#13/16: Yamamoto

Sunday, November 7, 2011:

John Wood and I left about 8AM for Amtrack in Providence to greet Yamamoto Masao, his wife Reiko, and his manager Seiko Uyeda. We corresponded with Masao and Reiko with the generous help of Seiko as translator, but this was our first meeting. The three appear at once together and seem to recognize something about us. They are instantly delightful.

On the way back to Cape Cod, Seiko shared a story that Masao told on the train coming in from New York to Providence. For some reason, he had had an encounter with a Master of sorts, a man whose Japanese sword--a Stradivarius of swords, a work of art--meant a great deal to him. He insisted that Masao take it home with him to photograph. Masao was nervous when he told him just to send it back via UPS! Upon his next visit with the Master, and to Masao's surprise, he told him that the sword's energy revealed that Masao had a difficult time photographing it. He was correct.
 
As soon as we crossed the Bourne Bridge, John suggested that we offer the front seat to Masao so he could photograph while we traveled toward Brewster on the old historic Route 6A. He reluctantly agreed and after a short time said that the road was "too beautiful to photograph" and that what he liked revealing in his work were imperfections.

I wanted to show everyone one of my favorite spots where a small bridge crossed an inlet with a strong tide. As I approached Keveney Lane to the left, I saw "Bridge Closed," but I turned anyway. It was a cold day and on our way down this short road we passed a hooded young man on the left, walking slow and determined. He turned and nodded as if he expected us. Without having mentioned it to Masao, I was surprised that he later mentioned it to me.

I stopped the car in front of the gravel pile blocking the street and before the bridge, then opened my door to find a decomposing tree trunk hollowed on one side. In the center was a lovely ceramic vase with a partly broken rim at the narrowed top. I thought, imperfection! I looked at Masao and he jumped from the car with his camera like he was greeting an old friend. From the driveway on the other side of the car appeared a man who greeted us. He said that he had just placed the vase in the tree trunk, but at the time wasn't sure why. Then, without missing a beat, the young hooded man we had passed on the way appeared on foot carrying a Japanese sword and explained he was studying Japanese martial arts and that he had been taking that precise walk for two years.

In those brief and lyrical moments, Masao, Reiko, Seiko, John, and I together were witnesses in unison to our own completely uninterrupted attention. Was this a gift brought by a Master? He would likely not have had intended it, because he was just being Yamamoto Masao.

The three Prism book and print sets (Yamamoto Masao, Mitch Dobrowner and Jack Spencer) are a hybrid between the finest offset printing by the Studley Press and a Pam Clark and Travis Becker (Twinrocker Paper) designed handmade paper for the cover. With three different sets of prints, 21st Editions has presented a spectrum of printing processes from offset to platinum (Yamamoto) to silver-contact (Dobrowner) to hand-varnished pigment ink (Spencer). These traditional style monographs are presented with the intention of showing a broad range of the artist's work with from 65-110 images. Scholarly essays by John Wood (Yamamoto), Dafydd Wood (Dobrowner), and Steven Brown (Spencer) reinforce the importance of the marriage of the word and the image as a primary 21st Editions objective.
 

Yamamoto Masao Deluxe Edition

Close-up of the cedar box for the Deluxe Edition

Prism Series Book #1, Yamamoto Masao

Prism Series Book #2, Mitch Dobrowner

Prism Series Book #3, Jack Spencer

#12/16: Listen to the Music

Listen: Herman Leonard and His World of Jazz

I've told the story many times. It was the 2008 Lucie Awards at Lincoln Center in New York. Herman Leonard was across the aisle from me. Tony Bennett walked out on stage and told his story about a man, a photographer, and a musician's friend, a fly on the wall in the 1940's and 1950's, who photographed for a decade in the jazz clubs of New York and Paris. An artist and friend of the greatest jazz musicians of all time with full access and without a face - unseen in the photographs he took documenting this definitive period in music. Herman comes to the stage and accepts his award, glowing, honored, and humble.

