Birthdays and Book Binge
Not much to report this week. Didn't take many pictures because we were all sick and then we were busy planning and executing an excellent 5th birthday party for our son. Happy birthday! We get to do it all over again in two weeks for our daughter. She wants to go to an arcade. Whatever!
When I'm feeling bummed out I often seek two different, sometimes converging paths to feel better. One is going on spontaneous, often ill-advised adventures, and the other is frantic (also ill-advised) retail therapy. A few weeks ago I watched the Werner Herzog movie Nomad: In the Footsteps of Bruce Chatwin. I enjoyed it quite a bit even though I honestly had never heard of Bruce Chatwin before. When I was sick last week I impulsively went on my favorite used book site Abebooks.com and ordered EVERY SINGLE BRUCE CHATWIN BOOK. It was silly but it only cost me $40.
Far Journeys: Photographs and Notebooks
Then, yesterday I was supposed to have a busy office day but a client ghosted me in the morning and my bad mood got worse so I decided to indulge in my other mood fixing behavior by going for an unconscionably long drive to the middle of nowhere. While I was out there I figured I would seek out a used book store I've been trying to go to for a while. The store is The Maine Book House in Oxford, Maine. I passed by it a few months ago on my way to a wedding but it was closed. It seems like the kind of place where the owner opens when he wants to. It was worth the trip because it was a great little book store. Lots of crazy, messy rooms. A little bit or order, enough chaos to keep things interesting, and man, it has that smell. The dusty book smell. Most importantly they had a huge art and photo section and I really indulged myself. I found some things I've been searching for for years and some things I figured I should own out of duty. The Book House has a companion store just 5 minutes away in Norway, Maine called Food For Thought. I got some cool stuff there too. Here's my haul:
(the prices I paid were MUCH different than what is listed here, some I paid more for, some much less)
Paul Strand - The World On My Doorstep
Alfred Stieglitz - Camera Notes
Emma D. Sewall - Message Through Time
Barbara Morgan - Martha Graham: Sixteen Dances in Photographs (!!!)
Garry Winogrand - Figments From the Real World (My problematic fave)
Robert Frank - New York to Nova Scotia (Houston Museum of Fine Arts Exhibition Catalog. REALLY COOL FIND. Obviously I love The Americans but I'm baffled by his post-Americans, leaving the art world behind work and this kind of ties it together and makes it all make sense.)
This feels self indulgent but I honestly don't have any work to share. I am actively testing out some fun cameras to share later but for now this is all I have. Go buy some expensive new books by living authors and artists and some cheap used books by dead people. It's fun!