A visual retrospective of the turbulent year that was 2020 through the eyes of the New York-based multi-disciplinary artist Erik Foss.\nTWENTY TWENTY A Year in Pictures is a snapshot of Foss’s psyche, and also of one of the most turbulent years in recent American history. A lot of the events and changes of the past year directly influenced Erik’s work, depicted in this remarkable and expressive collection of imagery, bound together in a hardcover time capsule. 2020 was a horror show, but in many ways, that very horror has been the muse for Erik’s most artistically successful year. 
In a year that struck fear and insomnia in the hearts and minds of millions, we, as a culture, have undergone grave interruptions in our progression towards diversity, and global health.The onset of COVID-19, in combination with the political turmoil that ensued, we have been forced to re-examine our values, practices, and authority. In the early months of this pandemic, many Americans and global citizens faced an uprooting of lifestyle, unemployment, loss of family, experienced fear and anxiety, as well as witnessed the demonstration of violent and non-violent protests as a result of the BLM movement. 
If you’ve grazed the streets of downtown NYC at any point in the past decade, you have likely been confronted with the guttural, and expressive style of Erik Foss. After moving to New York in 1996, Erik quickly established himself as a figurative kingpin within arts and downtown culture. Having been privy to a vastness of experience within the realms of music, art, and gallery production has ultimately added to the depth, honesty, and complexity of his work. 
If nothing else, Erik is a prolific artist. In the first four months of 2020, he created: Several Portal paintings A slew of street photography Google paintings Toon drawings Abstract trompe l’oeil works made with oil and acrylics A large street mural His first bronze sculptures

TWENTY TWENTY A Year In Pictures

Foss, Erik

Children's Books

Blurring Books

<div>NYC-based photographer Tommy Kwak brings Miami Beach to life</div> <div> After the destruction of Hurricane Andrew on Miami Beach in 1992, the lifeguard towers were commissioned to be redesigned in vibrant fashion to uplift the spirits of the town.</div> <div> In the tradition of the Becher's water tower series, this book of Tommy Kwak's photographs methodically examines the 30+ iconic towers that have become symbols of South Florida's revitalization. This award-winning series of photographs utilizes similar framing and long exposures to produce minimal sky and sea backdrops in order to highlight the traits of each tower, inviting the reader to appreciate and compare the electric color palettes and eccentric forms. This body of work shows Tommy's distinct approach recognizable by the composition of the pictures, sophisticated usage of the angles, and manipulation of light, shadow, and colors. Tommy's style of photography celebrates a kind of ephemeral beauty, and at the same time transforms these entities into more graphic forms, bringing a fresh perspective on the lifeguard towers of Miami Beach.</div>

Lifeguard Towers: Miami

Arts & Photography

Kwak, Tommy

Photography & Video

Smile again… (The Sm;)e Book, 2)

Burkeman, DB

Browd, Rich

History & Criticism

Tragic and beautiful, ridiculous and sublime, these photographs are a record of the branded proprietary&nbsp;names of street drugs of The Bronx in the years around the Crack and AIDS epidemics.&nbsp; Heroin brand names were mostly associated with trouble and cocaine brand names were mostly associated&nbsp;with good living/the high life. These images tell stories, provide cautionary tales, sell through sex appeal,&nbsp;reference topical issues and engage in Truth In Advertising. Told through the photographs of New York based photographer, Thatcher Keats.&nbsp; Branded Bronx Bags 1984-1994 is part of Blurring Books' new series of publications, Limited Slim Publications.

Branded Bronx Bags: Death, Sex and Trouble: The Marketing of NYC Street Drugs 1984-1994

Keats, Thatcher

In our pill-happy society there is a pill for everything. Corporate legal drug dealers, aka Big Pharma, have for decades put design thought into clever pill presses and multicolored gel-caps to distinguish their products and attract buyers. So too, in the 1990s and 2000s when ecstasy swept the club and rave scenes, the branding of pills was essential to the marketing, a way for the user to identify a good high from cold medicine or a batch of poison. Ecstasy branding was often based on well-known corporate logos. Easily identified, pill makers latched onto the brand recognition of our corporate society subverting the brands at the same time. A process the cultural critic Carlo McCormick says “collapses the ever-convergent space between subversive youth culture and acquiescent mainstream passive consumption.” While working as a nightlife photographer, New York-based Michael Lorenzini became fascinated by the design details in ecstasy tablets and wanted to document this underground art form. He proceeded to photograph every pill he took from 2000-2001. Although jewel-like in their tiny colorful forms, the macro photographs, shot on slide film with an extreme macro lens, reveal hidden imperfections and textured landscapes.\nEvery Pill I Took: 2000-2001 is part of Blurring Books' new series of publications, Limited Slim Publications.

Every Pill I Took: 2000-2001

Lorenzini, Michael

Before db the DJ became DJ DB, he was attempting to launch himself as a photographer. These never before been published photographs capture the punk rock spirit of London in the late 70s. Some notable appearances include Sid Vicious and Nancy Spungen leaving court, the Sex Pistols final show in the UK, the Ramones in intimate New York clubs, and Annie Lennox and Dave Stewart pre-Eurythmics. Author db Burkeman is based in Brooklyn, New York and is an avid collector of all things punk rock.

