Out \u0026 About by Ari Marcopoulos


Out \u0026 About
Title : Out \u0026 About
Author :
Rating :
ISBN : 888943113X
ISBN-10 : 9788889431139
Language : English
Format Type : Hardcover
Number of Pages : 200
Publication : First published September 15, 2005

Ari Marcopoulos immerses himself completely in the personalities and scenes he has photographed, but more than that, he seems to always be anticipating the zeitgeist. As a result, he has become one of our chief documenters of contemporary culture, as it emerges. Whether he was hanging in the East Village in the 1980s at age 23 as Warhol's assistant (and snapping Basquiat at his most intimate), recording the burgeoning hip-hop scene of the late 1980s, riding along with multi-ethnic New York skateboard kids in the 1990s, or shooting snowboard schussers hurtling down a mountain (or chilling in the lodge) in recent years, Marcopoulos's pictures always penetrate the heart of the underground of the moment and its denizens. This volume is the first in a new, ambitious series called Alleged Press, a collaboration between Damiani and the renowned curator Aaron Rose.

Out \u0026 About Reviews

  • Blog on Books

    In his quarter century of filmmaking and photography, Ari Marcopoulos has established himself as one of the top global purveyors of underground art. Whether he’s photographing graffiti art from New York to the West Coast, lensing video for the Beastie Boys or exhibiting his work at places ranging from the Whitney to Paris to Japan, this Dutch-born photographer has captured the alternative world from a wide variety of angles.
    In “Directory” (so named for its phonebook printing format), Marcopoulos compiles nearly half a decade’s worth of images focusing on street art, graffiti art and skateboard lifestyle. The book, about as thick as a Manhattan phone directory, features 1,200 pages of black and white work – many of which were copied from color originals – printed on conceptually appropriate thin-mil paper (which, among other things, diminishes the contrast and sharpness of the images making them as primitive as much of the art itself.)
    While many of the photographs serve to document the world of graffiti art (where no wall, bridge or Econoline van seems to be spared), the book is rounded out by a series of images of casual portraits (notably of several young boys; presumably his sons Cairo and Ethan) and physical objects like guns, album covers (Clash, Stones, MC5) and even a copy of the New York Times. (Marcopoulos, a former Warhol printmaker, learned early on that anything can make a worthy subject of a photograph). There is text by art curator and critic, Neville Wakefield, but it is far too sparse given both the volume and unidentified nature of much of the photography presented here.
    Both Marcopoulos’ style and subject matter appeal to a certain kind of audience, which probably explains the limited-edition nature of the project (2,000 copies with a signed print), but whether you are attracted by the photo work or just the concept itself, “Directory” (the photographer’s tenth book) is a raw look at underground art, the likes of which has not been seen on bookshelves in a while now.