Later on that night, 21st Editions accepts an award for The Everywhere Chronicles from Amy Arbus. After the event, I was outside in front of Lincoln Center with my colleagues and Herman was with his. I walk over admiringly and introduce myself. "Herman, I'm Steven Albahari and I love your work. Do you know 21st Editions?" Herman says, "Sure I do man." I said, "We should do a project together some day." He says, "Sure, let's do it man!" The following fall of 2009, I contacted Herman while I was standing in front of his grand exhibition at Lincoln Center and told him how awe struck I was at his accomplishments and how wonderful his exhibition was. That was the beginning of our project together.

In February of 2010 while we were just getting started, his assistant, Geraldine Baum, called me to let me know Herman had been diagnosed with leukemia and said the doctors were giving him 5 months. I was shocked, then asked if Herman still wanted to do the project and the answer was an unequivocal "yes." Without thinking that it often takes us at least a year to get to a finished prototype, I said, "Then we will do it, and I will fly out to L.A. to deliver it to him." After hanging up, I was then faced with a new challenge, indeed. On July 10, I arrived on his doorstep with my good friend and jazz historian and audio-biographer, Jim Luce. We sat with Herman for three hours and went through the book page by page. Herman said, "These are the best platinum prints I have ever seen." I read Quincy Jones' introduction and my afterword out loud to Herman while he closed his eyes. We bonded, shared the music, the photographs, the production, the stories, made both a video (that can be seen here) and audio biography on the spot. He gave us two and a half solid hours of his intense focus. We left and he was drained. Having to rest, I trust he did so with some closure and a smile. Five weeks later on August 14, 2010, Herman passed. Two months later Listen: Herman Leonard and His World of Jazz was nominated for and won a Lucie Award. He was there, all encompassing, as we accepted the award together (click here to watch).

Love, Graham Nash

Graham Nash's music was pivotal in the adolescence of many of us. I remember being 15 and listening to Nash's Simple Man album, as well as CSN&Y's Deja Vu. The music came to represent a page in my life (and surely the lives of many, many others). It exemplified heart and soul and instilled faith and trust in the future. While Nash and his contemporaries were fighting for peace and for an even playing field, the music was laying out the options for us. It was our choice then which road we would take.

When I got word from Pam Clark and Crissy Welzen (in LA at the time) that Mac Holbert, Graham's partner at Nash Editions, suggested that Graham and I do a book together, I was, of course thrilled at the idea. After meeting with Mac Holbert in New York and about a year after Mac's initial thought, I called Graham. He was driving up U.S. Highway 1 overlooking the Pacific, while I was sitting in my car overlooking the Atlantic from Cape Cod where I live and work and where the 21st Editions offices are. Between us was 3000 miles and Graham greeted me as if he had known me a lifetime. As I got to know him, I saw that he greets everyone with equal respect and attention, as if you and he were the only ones on the planet. The man gives you his attention. He gives you his all.

Listen: Herman Leonard and His World of Jazz

Love, Graham Nash

#11/16: Jerry Uelsmann

It was at the International Design Fair in New York that Jerry Uelsmann walked up and introduced himself. With white hair, horn-rim glasses, and accompanied by his well-known wife, artist Maggie Taylor, Jerry proposed that we do a project together. I explained to Jerry that because of the unique nature of how his images were made we would require that he personally print and sign each of the prints in order for us to produce a Silver Edition project with him. He immediately said he would. I then said that they would have to be 16x20 inches, not a common size for him. To that he said "yes" again.

During a trip to Jerry and Maggie's home in Florida and after two days of looking at his life's output, which totaled roughly 5000 prints, we selected ten images. Five prints were included in each of the two 20x24 inch volumes. The set was accompanied by an additional portfolio volume of 20 poems by Harvard's Steven Brown, each inspired by one of Jerry's photographs, as well as an introduction by John Wood which discusses Uelsmann's and Brown's work and their intersections.

