This unusual volume is a selection of images from the projects, books and saved references found in the hard drives, stored files and archives of T. Adler Books. The collection draws from the seemingly disparate worlds of surfing, fashion and style, fishing, music, fine art, rock climbing, travel and adventure. The photographs, paintings, ephemera, illustrations and contact sheets are arranged in pairs and sequences suggesting subtle connections and parallels. Iconic historical images, works by well-known contemporary artists and photographers, and beautiful outdoor photographs blend and share page space with found paintings, incidental vacation snapshots and NASA imagery; works by classic photographers such as Walker Evans, Dorothea Lange and Jacques Henri Lartigue share space with contemporary photographers Craig Stecyk, Ed Templeton, Tim Barber, Dewey Nicks and Thomas Campbell; a portrait of JFK seated in a sailboat eating an ice cream cone is paired with a 1905 photograph of the launch of the steamer Frank J. Hecker; formal portraits of John Muir and Duke Kahanamoku and open ocean photos (above and below the surface) by Wayne Levin and Corey Arnold are scattered throughout the volume, alongside paintings by Maynard Dixon and Robert Overby, nineteenth-century Cyanotypes by Anna Atkins and a handpainted sign by Stephen Powers. Iconic surfing photographs by Don James, Ron Church, Steve Wilkings, Leo Hetzel, Jeff Hornbaker, Art Brewer, Jim Russi, Jeff Divine and Jim Driver are mixed with dramatic climbing images from Glen Denny, Mike Graham, Allen Steck, Johannes Mair and Jeff Johnson. But it is the editor's imaginative sequencing and pairing of these photographs that provides the unique pleasure of this book. A fresh, blue-sky and water-drenched elegance carries the volume along, resulting in a melding of tone and composition, gestures and cultures, associations and connections that reinforce the individual images.
Featured image, by Dave Homcy, is reproduced from An Uncommon Archive.
PRAISE AND REVIEWS
Conde Nast Traveler
Kate Cunningham
During a sunset session at Hendry's Beach, a surf break in Santa Barbara, photographer Morgan Maassen captured the unexpected inimacy of being aloat in the vast Pacific. This shot of his own hand skimming the water isn't your typical surf image (no barrels, slick cutbacks, or dramatic wipeouts)—but it draws you in nonetheless.
T Magazine, online
Su Wu
the paired images...are united by an eye for off-kilter composition and unadulterated joy, the kind that lasts only as long as a wave or a summer.
In his introduction to An Uncommon Archive, Tom Adler's collection of lasting images culled from projects, books and other references over the past few decades, photography editor and gallerist James Danziger writes, "The key to the selection of images is that singly and in combination they all convey a visceral quality that arrests not just the eye or the mind, but the heart. Covering almost the entire history of the medium, these light-infused 'saved references' carry unexpected beauty and depth. In a world where we are constantly bombarded with photographic images, these pictures invite us to stop and relish the moment. They ask questions of authorship and intent. They ask questions not just of the collector who selected and ordered these images, but of ourselves. What is it that we respond to? What makes one image move us more than another? These photographs are an invitation." Featured image, of Elizabeth Taylor on the set of Giant in 1955, is by Frank Worth. continue to blog
Our new beach house favorite, An Uncommon Archive, presents a satisfyingly summery collection of photographs paired by Tom Adler, former creative director, surfer and publisher of T. Adler Books. In a recent feature in the New York Times, Su Wu describes the images as "united by an eye for off-kilter composition and unadulterated joy, the kind that lasts only as long as a wave or a summer. Featured image, of Rancho San Julian, Lompoc, California, is by Bruce Weber. Its pairing in the book: a Dorothea Lange photograph of a plowed field. "The two images share a formal rigor — the spines of the periodicals as rhythmic as the rows of planted crops — but also other proximities and readings: the ranch where the Weber photo was taken is about 10 miles from where Lange took her photo more than 40 years earlier, of lines carved by migrant laborers." continue to blog
What do cliff divers, Hawaiian dancers, surfers, skateboarders, rock climbers, astronauts, matadors, fly fishermen and race car drivers have in common? They are all collected in An Uncommon Archive, a 168-page window into Tom Adler’s photo archive. Here you will find everything from Craig Stecyk’s 1975 photograph of Stacy Peralta performing his signature 360 (featured here) to a 1963 snapshot of President John F. Kennedy eating an ice cream cone aboard the “Honey Fiz.” continue to blog
FORMAT: Hbk, 10 x 10 in. / 168 pgs / illustrated throughout. LIST PRICE: U.S. $45.00 LIST PRICE: CANADA $60 GBP £40.00 ISBN: 9781938922800 PUBLISHER: T. Adler Books AVAILABLE: 7/28/2015 DISTRIBUTION: D.A.P. RETAILER DISC: TRADE PUBLISHING STATUS: Out of stock indefinitely AVAILABILITY: Not available TERRITORY: WORLD
This unusual volume is a selection of images from the projects, books and saved references found in the hard drives, stored files and archives of T. Adler Books. The collection draws from the seemingly disparate worlds of surfing, fashion and style, fishing, music, fine art, rock climbing, travel and adventure. The photographs, paintings, ephemera, illustrations and contact sheets are arranged in pairs and sequences suggesting subtle connections and parallels. Iconic historical images, works by well-known contemporary artists and photographers, and beautiful outdoor photographs blend and share page space with found paintings, incidental vacation snapshots and NASA imagery; works by classic photographers such as Walker Evans, Dorothea Lange and Jacques Henri Lartigue share space with contemporary photographers Craig Stecyk, Ed Templeton, Tim Barber, Dewey Nicks and Thomas Campbell; a portrait of JFK seated in a sailboat eating an ice cream cone is paired with a 1905 photograph of the launch of the steamer Frank J. Hecker; formal portraits of John Muir and Duke Kahanamoku and open ocean photos (above and below the surface) by Wayne Levin and Corey Arnold are scattered throughout the volume, alongside paintings by Maynard Dixon and Robert Overby, nineteenth-century Cyanotypes by Anna Atkins and a handpainted sign by Stephen Powers. Iconic surfing photographs by Don James, Ron Church, Steve Wilkings, Leo Hetzel, Jeff Hornbaker, Art Brewer, Jim Russi, Jeff Divine and Jim Driver are mixed with dramatic climbing images from Glen Denny, Mike Graham, Allen Steck, Johannes Mair and Jeff Johnson. But it is the editor's imaginative sequencing and pairing of these photographs that provides the unique pleasure of this book. A fresh, blue-sky and water-drenched elegance carries the volume along, resulting in a melding of tone and composition, gestures and cultures, associations and connections that reinforce the individual images.
