were quite large. However, after leafing through one, it became immediately apparent that there were hardly any words in them- a triumph for laziness and my childhood pursuit for pizza! With that, I started collecting books on poetry, either from the library or through my first true love, the bookstore. The books were strange though. They didn’t read like ordinary books. I had trouble in the beginning I must admit. For a six-year-old to try to decipher Edna St. Vincent Millay’s collected works or Apollinaire, Rimbaud, Whitman, Mayakovsky, Cendrars- it was like chewing a mouthful of delicious rocks, the taste and content of which were so scrumptious, but the methods for extracting that taste and simply understanding the work growing to be sometimes painful. It taught me the powerful and unappreciated method of acquiring entertainment- that the more work one puts into something, the more enjoyment and pleasure one can derive from it. A far cry from the instantaneous world I find myself in now, one where things like poetry, certain genres of music, and literature itself are starting to seem old hat in that they can’t be whittled down into an erudite 140 characters or single image to be double-tapped and liked. Back to the story though -the books, the poetry- from where I was to become quite portly with pizza and just as shy.

Reading poetry so much and so often started in me something that is hard for me to elucidate, but I’ll try. It’s not too often that something you see or experience changes the way you see and experience the world, but reading those books and sifting through all those lines of word had that effect on me, more profound than any other experience I’ve done- from wandering naked through nuclear fields in Japan, walking from Frankfurt to Paris, or attempting to live in the Seine. I started to see the world around me with a fragility akin to that of sheets and leaves of glass. Later, upon discovering the work of Sebald, Walser, Marker and Casares, my purview would change to seeing those previous flakes of glass start to become shattered. I was (and still am) an odd kid. Just as then, I’m a bit motivated by food, or its lack thereof, and I still occasionally fall in love with places and objects, like that bookstore and its innards, just as strongly as I do people, examples being either the Film Forum in New York (a second home to me), Alias Books East, Dashwood Books, The Strand, Mercer St. Books- on and on. I am a bit loose with my affections for places and things, but that doesn’t diminish the love I feel for them, it only makes it stronger for the reasons that there are, just as with the world, so many great things to take part in, so many great books and works to absorb that it can sometimes feel overwhelming. Anyway, I’ve gotten off onto a more pretentious tangent than I ever wanted or hoped for. This isn’t about my way of seeing, but how I came upon another’s: Alec Soth.

It was several years ago. I was to meet my friend Erika at a gallery somewhere in Chelsea. Biking across the bridge from my place in Borough Park, watching the sky turn from that last breath of sunset to night. With a bit of extra time until I was to meet her, I went on my usual round of the bookstores in the lower east side and the village. One by one they either closed or I had seen and explored enough until I came upon The Strand on 12th Street. I locked my bike up and headed inside, up the staircase and toward the southeast corner where the children’s books were, a section deserted at this hour, where I could sit down undisturbed in a selected nest of books I would bring to my seat to peruse at my leisure. There is something so quietly perfect about sitting down on the floor of a bookstore and leafing through a book and (if the book is good) slowly dissolving between its covers. I collected a few books and brought the stack back to the place I was to sit. At the time I was working as an archivist for an old Magnum photographer, a post I would unfortunately leave through a series of circumstances I cannot speak of at this moment. Given that entrance into that world- I was able to see and seek out imagery in a new light, much like the same way I was exposed to poetry; a good photobook started to make sense in a way that no other book had. An exercise in reduction or a monolithic tome- each photobook I came in contact with contained images that were like stanzas or entire poems themselves that bridged one after the other to another through a new language of both sequencing and editing that was startling and blinding in a way similar to how light from a river can strike you with reflections of an oval overhead sun. It was a remarkable discovery and one I can still remember fondly, fondling a book in my apartment late at night and suddenly being struck by this new way of seeing- but that is another tangent which I will go into at a later time down the road. This story, I must keep reminding myself, is about Alec Soth and if you’ll bear with me these tangential elucidations, he will arrive in the next paragraph.

I was in my nest with a stack of books, casually leafing through each one until I came to the bottom of the stack where a yellow book was with what seemed to be an obscene amount of text on its cover, but whose design was so entirely intriguing, that I had to pick it up. The book was From Here to There: Alec Soth's America. Leafing through it confused me at first; similar to the first time I went through Eggleston’s Los Alamos. What were these images and who was this person? And then, after a second time, a third time and another I realized that I was so thoroughly engrossed it was as if that aforementioned glass I had begun to see with poetry had shattered, and the poetry of this book, which (endearingly imperfect) had in it its own tangents of text, began to speak softly and quietly while simultaneously screaming. I walked downstairs, paid for the book, and biked away. I missed my meet-up with Erika and headed home where I would pour over the book again and again until I fell asleep.