With Jerry and all those who make up 21st Editions, we produced the most ambitious project in our 16 year history. The brilliant brushed aluminum bindings by Daniel Kelm and his bindery incorporated Kelm designed special hinges that allow for the aluminum pages to be removable so that the signed silver-gelatin photographs mounted to them could be exhibited individually. The final result was both architecturally and bibliographically stunning.

Jerry labored for four solid months over the prints to produce a small edition of only 25 numbered and two Publisher's sets. Each week he would call me and tell me that it was the most difficult printing job he had ever done. He would then sometimes follow with an email that would contain a limerick. Jerry loves limericks and shared them with us so often that we got used to looking for them.

We announced Moth and Bonelight (Silver Edition, 2010) and it sold out in the course of 24 hours. We were astounded and pleased, since this was our most expensive production to date.

In addition to the Silver Edition, there was a smaller 14x18 inch Platinum Series portfolio of the same images that were printed by 21st Editions under the direction of Jerry Uelsmann. Each of the ten unbound prints were signed and dated by Jerry and in an edition of 55, plus 15 Artist's sets. The set also includes the 20 poems by Steven Brown printed letterpress.

Moth and Bonelight, Silver Edition

Moth and Bonelight, Platinum Edition

#10/16: Something new for 21st

In 2006, Andy Conway approached me with the idea of publishing a book celebrating the upcoming 30th Anniversary of the men's 1980 U.S. Olympic Hockey Team's gold medal win. He understood and articulated that it was an event burnished in the minds of our generation, and that of our parents, as important as man's landing on the moon. Sports fan or not, most remember that very important event during the Cold War era, and the significance of the United States eliminating West Germany, Russia, and finally Finland, for the gold.

Since a book like this was unlike anything we had ever done and since the entire 1980 team was still alive, with the exception of its coach Herb Brooks, we contacted the team. This became Andy's project and it was up to him to bring it all together, as he so skillfully did. Working closely along side Andy was Pam Clark, both of whom are avid sports fans and who turned themselves into magicians to pull all of the pieces together. Andy tracked each of the players down and asked them, "What did it mean to you then?," "How did it change your life?," and "What does it mean to you now?" The text is compiled from their answers. Concurrently, Andy convinced both Al Michaels and President Carter to write the Introduction and Afterword, respectively. He also managed to collect thoughts and reflections from the players themselves. Pam tracked and followed all of the colophon pages for three months in order to be certain the books had all 20 players' signatures. That page alone is a thing of beauty!

In the end, we published Gold: a Celebration of the 1980 U.S. Olympic Hockey Team, a celebration in book form surely unlike anything that has ever been produced in the sports arena, and perhaps that ever will be. As every year passes, this book becomes more important.

Chris Pichler and Maya Ishiwata of Nazraeli Press have been Michael Kenna's publishers for years. Chris and I have known each other for some time, so out of courtesy and respect for a man I hold in high regard, I asked Chris if he minded if I approached Michael with a proposal. Without taking a breath, Chris said, "No, not at all." Nazraeli and 21st Editions specialize in very different productions and neither of us saw any conflict, only benefit to one another, and Michael as well. Michael accepted and we soon were at work on it.  In fact, after Mont-Saint-Michel, Michael enthusiastically accepted a second invitation to work together with us on Huangshan: Poems from the T'ang Dynasty. Both Platinum Series titles focused on projects that Michael had been working on for years. Together they make up a rare set of books from one of the most important landscape photographers of the 20th and 21st centuries. He is also one of the most gracious and pleasant artists we have had the pleasure of working with.   

Gold

Mont-Saint-Michel and Huangshan

Huangshan, close-up

#9/16: Alternative Processes

As John Wood admits "The leaps in computer technology since 1989 have been astounding, and their impact on photography has been the most revolutionary event in photography's history." John's insistence on publishing Baldridge with pigment ink prints had to do with the fact that his art could not have been created any other way. So, in 2008, with Jamie Baldridge as our guide, 21st Editions published the first of two books that incorporated this new technology in, The Everywhere Chronicles.

