Thursday, December 26, 2013

Five inexpensive and overlooked books that made me laugh or smile

Thomas Van Den Driessche. How to be a .... photographer in four lessons.

Price: 19.50 Euros
An absolute masterpiece. Biting satire at its best.


Gustavo Aleman. (No) Soy de Aqui.

Price: 20 euros.
A book of slightly incongruous photographs that perfectly captures the love/hate sense of attraction and rejection so many of us feel about the places we live. 



Sergey Novikov. Belgian Beer. 

Price: 30 dollars.
Documenting Vasya Bykov's trip through the Belgian beer circuit and his reaction, in words and images, to each beer he tried. Cheers!


Belgian beer from Sergey Novikov on Vimeo.

 

Koji Kitagawa. Kyoiku.

Price: 1000 yen
Cute cartoon characters, bright colors and bold graphic design. What's not to like?



Marco van Duyvendijk and Xiaxiao Xu. Love Doll Factory. 

Price: 17 euros.
Parts of this come across as a plastic version of Bellmer's surrealist classic Die Puppe. In early 2012 photographers Marco van Duyvendijk and Xiaoxiao Xu visited the Ya Mei Plastic Factory; a small factory in Zhejiang province China that produces love dolls. Meant as a tribute to the factory and its workers, Love Doll Factory is a delightful little book, made in loveable pink colours and with a highly enjoyable soft touch cover. 



And for those of you who think The Pigs should be on the list, a book with that much press coverage is not "overlooked."

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