Events Posted Feb 07, 2025

Mike Brodie Signing at La Sena Gallery (1933 S. Broadway, 12th Floor)

Please join us at The Reef at 1933 Broadway, 12th Floor, Los Angeles, on Saturday, February 15th from 5PM until 9PM to celebrate the opening of La Sena Gallery's inaugural show: Mike Brodie: Polaroids. Arcana will be there selling Mr. Brody's new Twin Palms book FAILING and the artist will be on hand to sign copies.

The book is also now available for purchase here at our site!

La Sena Gallery is a new collaboration between Setanta Books and Nazraeli Press based at The Reef LA. All are welcome!
Book of the Day Posted Feb 06, 2025

Book of the Day: Cannes Uncut

Tres chic! Tres glam! Our book of the day chronicles the bygone Golden Age of the Cannes Film Festival. Excessive celeb overload! From the publisher: "When 22-year-old Richard Blanshard arrived at the Cannes Film Festival in 1976, he had no idea that he would become an official photographer for the UK and US film industry for the next two decades. His first assignment was to photograph Fred Astaire and Gene Kelly as they promoted their movie That’s Entertainment, Part II. It was to be the first of many. Today the only images we see are from the red carpet. Smartphones and social media have made it difficult for the talent to relax, but during his time there Blanshard had unfettered access to the stars and industry greats as they worked, partied and relaxed throughout their time at Cannes. His photographs were designed to document candid, personal moments alongside glitz and glamour to create international publicity. Not only that, but they showcase the unique atmosphere of Cannes and the festival. Through his remarkable collection, spanning stars and celebrities from the Golden Age of Hollywood through to the rising talent of the era, Blanshard lifts the lid on what life was really like behind the scenes at the world’s most iconic film festival. In an age where publicists, actors and actresses are ever mindful and protective of their image and reputation, we’ll never see another collection quite like it."
Events Posted Jan 28, 2025

Book Signing with Mick Haggerty for MXWX !

Please join us on Saturday, February 1st, 4:00 - 6:00, for a book signing with Mick Haggerty for his career retrospective:  MXWX !
"MXWX" - Mick's Works - is a more or less comprehensive compendium of the various visual works imagined and fabricated by Mick Haggerty over the past half century. Moving to Los Angeles from London in 1973, Haggerty quickly established himself as a go-to record industry designer, illustrator, art director, and later music video director. He has won a Grammy for the visual packaging for Supertramp's "Breakfast in America" along with designing iconic covers for David Bowie, The Police, The Electric Light Orchestra, The Go-Gos, Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers, Jimi Hendrix, Nazareth, Public Image Ltd., Keith Richards, and many, many more. His editorial illustration includes covers for Time, Vanity Fair, New York Magazine, and New West Magazine. This beautifully illustrated tome additionally features contributions by Gary Panter and Steven Heller along with a stunning archive of Mick's personal work - much of which is reproduced here for the very first time. Produced in an edition limited to one hundred and fifty hand-numbered copies, this is sure to sell out quickly, so come join us for a fun and refreshment filled afternoon with the esteemed Mr. Haggerty. 
If you'd like to purchase a signed copy of MXWX you can do so here.
 

 

Book of the Day Posted Jan 26, 2025

Book of the Day: "Americans Seen" by Sage Sohier

From the publisher: "The photographs in Americans Seen were made between 1979 and 1986, when Sage Sohier was a young photographer living in Boston. As Sohier writes in her introduction, 'In that pre-digital and less paranoid era, families — and especially children and teenagers — used to hang out in their neighborhoods. A kind of theater of the streets emerged from the boredom of hot summer days and it was a great time to photograph people outside. Undoubtedly my own childhood afternoons, often spent in my neighbor’s basement creating theatrical productions with the four kids who lived there, helped to form my vision of the play of children as a kind of rite or performance. That our audience was comprised of our dogs never discouraged us.' Over the next seven years, Sohier made portraits of people living in Boston’s many working class and ethnic neighborhoods, as well as in the towns she visited each summer during her annual road trips: one through small town Pennsylvania via dilapidated Newburgh, New York, another to mining areas in rural West Virginia, and once to Mormon enclaves in Utah and Idaho. During long Boston winters, Sohier would head south and photograph in the citrus-producing regions of inland Florida, or through the Florida panhandle to New Orleans and Cajun country. Nazraeli Press first published Americans Seen in 2017 as part of our limited-edition NZ Library series. We are thrilled to announce a remastered trade edition, making this extraordinary body of work available to a larger audience. Sage Sohier’s work has been exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art, New York; the International Center for Photography, New York; and the Art." (Nazraeli Press, 2024)