Like other poets we have published, John Metoyer studied at McNeese State University under John Wood. His diverse range of interests and his ability to synthesize them into a work of art, whether a poem, photograph, painting, or sculpture, exemplifies this rare and unique find. John Metoyer is unique, not only because he is a very fine and accomplished conceptual artist and printer of many old processes, but he is equally as fine a poet. It is because of our great respect for this unique artist and poet that Blood Migration (2008) was selected to celebrate 21st Editions' 10th Anniversary title. 

An ancestor of John Metoyer's migrated from France, married a slave, and through grants and purchases, she and her children amassed some 13,000 to 15,000 acres of land and became one of the richest African American families in the country. Yucca Plantation was the first and possibly the only plantation owned by a freed African. It is now a National Historic Landmark, noted not only for its classic plantation home but also for the African house, which is the oldest building in the U.S. of African design. Blood Migration, with a collection of autobiographical poems, is unlike any other book we will be able to create again in large part because of the nineteen 15x22-inch photographs that are hand coated and printed in platinum, palladium, kallitype, and cyanotype.   

The Everywhere Chronicles

Blood Migration

#8/16: Metzner, Hayman, Gorman

New York was an obvious theme that John Wood, 21st Editions Editor and co-founder, gravitated toward. Our previous collaborations with Sheila Metzner in The Journal of Contemporary Photography, Volumes II and V, helped us to understand the life-long and very close connection that Sheila had with Brooklyn, the Brooklyn Bridge, and New York, not unlike Walt Whitman and Hart Crane, poets of the two greatest epic poems on America ever composed. It was with Sheila's great enthusiasm and excitement that she accepted John's  proposal to be paired with both in New York (2000) and The Bridge (2007). New York was the very first Platinum Series title for 21st Editions and became even more significant a year later, since many of the images were taken from the top of the World Trade Center. After 9/11 and out of respect, we chose not to show the book publicly for quite some time. Now a very rare and hard to find title, it set the stage for New York as a reoccurring theme for the press.

John Wood calls MacLean Gander's The New City (2008) the greatest epic poem on America since those by Whitman and Crane. In his introduction, John writes that "Hayman's images and Gander's words are a perfect pairing, not that the photographs illustrate the poems or that the poems describe the pictures. In fact, neither of these artists knew each other prior to this book, but they both create a sensuous, beautiful, yet realistic and contemporary meditation on New York and on the larger American experience that New York suggests..."

We met Jefferson when he was an aspiring artist and frame maker in New York at one of his earlier showings in the middle of an antique car gallery. We were immediately sold and knew we wanted to work with him at some point in the future. Jefferson Hayman's images of New York in The New City not only capture the spirit of the city but they bring us back in time and revisit the New York of Coburn, Steichen, and Stieglitz. Hayman's photographic style is synonymous with the artist himself - refined and respectful, creating economical compositions that leave the viewer completely satisfied.

Greg Gorman first approached us in 2000 at Photo LA when we first were showing a prototype of New York. In 2003 Greg worked with us on creating a set of large gum-over-platinum prints of two of his iconic images, Rex and Gregory and Tony. It wasn't until 2007 that the timing seemed to be just right for a Platinum Series book/print set, at which point John Wood saw the perfect match with The Odes of Pindar. Greg's persistence and enthusiasm led us to this book and for that we are eternally grateful. Mac Holbert of Nash Editions was part of the proofing process with Greg for the 11 platinum prints that would be included. After Mac saw Greg's book and loved it, he suggested to Graham Nash that we work together, which then led to Love, Graham Nash (4 years in the making).  

New York, The Bridge, and The New City

Rex and Gregory

Tony

#7/16: An International Year

Les Fleurs du mal (The Flowers of Evil)

John Wood suggested to Eikoh Hosoe that we pair his work with the poet, Charles Baudelaire, and Eikoh told John that Baudelaire was his favorite poet. They each initially selected 11 poems--9 of them matched! Eikoh and I spent a full day, as John Stevenson hosted us at his then Platinum Gallery in Chelsea, for the signing ritual of the platinum prints and the colophon pages. Eikoh was methodical in signing all of his prints. He would sign for an hour and then close his eyes for 15 minutes or so. It was a real dance and an honor to watch. I admire him and his demeanor, which is not unlike what I would expect if I were to meet the Buddha. In fact, I believe I did. 

