Diana Markosian's Santa Barbara brings together staged scenes, film stills, and family pictures in an innovative and compelling hybrid of personal and documentary storytelling. In 1996, following the collapse of the Soviet Union, Markosian's mother, Svetlana, placed a classified ad in a Los Angeles newspaper: "I want to see America, and meet a kind man who can show me the country," she wrote. One man who responded was from Santa Barbara, California, and their correspondence led to Svetlana becoming a mail-order bride, fleeing her increasingly dreary prospects in post-Soviet Moscow with seven-year-old Markosian and her older brother in tow. This book is a retelling of the family's first years in the US, imagined as an episode from the soap opera Santa Barbara--the first American show allowed on Russian television in the 1990s. For many families, including Markosian's, this soap opera symbolized the opportunities of America and the West; for her project, Markosian wrote a script in collaboration with one of the original Santa Barbara writers and hired actors to reenact moments from her personal history. A major exhibition of this work, including a three-channel film presentation, will open at Rencontres d'Arles in July 2020, in advance of a fall 2020 exhibition at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.

Gillian Laub's photographs of her family from the past twenty years, now collected in one volume, explore the ways society's biggest questions are revealed in our most intimate relationships. Family Matters zeroes in on the artist's family as an example of the way Donald Trump's knack for sowing discord and division has impacted communities, individuals, and households across the country. As Laub explains, "I began to unpack my relationship to my relatives--which turned out to be much more indicative of my relationship to the outside world than I had ever thought, and the key to exploring questions I had about the effects of wealth, vanity, childhood, aging, fragility, political conflict, religious traditions, and mortality." These issues became tangible in 2016, when Laub and her parents found themselves on opposing sides of the most divisive presidential election in recent US history; and further exacerbated in the lead-up to the 2020 election, in the wake of a global pandemic and protests in support of Black Lives Matter. Family Matters reveals Laub's willingness to confront ideas of privilege and unity, and to expose the fault lines and vulnerabilities of her relatives and herself. Ultimately, Family Matters celebrates the resiliency and power of family--including the family we choose--in the face of divisive rhetoric. In doing so, it holds up a highly personalized mirror to the social and political divides in the United States today.

"An essential guide."--Seattle Post-Intelligencer

A vivid showcase of work by more than thirty of the world's leading contemporary female documentary photographers. The photographic industry - its exhibitions, galleries, publications and auctions - employs thousands of women, but champions mostly men. To begin to redress the balance, here is a timely presentation of the work of over 30 female photographers working today. This book is predominantly a celebration of some of the most inquisitive, intelligent and daring photography being created now. The stories the photographers tell are the most pressing social, political and personal issues seen through the female lens. Firecracker, established in 2011 by Fiona Rogers, is a platform dedicated to supporting female photographers worldwide by showcasing their work. Building upon Firecracker's foundations, this book brings together photography that encompasses an eclectic variety of styles, techniques and locations, from Alma Haser's futuristic series of portraits that use origami to create 3D sculptures within the frame, to Laura El-Tantawy's filmic and intensely personal series on political protest in Cairo. There is a recurring theme throughout the book that serves to unite these extraordinary women and their work: the exploration of marginalized individuals and under-discussed subjects, seen by fresh eyes. Fiona Rogers and Max Houghton offer insightful and expert authorship and curation. In their respective, well-established roles in the industry they understand, influence and advocate for contemporary documentary photography today.

A memoir by photographic artist Jona Frank told in captivating stories and poignant images with a cast of actors, including Laura Dern and Imogene Wolodarsky, Cherry Hill tells the story of one girl's suburban youth and deliverance. Cherry Hill is a multimedia memoir of photographic artist Jona Frank's upbringing in--and flight from--a stifling suburban household. Told in words and evocative photographs, Frank's account of her childhood struggles with a repressive mother, mentally ill brother, and overwhelming expectations is leavened with episodes from her rich interior world. Akin to a graphic novel, this hybrid of personal essay and photography breaks open the memoir format, detailing the life of a young artist as she spends her days dreaming of a friendship with Emily Dickinson, longing for Bruce Springsteen and eschewing the rules of femininity. Frank employs a cinematic approach to construct vivid scenes from her youth. Using elaborately dressed sets, era-specific wardrobes, and multiple actors to portray herself as a child, Frank refashions her memories into vibrant tableaux. Strikingly, Frank cast Academy Award-winning actor Laura Dern in the role of her strict and complicated mother in a performance as bravura as her film and television work. As Frank outgrows the confines of her environment and suffocating domestic life, discovering art and photography as the path to her personal fulfillment, she plots her ultimate escape. A unique photographic storytelling project reminiscent of such classics as Fun Home and The Best We Could Do, Cherry Hill is an intimate self-portrait of what it takes to break free of convention and answer the question, "Who am I meant to be?"

