TBW Books was founded in 2006 and is an independent photography book publishing company based in Oakland, Ca. The company produces books by some of the world’s most renowned and acclaimed artists working in the field of photography.

Each year TBW Books curates four individual books by artists it feels is making the most compelling work within the medium of photography. While each book is unique they are designed and edited to work together in conveying a cohesive visual theme. “TBW Books Series No. 5 – Four-Book Set” is their most recent Subscription Series.

Book Number 1 is by Mike Mandel and called “Boardwalk Minus Forty”. The second book is by the photograph Susan Meiselas and is called “Price Street Girls”, followed by “Shall Take Up Serpents” by Bill Burke. Book Number 4 is by Lee Friedlander and has the name “Head”.

The whole series is printed by Longo, an established printing company in South Tyrol, Italy. Longo has used its unique printing techniques to create individual solutions maintaining high-level quality.

This fifth Subscription Series gathers four iconic living American photographers to offer entirely new bodies of never before seen work. Reaching back 30 years and beyond, the books feel contemporary through deliberate choices in editing, sequence, and design, while continuing to celebrate their vintage origins. Each artist’s vision, while individually experienced, comes together to form a powerful quartet of books.

Mike Mandel – Boardwalk Minus Forty

Created during the artist’s time as a student at the San Francisco Art Institute, “Boardwalk Minus Forty” was one of Mendel’s first serious forays into what he jokingly refers to as “real photographs”. Known later for his conceptual bodies of work, most notably Evidence, created with fellow artist Larry Sultan in the later 1970’s and now regarded by many as one of photography’s most influential photo books, Boardwalk is a rare look back at the foundation the artist was building all along.

Susan Meiselas – Prince Street Girls

Shot during a short period in the later 1970s in New York’s Lower East Side, Meiselas developed a close and lasting bond with a group of eleven neighbourhood girls, collectively known as the Prince Street Girls. This book is an intimate and sprawling view of the girls’ formative years in an ever-changing city. Meisalas, a highly renowned and respected photographer, works today as a member of Magnum. Her early 1970’s seminal photographic achievements to this day.

Bill Burke – They Shall Take Up Serpents

Continuing with Burke’s tradition of examining niche American cultures, Serpents pulls us into the surreal, intense and at times consuming world of coal miner doubling as religious snake handlers by the work-week’s end. He is known for using a variety of camera and film formats, Burke strings together that alone might seem out of place but together weave the iconic storytelling the artist has become widely known and respected for.

Lee Friedlander – Head

Spanning 50 years of the artists’ work, Friedlander dove into his achieves to assemble a collection of images that crystallizes on of his signature shooting motifs. The book oscillates in tone from serious to humorous and back again. With a fluidity that belies the seemingly disparate images, Friedlander reminds viewers of his brilliance as both photographer and master of the bookmaking medium. Head is a fascinating glimpse into the process and approach of one of the world’s most important and enigmatic living artists.

Book 1: Mike Mandel – Boardwalk Minus Forty

Book 2: Susan Meiselas – Prince Street Girls

Book 3: Bill Burke – They Shall Take Up Serpents

Book 4: Lee Friedlander – Head

Edition of 1000

8.5 x 10.5 in.

Clothbound hardcover with dust jacket

2017

ISBN 978-1-942953-28-9

PRINTED BY LONGO

AVAILABLE AT TBW Books