The Sonnets of Shakespeare

Flor Garduño does not speak English. I do not speak Spanish. So working with each other was a new challenge, even though we had a translator. This edition was three years in the making and contains many of Flor's greatest images.

The Shining Path

John Wood's pairing of Brigitte Carnochan and Raúl Peschiera embellished our diverse offerings. Brigitte Carnochan's personally printed silver gelatin prints and Raúl Peschiera's epic poem of love, revolution, and violence in recent Peruvian history blends the life and loves of failed revolutionary Abimael Guzmán, the founder of Sendero Luminoso, the Shining Path. Peschiera depicts him as both the passionate revolutionary and the passionate lover. Carnochan, one of the greatest photographers of both flowers and women, takes on beauty as her subject and theme. The result is a book of intense beauty--one that interweaves the floral and the feminine within the context of love and political passion. The book comes with one of Carnochan's original, classic hand-colored prints.

Crowd and Shadows of the Dream

This set of books further challenged our standards of production. After printing all of the books letterpress with metal type and spending three days with Misha Gordin at the Hotel Northampton signing the mounts for the silver prints he made, the binder contacted us with a concern about very faint yellow fibers in the European made 100% cotton paper noticeable only if held up to the sunlight. While it seemed insignificant at the time, we had no way of knowing if whatever this was could migrate further. After meeting with a representative from the paper mill and bringing our own chemist in, and then months of further deliberation, we realized that we could not determine whether it was a problem or not. So, I decided that we had no choice but to start over again. And, even though it cost us tens of thousands of dollars, we have been able to sleep at night ever since.   

Les Fleurs du mal

The Sonnets of Shakespeare

The Shining Path

Crowd and Shadows of the Dream

#6/16: Toward Omega and The Book of Life

Life is serendipitous. In 1990 or so I found myself at the Saratoga Jazz Festival to see Dave Brubeck and Pat Metheny. They had artisan vendor tents set up and among them was a photographer who's work I was immediately attracted to. I decided to purchase my very first photograph. It happened to be by Vincent Serbin, who 13 years later, I ended up crossing paths with again and decided to publish, provided that he was able to make all of the prints for the project. He did. John Wood paired Vincent's photographs with the brilliance of Daniel Westover (poet, professor and literary critic) who constructed a poem for each image, which is a difficult task indeed.

Equally difficult, as always, was the task given to the binder for the collection. He came up with an inventive vellum and petinaed copper binding, which helped to keep the tipped-in silver prints flat. Each patina was different over an underlying stamp. The book and collection are unique to 21ST Editions, as all of our titles are.   

The Book of Life was a sequel to our first book with Robert and Shana ParkeHarrison, Listening to the Earth, and as successful. At the time, the ParkeHarrisons were receiving great acclaim within the circles of contemporary photography critics and collectors. Their shows in New York were close to selling out prior to the openings and we were grateful to have had the opportunity to create this unique set of books with 22 platinum prints.

Equally impressive was the poet, Morri Creech, in his execution of the collection of poems written for the ParkeHarrison's images. In fact, these poems were subsequently published in Field Knowledge (Waywiser Press, 2006), which won the Anthony Hecht Poetry Prize. In 2014, Creech was one of three finalists for the Pulitzer Prize for poetry. Together, John Wood's pairing of Morri Creech and the ParkeHarrisons early on helped to set a high standard for 21st Editions that continues today. 