And like all things simultaneously precious, fresh and new, you want to share them with the people you love in your life. And that is precisely what I did with From Here to There. So why is it that Alec Soth’s NIAGARA is the SHELF entry today instead of From Here to There? Well, I lent the book to a former lover, and after a series of events involving a secret husband, a proposal, a proposed trip to Spain to thwart said secret husband, and numerous other tangential strings which I wont go into here- the book was lost in our separation, left somewhere in her apartment in Chelsea. To this day, I don’t know what it says about my person that I seem to think of and miss the book more often than I do her.

Alas, that rambling introduction and long drawn out story of how I came upon Alec Soth and his book From Here to There seems more fitting a text to tie with his work NIAGARA in a way than any of his other works- the beginnings of my love with a place and the ending of my love with a person.

*     *     *

Superbly sequenced and tightly edited, NIAGARA is Alec Soth’s second major publication with Steidl after his award-winning work Sleeping by the Mississippi. A continuation of that work but also an evolution, it presents Soth working with a more heightened gaze. Famously created with an 8 X 10 view camera, the book straddles the Niagara Falls as another body of water serving as a template for a body of work. On both sides of the Falls’ border Soth finds persons, characters, objects, places and letters and strings them together in an edit and sequence that is simultaneously heartbreaking and heartwarming in the ways one can recognize themselves in each image. Beautifully printed with a leatherette cover embossed on the back with a fragment of a letter so poignant it interrupts you with images of someone you once had and left- the book is a marvel. The last few pages, printed on a lighter, what almost feels to be a disposable sketch paper, outline in facsimile text and unused imagery the NIAGARA project in its entirety.

Well, that’s enough of a ramble which I presume could just have easily been summed up with this sentence: 
I love a love story, and no one seems to write them with imagery the way Alec Soth does. 

- Jason Jaworski
Los Angeles, CA

NIAGARA by Alec Soth - Available Here.

From Here to There: Alec Soth's America by Alec Soth - Available Here.

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If you'd like to see your own photobook or photo-zine featured here on SHELF feel free to send us a copy and we will upload it ASAP. Email info@sskpress.com for more details :)


DAILY - Seven April 16 2014, 2 Comments

Sony RX100 photograph of a fence in Kaohsiung, Taiwan by Jason Jaworski.

Fence in Kaohsiung, Taiwan.


FOUND - Sixteen April 16 2014, 0 Comments

Found Photo of underwater diver from New York, NY - Collection of Jason Jaworski / SSK Press.

Found Photo from New York, NY.


SHELF : Scrapbook by Donovan Wylie April 15 2014, 2 Comments

Scrapbook Photobook by Donovan Wylie SSK Press Blog FeatureScrapbook Photobook by Donovan Wylie SSK Press Blog FeatureScrapbook Photobook by Donovan Wylie SSK Press Blog FeatureScrapbook Photobook by Donovan Wylie SSK Press Blog FeatureScrapbook Photobook by Donovan Wylie SSK Press Blog FeatureScrapbook Photobook by Donovan Wylie SSK Press Blog FeatureScrapbook Photobook by Donovan Wylie SSK Press Blog FeatureScrapbook Photobook by Donovan Wylie SSK Press Blog Feature

Scrapbook by Donovan Wylie 
Softcover, 1st Edition 
Steidl, 2009 
112 Pages

Available Here.

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If you'd like to see your own photobook or photo-zine featured here on SHELF feel free to send us a copy and we will upload it ASAP. Email info@sskpress.com for more details :)


DAILY - Six April 15 2014, 0 Comments

Sony RX100 photograph of caged snake at a night market in Kaohsiung, Taiwan by Jason Jaworski.
Snake at a night market in Kaohsiung, Taiwan.

FOUND - Fifteen April 15 2014, 0 Comments

Found Photo gifted from Kevin Hayes - Collection of Jason Jaworski / SSK Press.

Found Photo gifted from Kevin Hayes.


