By skateboarder and artist Jerry Hsu, The Beautiful Flower Is The World is a photo book filled with chaotic and clever shots taken on lo-fi cellphone cameras. In his spare time, Hsu would snap everything from portraits of friends to bathroom graffiti, bedazzled cowboy boots and everything between. He uploaded these shots to a blog, and published his favorites in this 288-page book.
Through images photographed between 1949 and 1950, Leo Goldstein’s East Harlem: The Postwar Years tenderly depicts the lives of that era’s newest immigrants, Puerto Ricans. A Russian-Jewish immigrant himself, Goldstein used photography to subvert stereotypes and spotlight everyday heroism within the community. “We who lived through those years in East Harlem can assure you, his lens was truer than any of the news articles, movies, …
An autobiography by punk icon Debbie Harry, Face It: A Memoir was crafted by Harry and music writer Sylvie Simmons. The fascinating tome is full of history, anecdotes and wild tales, but steers clear of being a full-on confessional—which perfectly suits Harry’s impeccably crafted Blondie persona. From her teenage years to moving to New York, meeting Chris Stein, her rise to fame and the creation …