Toward Omega

The Book of Life

#5/16: Sally Mann

In one of the first conversations John Wood and I had about who he we would like to publish he asked me who I wanted to work with, above all others. I looked at him with my head tipped, as if he already knew, and we simultaneously announced to each other, "Sally Mann," of course. It wasn't until 2002, however, that Sally agreed to work with us, initially for Volume V of The Journal of Contemporary Photography. Then, in 2003, we started to hash out with Sally what proved to be one of the most successful Platinum Series monographs from 21st Editions, Sally Mann, winner of a 2005 Lucie Award.

What excited John (and me) was the possibility of publishing, with this early pre-family body of work, Sally's poetry. John thought she was a very fine poet and it took some convincing. Her stance was modest and firm, but not completely unwavering. After all, Sally's poetry had never been published and hasn't been since, but she trusted John and I believe was happy she did.

Grateful and excited to follow up Sally Mann with Southern Landscape, we enlisted John Stauffer, one of Harvard University's leading scholars to write the text to accompany 14 of Sally's yet unpublished landscapes from her Deep South series. Stauffer, whose expertise as an abolitionist scholar, brought a deep understanding of the history of place in the South, and particularly the locations of Sally's focus. One year prior to John writing his deeply poetic and elucidating text, he invited Sally to Harvard as the speaker and guest for the acclaimed Massey Lecture Series. John recounts that it was the first time in his history at Harvard that he witnessed a standing ovation for the speaker.  

Sally Mann and Southern Landscape

#4/16: Tress, Halliday, and ParkeHarrison

2003 was a very busy year for 21st Editions. We published the second title in our Silver Series, The Perfect World of David Halliday and two Platinum Series titles: the surrealist work of Arthur Tress paired with Apollinaire in Memories; and the brilliant and highly acclaimed work of Robert ParkeHarrison in Listening to the Earth, with poems inspired by and composed specifically for this title. A companion title, The Book of Life, was also published in 2005. Morri Creech then went on to publish these poems separately and won the Anthony Hect Poetry Prize in 2005 for Field Knowledge.

Listening to the Earth is an early iconic image in Robert ParkeHarrison's career that was the impetus for the Platinum Series title by the same name. Like most of the earlier work, this photographic panel was made by hand with traditional analog processes, unlike the digital processes now being used by the ParkeHarrisons, as well as most photographic artists today. They created the scene using handmade props and found objects, and Robert is the subject. With a finished surface of encaustic wax, this panel is a pivotal piece and an important one to the history of photography. The George Eastman House originated the first major exhibition of this work, of which a panel from this edition was a part, that traveled the U.S. and Europe. Around the same time the work of Robert ParkeHarrison began to be credited to both Robert and his wife Shana who work as a team then and now. This unique artist proof was acquired directly from the artist(s) and was outside an edition of five panels, all of which sold out prior to the show it premiered in.

The Perfect World of David Halliday

Memories

Book of Life and Listening to the Earth

#3/16: 21st Editions' Silver Series is Born

In 2002 we announced our inaugural Silver Series title, Cante Jondo, with hand-toned silver gelatin prints by Josephine Sacabo. The Silver Series allowed us to follow the trajectory of our Platinum Series monographs while giving us the opportunity to honor yet another important photographic technique, the silver-gelatin print. 

I have heard more people than I can recall describe their first experience of seeing a Josephine Sacabo image. They say things like "I loved it"or "I just had to have it." I remember my own experience on first seeing one of her works; it was like an electrical charge rising out of the image and directly striking me. I thought, "I want to be able to look at this image every day for the rest of my life."

Our inarticulate attempts to describe the effect of her work is the result of having confronted Sacabo's duende, having been brought close to the precipice, and having felt, in the words of Spain's great poet Lorca, that "jet of blood worthy of her pain and her sincerity"that the duende inspired.

-John Wood

Over the years we continued to work with Josephine on The Duino Elegies and Gilded Circles and Sure Trouble, as well as a rare gum-over-platinum triptych from her Ophelia's Garden series. 

From the moment I made my first gravure, I realized I've been trying to do this for thirty years in the darkroom . . . jumping through every hoop I can think of to come up with this effect. This is what I've been looking for . . .  