Book of the Day Posted Jan 24, 2025

Book of the Day: Teddy Sandoval and the Butch Gardens School of Art

Long-spoken of and profoundly admired by those in-the-know, the Los Angeles–based artist Teddy Sandoval (1949–95) now finally has his first (albeit posthumous; ain't that just the way it goes sometimes) monograph. A radically queer and Chicanx powerhouse who worked as variously as possible in many media, Sandoval brought joy, smarts, anger, and sexiness to the thick breadth of his work. This timely tome, Teddy Sandoval and the Butch Gardens School of Art, is obviously our book of the day. (Inventory Press/Vincent Price Art Museum/Williams College Museum of Art/Independent Curators International, 2024)
Events Posted Jan 23, 2025

The Heart of LA: Memory, Resilience and the Road to Recovery By Friends Of Residential Treasures: LA

On Saturday, January 25th from 12:00 to 2:00 pm, please join Friends of Residential Treasures and Helms Design District for a public conversation about the fires and recovery for the region.
 
The event is at Central Library — Mark Taper Auditorium located at 630 West 5th Street, Los Angeles, CA 90071 - for details and to RSVP (free) please visit here.

"We will hear testimonials and mourn our community’s losses, and have a constructive dialogue about rebuilding. We will tackle topics including short-term needs and long-term plans, the squeeze on housing supply, the role of fire insurance, and how the design community can help Los Angeles build back with wisdom and resilience.

Hear from people who have lost houses and rentals, also from architects, builders, preservationists, and other experts. Bring your voice and your questions. Speakers include Joan Barton, Adrian Scott Fine, Heather Goers, Steve Glenn, Guy Horton, Greg Kochanowski, Steven Lewis, Sam Lubell, Claire Phillips and Stephen Phillips, Chris Torres, Scott Uriu, Geoffrey Von Oeyen, Aimee Williams, and more."
Miscellany Posted Jan 23, 2025

Help Diesel Owners Alison & John after they lost their home

"Alison Reid and John Evans, lost their home in the devastating Palisades Fire. Alison and John have enhanced their communities with each of the Diesel Bookstores and now Camino Books in Del Mar. In fact, wherever they are, you'll find community--of books, ideas, and friendship. I am a sales rep for a publisher, but I was their friend before I worked with them professionally. I have been friends with Alison and John for decades, and I know there are many people in the book community who can say the same. Many of us have shared a drink, a meal, or even a concert (countless Springsteen shows for me) with Alison and John. While we are so grateful for their friendship and the good times, we now look to help them in this hardest of tasks, reconstructing all that they have lost. Please support them if you can as they travel the difficult road ahead." - Tom Benton, Organizer

https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-alison-john-rebuild-after-the-palisades-fire
Miscellany Posted Jan 13, 2025

Help Owner of Pasadena's Beloved Book Alley

TOM ROGERS, owner of Pasadena's beloved book store BOOK ALLEY has lost his home in the Eaton Fire. A charismatic, compassionate boss and loving father to two boys who work at our store, we come together as a community to help them rebuild their lives after the devastation. The Rogers family selflessly used the last moments they could helping neighbors evacuate and took nothing with them but their vehicles and husky. 
 
Miscellany Posted Jan 13, 2025

Books for Altadena's Displaced Children

Please consider helping this worthy cause with a financial donation

The organizers are at capacity for donations and we can't accept any more at this time.

 

Thank you!

 

Book of the Day Posted Jan 05, 2025

Book of the Day: Race Stories

From the publisher: "Edited by Marvin Heiferman, Race Stories: Essays on the Power of Images examines the transformational role photography plays in shaping ideas and attitudes about race and how photographic images have been instrumental in both perpetuating and combating racial stereotypes. Written between 2012 and 2019 and first presented as a monthly feature on the New York Times 'Lens' blog, Berger’s incisive essays help readers see a bigger picture about race through storytelling. By directing attention to the most revealing aspects of images, Berger makes complex issues comprehensible, vivid, and engaging. The essays illuminate a range of images, issues, and events: the modern civil rights movement; African American–, Latinx–, Asian American–, and Native American photography; and pivotal moments in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries when race, photography, and visual culture intersected. They also examine the full spectrum of photographic imaging: from amateur to professional pictures, from snapshots to fine art, from mugshots to celebrated icons of photojournalism." Book of the day! (Aperture, 2024)
more