First published in 1992 to wide critical acclaim, Pictures From Home is Larry Sultan's pendant to his parents. Sultan returned home to Southern California periodically in the 1980s and the decade-long sequence moves between registers, combining contemporary photographs with film stills from home movies, fragments of conversation, Sultan's own writings and other memorabilia. The result is a narrative collage in which the boundary between the documentary and the staged becomes increasingly ambiguous. Simultaneously the distance usually maintained between the photographer and his subjects also slips in an exchange of dialogue and emotion that is unique to this work. Significantly increasing the page count of the original book, this MACK design of Pictures From Home clarifies the multiplicity of voices - both textual and pictorial - in order to afford a fresh perspective of this seminal body of work -- Provided by the publisher.

Caspian: The Elements is Chloe Dewe Mathews's record of her journey through the beguiling Caspian region, considering its people and geography. Far from the arena of global politics, Dewe Mathews found that materials like oil, salt, and water are involved in the mystical, practical, artistic, religious, and therapeutic aspects of daily life. Caspian: The Elements is composed of a series of visual stories exploring the link between humans and this enigmatic and much-coveted landscape.

"The Notion of Family, offers an incisive exploration of the legacy of racism and economic decline in America's small towns, as embodied by her hometown of Braddock, Pennsylvania. The work also considers the impact of that decline on the community and on her family, creating a statement both personal and truly political-- an intervention in the histories and narratives of the region. Frazier has compellingly set her story of three generations--her Grandma Ruby, her mother, and herself--against larger questions of civic belonging and responsibility. The work documents her own struggles and interactions with family and the expectations of community, and includes the documentation of the demise of Braddock's only hospital, reinforcing the idea that the history of a place is frequently written on the body as well as the landscape."--Publisher's website.

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • “Dapper Dan is a legend, an icon, a beacon of inspiration to many in the Black community. His story isn’t just about fashion. It’s about tenacity, curiosity, artistry, hustle, love, and a singular determination to live our dreams out loud.”—Ava DuVernay, director of Selma, 13th, and A Wrinkle in Time NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY VANITY FAIR • DAPPER DAN NAMED ONE OF TIME’S 100 MOST INFLUENTIAL PEOPLE IN THE WORLD With his now-legendary store on 125th Street in Harlem, Dapper Dan pioneered high-end streetwear in the 1980s, remixing classic luxury-brand logos into his own innovative, glamorous designs. But before he reinvented haute couture, he was a hungry boy with holes in his shoes, a teen who daringly gambled drug dealers out of their money, and a young man in a prison cell who found nourishment in books. In this remarkable memoir, he tells his full story for the first time. Decade after decade, Dapper Dan discovered creative ways to flourish in a country designed to privilege certain Americans over others. He witnessed, profited from, and despised the rise of two drug epidemics. He invented stunningly bold credit card frauds that took him around the world. He paid neighborhood kids to jog with him in an effort to keep them out of the drug game. And when he turned his attention to fashion, he did so with the energy and curiosity with which he approaches all things: learning how to treat fur himself when no one would sell finished fur coats to a Black man; finding the best dressed hustler in the neighborhood and converting him into a customer; staying open twenty-four hours a day for nine years straight to meet demand; and, finally, emerging as a world-famous designer whose looks went on to define an era, dressing cultural icons including Eric B. and Rakim, Salt-N-Pepa, Big Daddy Kane, Mike Tyson, Alpo Martinez, LL Cool J, Jam Master Jay, Diddy, Naomi Campbell, and Jay-Z. By turns playful, poignant, thrilling, and inspiring, Dapper Dan: Made in Harlem is a high-stakes coming-of-age story spanning more than seventy years and set against the backdrop of an America where, as in the life of its narrator, the only constant is change. Praise for Dapper Dan: Made in Harlem “Dapper Dan is a true one of a kind, self-made, self-liberated, and the sharpest man you will ever see. He is couture himself.”—Marcus Samuelsson, New York Times bestselling author of Yes, Chef “What James Baldwin is to American literature, Dapper Dan is to American fashion. He is the ultimate success saga, an iconic fashion hero to multiple generations, fusing street with high sartorial elegance. He is pure American style.”—André Leon Talley, Vogue contributing editor and author