If I was somewhat unimpressed with Ninagawa Mika’s Sugar & Spice, well, it was probably the wrong book to jump into Ninagawa’s work. After all, Ninagawa is very well known for her particular and peculiar use of color, which Sugar & Spice didn’t really show to full effect. To remedy that, I ordered Ninagawa’s new Tokyo book (unboxing and review coming sometime next year) and 2003’s excellent and inspiring Acid Bloom.

I’m not sure where I heard about Michael Ashkin’s were it not for. It wasn’t a Charcoal book, so I suspect it was the review and “Highly Recommended” rating from Jörg Colberg. I more or less trust Colberg’s reviews, and tend to more or less agree with him most of the time, but it was Ashkin’s use of text that pushed me over the edge.

Back in November, 2020, Alec Soth’s Little Brown Mushroom imprint/project/thing ran a sale. Most of the stuff on offer was way out of my league, and I was deep into debt reduction mode anyway, but I plumped for the $100 “Gathered Leaves Grab Bag.” What is the “Gathered Leaves Grab Bag?” Well…

Until I stumbled across Subway during an Aperture sale, I only knew Bruce Davidson for… Turns out, I had Bruce Davidson confused with Bruce Gilden and I almost scrolled right past, but I’m glad I checked it out (and bought a copy), as it’s quite something.