-Josephine Sacabo

Cante Jondo

Gilded Circles and Sure Trouble

Gum-over-platinum triptych

#2/16 from the Publisher: Working with Joel-Peter Witkin

It was 2001 and we had just finished New York, our first Platinum Series title to great success. John Wood and I wanted to include Joel-Peter Witkin in our first anthology, The Journal of Contemporary Photography: Volume I, but he declined. On August 28, 2001, however, I sent Joel a fax proposing Songs of Experience. He faxed us within 15 minutes accepting our offer. Songs of Innocence followed in 2002.

Many have asked: "What is Joel like?" Having worked with him over the past 13 years now and after having completed four titles with him, I have gotten to know him pretty well. Joel is a religious man, and at the same time very funny too. There were periods when working on our books together that Joel would call weekly just to tell me a joke or two. For example: "What did the 0 say to the 8?.....nice belt."

What humors me is Joel's conviction to his jokes and his delivery. He can also be very serious, which is reflected in much of his work. Because many people seem very curious about the man behind the work, I jumped at his offer to publish his journals culminating in The Journal of Joel-Peter Witkin.

A very interesting story relating to The Journal of Joel-Peter Witkin, is a letter that he received from Christine Grant just weeks before sending me his materials. Joel agreed that the letter should be the introduction:

April 12, 2007

Dear Mr. Witkin,

I could not find your email address or I'd have cluttered that rather than your home mail. I happened upon your work, then read that you had been influenced by an accident you witnessed as a child in New York City in which a girl was decapitated. My father was there that day and saw the same accident and the vision of it did not leave him, either. It had to have been the same accident-I can't imagine such a thing is a common occurrence. He spoke of seeing the head rolling in the street. He said he could not sleep or eat for weeks after and he had nightmares about it throughout his life.

Indirectly, my sister and I were also influenced by that event. His telling of it brought mortality into our lives much too early. We never had the comfort of believing that only the old died-that death was far away in some indeterminate future. Then and now, we have the weight of time's limitations on our shoulders. Your work seems to have upset a fair number of people. I am glad for you that you have been able to forge your demons on the anvil of creation. I wish my father had been able to do the same.

Best regards,
Christine Grant

A unique set of gouache-over-platinum prints by Witkin (from a series of 5 unique sets) accompany this set of Platinum Series books, Songs of Experience and Songs of Innocence.

Songs of Innocence and Experience, Trade Edition

The Journal of Joel-Peter Witkin

The First Year. 1998

21st Editions is now celebrating sixteen years of The Art of the Book! In this series of sixteen posts we are sharing with you a chronology of highlights, events and stories from the beginning of our unique publishing endeavor up until now. We hope you enjoy it.

---

The Garage, 1998

Our humble beginnings started in 1998 in my half garage (shown below), not enough room to put a car in, but enough room to start a press unique to the history of photography, that has since published 50 titles, including some 150 world-class contributors and artists. We didn’t have any capital, whatsoever, and many in the industry thought we wouldn’t last. I asked my wife Janet, and she said: “What have we got to loose?” So, we mortgaged the house. That was sixteen years ago.

Today and now, 2014

It all got started in 1998 at a round-table at a Chelsea restaurant, just doors away from the Chelsea Hotel. Present were John Stevenson, John Wood, Denise Bethel, Duane Michals, Ernestine Ruben, and I (Steven Albahari, Publisher). I made it clear that I wanted to pick up where Stieglitz left off, but go several steps further. We discussed names for the journal and the press. I think John Wood suggested 21st. John Stevenson hosted, Duane brought his trademark humor, John Wood was the exemplary Southern gentleman, Denise was delightful and smart, Ernestine charmed, and A.D. was like a proud father, since it was he who got me started in college giving me the job of bibliographer of his first ten years of photographic criticism.

And so began The Journal of Contemporary Photography.

In our next post: How we came to work with Joel-Peter Witkin, what transpired over the next decade, and the man behind the brilliance.