To our friends in San Francisco - we hope you can come out this Thursday, January 6, to see two of our authors present their fabulous books. Jonathan Haeber, who is celebrating the release of Grossinger’s: City of Refuge and Illusion, will be joined by John Law reading from The Space Between. Both authors will also show slides from their various explorations.
More information and the press release are below:
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
BOOK AND SLIDESHOW PRESENTATION
by urban explorers JONATHAN HAEBER AND JOHN LAW
Chez Poulet Gallery
3359 Cesar Chavez St, San Francisco
Thursday, January 6th, 2011 at 8 p.m.
$10 admission at the door
INFO:
Two Explorers Present Books and Images from 30 Years of Infiltration History
San Francisco, CA – December 21, 2010 – John Law and Jonathan Haeber are a generation apart but they have a common interest. Their exploits have taken them from the top of the Golden Gate Bridge, to the depths of underground nuclear missile bases, to the now-dismantled Neverland Ranch. On January 6th at 8 p.m. the two aficionados of infrastructure and building hacking will talk about their books and present images from a combined 30-year saga of photographing and exploring the off-limits sections of the Bay Area’s built environment.
Law is best-known as a founder of such avant-garde San Francisco institutions as the Cacophony Society and Burning Man. He was a charter initiate into the Suicide Club, and recently published The Space Between (Furnace Press, 2008, ISBN 978-0-9772742-4-1).
Haeber has been visiting restricted and abandoned sites for over a decade. In 2009, his nighttime photos of Neverland Ranch were viewed by millions, gaining new meaning upon the death of Michael Jackson and the dismantlement and liquidation of the theme park. Haeber’s work has appeared in The New Yorker online, CNN, NBC, CBS, ABC, Der Spiegel, the San Francisco Chronicle, and National Geographic News. His book, Grossinger’s: City of Refuge and Illusion (Furnace Press, 2010, ISBN 978-0-9772742-8-4) tells the story of America’s most iconic Catskills institution – a city unto itself that has remained decaying after the 1986 bankruptcy of the pleasure resort.
“At the heart of what I do is a deep commitment to discovery and adventure,” said Haeber. “John has been a pioneer in redefining what discovery means over a century after Frederick Jackson Turner declared the death of the frontier, and I’m honored to be speaking with him.”
Law and Haeber will be presenting their images and signing copies of their books at Chez Poulet Gallery (3359 Cesar Chavez St, San Francisco) at 8 p.m. on Thursday, January 6th, 2010. You can also purchase the books directly from Furnace Press.
[Top photo: Jonathan Haeber, bottom photo: John Law]
We just heard about a nice review of Jon Haeber’s book on Grossinger’s…
His book, Grossinger’s: City of Refuge and Illusion, has been published and premiered last week. Frankly, it’s brilliant. His detail rich rendering and quiet reverence for this perishing icon are evident and meaningful. I personally think the book is a much needed addition to anyone’s art book collection and certainly a perfect gift for those of us enamored with the romance of decay.
Thanks! For the full review, click here.
Tomorrow is the big day of our Decomposition book launch in Brooklyn - to be followed shortly by another book event in San Francisco for Jon Haeber’s Grossinger’s - City of Refuge and Illusion (along with John Law’s The Space Between). Above, one of Haeber’s photos from the new book.
Here’s another image from one of our forthcoming books, this time by Jessica Rowe from The End of New York. Can you guess what that is a photo of?
Oh and we’ve set up a new Facebook page - a good way for our readers to keep up with events and the occasional promotions…
Information about the New York launch of the Decomposition Series is now online here. Michael Cook and Andrew Emond will be traveling down from Canada and Jean Kahler and Jessica Rowe will also join us to present an excerpt from their book. We hope to see you there!
The first three books of our Decomposition Series have landed at the printer’s - we can’t wait to open those boxes and celebrate the publications on November 30. More details on that soon…
The photo above is by Andrew Emond from the forthcoming Elevator Alley. Check out more of his photos at andrewemond.com, and his collaborator Michael Cook’s at Vanishing Point.
The photographer Anthony Hamboussi and Furnace Press co-founder/editor Paul Parkhill, who collaborated on our book LIC in Context, recently reconnected in print. In May 2010, Princeton Architectural Press released “Newtown Creek” by Anthony Hamboussi, with an afterword by Paul Parkhill. This very attractive new book should also be interesting to readers of our publication Copper on the Creek. And we like this recent review:
“While Hamboussi’s photography is powerful, provocative stuff, it is Paul Parkhill’s afterword – insightful thoughts on industrial New York and urban planning – that puts it all in context.”
To see the entire book review, go here.
We’re finalizing the back cover design for the Decomposition series… and by “we”, we mean Bryan Papciak, who is putting it all together. He shot the original photo in the decaying library of an abandoned hospital in New Orleans. Just enough volumes for all the letters - funny how these things work out. Soon to be seen on the backs of our fancy new books!
Come see John Law read from his book The Space Between this weekend at Lit Quake in San Francisco. The event takes place on October 9; more details can be found here. There’s also a write-up about the evening on Laughing Squid here.
Photo of John Law presenting The Space Between at City Lights by VioletBlue
