In a recent article we discussed Stack Magazines, whose subscribers receive a different publication each month, selected for content and aesthetics. The California publisher TBW Book, founded in 2005 by Paul Schiek, relies on the same principle for its Subscription Series, the fourth and most recent of which appeared in 2013.
The idea is simple. Every year, TBW Books invites four renowned photographers to each put together a photo book. The four books share the same format and layout, and are exclusively distributed by subscription: 150 dollars for the box set of the four books—300 dollars if they’re signed by the photographers—limited to 1500 numbered copies. One book in the series is delivered to subscribers each quarter.
The new hardback A4 series features work by Christian Patterson, the author of modern classic Redheaded Peckerwood (MACK Books, 2011). In Bottom of the Lake (the English translation of the name of his hometown of Fond du Lac, Wisconsin), he revisits and wonders through the city, like the melancholic investigator we’ve come to know. At the end of Redheaded Peckerwood, the biggest mystery remained that of the artist himself.
Alessandra Sanguinetti (Sorry, Welcome) continues her introspection with these familiar black-and-whites, disenchanted but vibrant, while Raymond Meeks works with a blurred, dusty color. His photographs seem to be fighting off oblivion, softening violence of the instant, or at least slowing the tempo (Erasure). Finally, Wolfgang Tillmans (Utoquai) shows us his life from so close up that it’s not longer a question of voyeurism but of bodies and graphic patterns, textures and shapes, the visual alphabet that makes up conversation between an individual and the world.
TBW Books Subscription Series # 4
4 books, 150 $ ($45 delivery charge for Europe)
http://www.tbwbooks.com/books/Subscription-Series-4