CRASH BANG: Pictures from a Punk 1976-1982

Fashion

I Hope I Break Even, I Could Use the Money: Photographs from Aqueduct Racetrack 1972

Racioppo, Larry

Any Sunday in Coacalco, offers an unvarnished and intimate glimpse into the subculture of Mexican luchadores, the global phenomenon that's inextricably tied with Mexican identity. Through a blend of reportage and deeply personal portraits, New York photographer Tyler Blint-Welsh highlights the roughness, absurdity, and passion that defines lucha libre, with a collection of images depicting raw violence, feats of athleticism, and moments of vulnerability. With a distinct perspective, honed over years as a journalist for the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times, Blint-Welsh takes a documentarian's approach to a cultural performance, showcasing the aspects of machismo, tradition, and parody that have turned lucha libre into one of Mexico's biggest pop-culture exports. For his debut photobook, which was shot in a single afternoon, Blint-Welsh traveled to an outdoor wrestling ring on the outskirts of Mexico City, with a pair of cameras and seven rolls of 35mm film.

Any Sunday in Coacalco

Blint-Welsh, Tyler

Individual Artists

In 2021 after recreational marijuana was legalized in New York, an onslaught of guerilla smoke shops that sold weed began opening all over the city, beating any state-sanctioned dispensaries to the market. Almost overnight, it felt like every empty storefront was a smoke shop and every deli had added weed to their inventory. In an immediately over saturated market with accessibility like never before, the question of how to make your product stand out arose. The answer? Branding! This shift from black market to commercial led to an unprecedented emphasis on visuals for the weed being purchased, a renaissance of sorts. Never before seen strains whose names and designs played on current events, pop culture, lifestyles, luxuries and vices started showing up everywhere while more traditional strains like Sour Diesel or Gorilla Glue suddenly garnered an infinite amount of new visual interpretations. Soon enough, these bags were littered all over the streets and it became clear that they were, in most cases, unrelated to the strain of weed inside and served mostly as a visual aid - like a trading card. These bags were notably original and inventive, with seemingly endless variations of subject matter that felt completely unique to this moment of New York history. Za Zine is a collection of these bags found by Louis in New York between November 2023 and February 2024.

Za Zine: A Collection of Weed Bags Found in New York City November 2023 to February 2024

Bubko, Louis

Exported out of Chicago and Detroit in the late 80s, House and Techno music washed back up on US shores in the early 90s, repackaged as ‘Rave’ (Hardcore Techno) by the English, Belgians, Germans, et al. UK live acts like The Shamen, 808 State, Altern-8 and The Prodigy began to put a face to what most Americans considered to be ‘faceless’ music while the Alternative Dance Music era of American clubbing faded into the background. 
Before the World Wide Web made connecting with like-minded heads as easy as a few clicks, news of underground dance culture spread through word-of-mouth and DIY fanzines—called ‘zines—published and distributed by fellow DJs, artists, and insiders at record shops, clothing stores, and other hangouts. 
Based in the city of Tampa in Central Florida, one of America’s most fertile scenes, TRiP MAGAZEEN publishers Peter Wohelski, DJ Three, and Grumptronix document burgeoning US rave culture whilst keeping tempo with the global village from 1992 through 1994. Across 16 issues, never before compiled online or in print, TRiP traverses the underground through the eyes of its progenitors during the peak & dissolution of Rave as a major label commodity. Over 750 multi-genre record reviews and DJ/retail charts provide a detailed sonic roadmap along the way. 
Created pre-internet on early desktop publishing tools, TRiP conducted over 60 of the earliest American interviews from recording artists, DJs and luminaries including Aphex Twin, The Prodigy, Moby, Richie Hawtin & John Acquaviva (Plus 8), DJ Hell, J. Saul Kane (Vinyl Solution), Cabaret Voltaire, Orbital, The Orb, Autechre, Laurent Garnier, Dubtribe Sound System, Hardkiss Music, Caspar Pound (Rising High Records), Mixmaster Morris, Inner City, Terre Thaemlitz (aka DJ Sprinkles), Paul van Dyk, Seefeel, Black Dog Productions, Future Sound Of London, Global Communications, jungle/drum n bass pioneers Dan Donnelly (Suburban Bass), Rob Playford, A Guy Called Gerald, and the late psychedelic explorer / counterculture author / rave philosopher Terence McKenna. 
In over 2 1/2 years of publishing, TRiP’s coverage garnered the attention of bigger UK dance culture bibles DJ Magazine, Mixmag, and Jockey Slut, as well as German fanzine Size, with credited quotes from its interviews appearing in stories on Aphex Twin, Future Sound of London, and Laurent Garnier. TRiP even received a postcard from enigmatic Underground Resistance co-founder Mad Mike Banks expressing his utmost respect for TRiP’s coverage of Detroit artists and releases.

TRiP MAGAZEEN: The Complete Collection 1992-1994

Music

See the best price to sell, buy or rent books by the Blurring Books publisher. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Blurring Books