SHELF : The Lines of My Hand by Robert Frank April 14 2014, 12 Comments

The Lines of My Hand Photobook by Robert Frank SSK Press Blog FeatureThe Lines of My Hand Photobook by Robert Frank SSK Press Blog FeatureThe Lines of My Hand Photobook by Robert Frank SSK Press Blog FeatureThe Lines of My Hand Photobook by Robert Frank SSK Press Blog FeatureThe Lines of My Hand Photobook by Robert Frank SSK Press Blog FeatureThe Lines of My Hand Photobook by Robert Frank SSK Press Blog FeatureThe Lines of My Hand Photobook by Robert Frank SSK Press Blog FeatureThe Lines of My Hand Photobook by Robert Frank SSK Press Blog FeatureThe Lines of My Hand Photobook by Robert Frank SSK Press Blog FeatureThe Lines of My Hand Photobook by Robert Frank SSK Press Blog FeatureThe Lines of My Hand Photobook by Robert Frank SSK Press Blog Feature

The Lines of My Hand by Robert Frank 
Hardcover, 1st American Edition 
Pantheon, 1989 
196 Pages 

Available Here. 

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If you'd like to see your own photobook or photo-zine featured here on SHELF feel free to send us a copy and we will upload it ASAP. Email info@sskpress.com for more details :)


DAILY - Five April 14 2014, 1 Comment

Sony RX100 photograph of prize-fish at a night market in Kaohsiung, Taiwan by Jason Jaworski.

Prize-fish at a night market in Kaohsiung, Taiwan.


FOUND - Fourteen April 14 2014, 0 Comments

Two twin girls found photo from Los Angeles, CA - Collection of Jason Jaworski / SSK Press.

Found Photo from Los Angeles, CA.


SHELF : Outland by Roger Ballen April 13 2014, 5 Comments

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Outland by Roger Ballen 
Hardcover, 1st Edition 
Phaidon, 2001 
114 Pages 

Available Here.

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If you'd like to see your own photobook or photo-zine featured here on SHELF feel free to send us a copy and we will upload it ASAP. Email info@sskpress.com for more details :)


DAILY - Four April 13 2014, 0 Comments

Sony RX100 photograph of a puppy in Kaohsiung Taiwan by Jason Jaworski.

Kaohsiung, Taiwan.


FOUND - Thirteen April 13 2014, 0 Comments

Demon Carnival Found Photo from Toronto, Canada - Collection of Jason Jaworski / SSK Press.

Found Photo from Toronto, Canada.


SHELF : Casa de Lava - Caderno by Pedro Costa April 12 2014, 0 Comments

Casa de Lava Caderno Photobook by Pedro Costa SSK Press Blog FeatureCasa de Lava Caderno Photobook by Pedro Costa SSK Press Blog FeatureCasa de Lava Caderno Photobook by Pedro Costa SSK Press Blog FeatureCasa de Lava Caderno Photobook by Pedro Costa SSK Press Blog FeatureCasa de Lava Caderno Photobook by Pedro Costa SSK Press Blog FeatureCasa de Lava Caderno Photobook by Pedro Costa SSK Press Blog FeatureCasa de Lava Caderno Photobook by Pedro Costa SSK Press Blog Feature

Casa de Lava - Caderno by Pedro Costa 
Hardcover, 1st Edition 
Pierre von Kleist, 2013 
144 Pages 

Available Here.

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If you'd like to see your own photobook or photo-zine featured here on SHELF feel free to send us a copy and we will upload it ASAP. Email info@sskpress.com for more details :)


DAILY - Three April 12 2014, 0 Comments

Sony RX100 photograph of clothes soaking in a sink from CutXPaste by Jason Jaworski.

Clothes soaking in a sink from CutXPaste


FOUND - Twelve April 12 2014, 0 Comments

Found Photo from Los Angeles, CA - Collection of Jason Jaworski / SSK Press.

Found Photo from Los Angeles, CA.


SHELF : Minutes to Midnight by Trent Parke April 11 2014, 0 Comments

Minutes to Midnight photobook by Trent Parke SSK Press Blog FeatureMinutes to Midnight photobook by Trent Parke SSK Press Blog FeatureMinutes to Midnight photobook by Trent Parke SSK Press Blog FeatureMinutes to Midnight photobook by Trent Parke SSK Press Blog FeatureMinutes to Midnight photobook by Trent Parke SSK Press Blog FeatureMinutes to Midnight photobook by Trent Parke SSK Press Blog FeatureMinutes to Midnight photobook by Trent Parke SSK Press Blog FeatureMinutes to Midnight photobook by Trent Parke SSK Press Blog FeatureMinutes to Midnight photobook by Trent Parke SSK Press Blog FeatureMinutes to Midnight photobook by Trent Parke SSK Press Blog FeatureMinutes to Midnight photobook by Trent Parke SSK Press Blog FeatureMinutes to Midnight photobook by Trent Parke SSK Press Blog FeatureMinutes to Midnight photobook by Trent Parke SSK Press Blog Feature

Minutes to Midnight by Trent Parke 
Hardcover, 1st Edition 
Steidl, 2013 
96 Pages 

Available Here.

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If you'd like to see your own photobook or photo-zine featured here on SHELF feel free to send us a copy and we will upload it ASAP. Email info@sskpress.com for more details :)


DAILY - Two April 11 2014, 0 Comments

Sony RX100 photograph of man on betel nuts selling French bulldogs by Jason Jaworski

Man cracked out on betel nuts in Kaoshiung, Taiwan selling (?) French Bulldogs with nooses in the park.


FOUND - Eleven April 11 2014, 0 Comments

Found Photo from New York, NY - Collection of Jason Jaworski / SSK Press.

Found Photo from New York, NY.


SHELF : Meno Mae no Tsuzuki by Jin Ohashi April 10 2014, 0 Comments

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Meno Mae no Tsuzuki by Jin Ohashi 
Hardcover, 1st Edition 
Seigensha, 1999 
196 Pages 

Available Here.

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If you'd like to see your own photobook or photo-zine featured here on SHELF feel free to send us a copy and we will upload it ASAP. Email info@sskpress.com for more details :)


DAILY - One April 10 2014, 0 Comments

Sony RX100 photograph of Predator by Jason Jaworski at San Diego Comic-Con.

Predator giving an interview at San Diego Comic-Con.


FOUND - Ten April 10 2014, 0 Comments

Found Photo from Miami, Florida - Collection of Jason Jaworski / SSK Press.

Found Photo from Miami, FL.


SHELF : Owls At Noon Prelude - The Hollow Men by Chris Marker April 09 2014, 0 Comments

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Owls At Noon Prelude: The Hollow Men by Chris Marker 
Softcover, 1st Edition 
Institute of Modern Art, 2008 
105 Pages

Available Here. 

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If you'd like to see your own photobook or photo-zine featured here on SHELF feel free to send us a copy and we will upload it ASAP. Email info@sskpress.com for more details :)


Introducing : DAILY! April 09 2014, 1 Comment

SSK Press Daily Photo Blog Feature by writer, artist, and photographer Jason Jaworski

I'm excited to introduce a new feature to the SSK Press blog- DAILY where we'll showcase a new photo / photo series everyday taken throughout the year with our trusty Sony RX100!

The above image was taken at an estate sale in San Diego, CA.

Check back tomorrow for more photos from the new series!


FOUND - Nine April 09 2014, 0 Comments

Found Polaroid Photo from Los Angeles, CA - Collection of Jason Jaworski / SSK Press.

Found Polaroid from Los Angeles, CA.


SHELF : Chemises by Malick Sidibe April 08 2014, 0 Comments

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Chemises by Malick Sidibé 
Softcover, 1st Edition 
Steidl, 2008 
168 Pages 

Available Here.

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If you'd like to see your own photobook or photo-zine featured here on SHELF feel free to send us a copy and we will upload it ASAP. Email info@sskpress.com for more details :)


FOUND - Eight April 08 2014, 0 Comments

Found Photo from Queens, NY - Collection of Jason Jaworski / SSK Press.

Found Photo from Queens, NY.


SHELF : Infra by Richard Mosse April 05 2014, 1 Comment

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Infra by Richard Mosse
Hardcover, 1st Edition
APERTURE / Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting, 2012
136 Pages

Available Here.

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If you'd like to see your own photobook or photo-zine featured here on SHELF feel free to send us a copy and we will upload it ASAP. Email info@sskpress.com for more details :)


FOUND - Seven April 04 2014, 0 Comments

Found Photo of woman in vintage fur coat from Brooklyn, NY - Collection of Jason Jaworski / SSK Press.

Found Photo from Brooklyn, NY.


SHELF : Utatane by Rinko Kawauchi April 04 2014, 2 Comments

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Utatane by Rinko Kawauchi
Softcover, Later Printing
Little More, 2009
64 Pages

Available Here.

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If you'd like to see your own photobook or photo-zine featured here on SHELF feel free to send us a copy and we will upload it ASAP. Email info@sskpress.com for more details :)