2015 LA Art Book Fair

If you know me at all you would probably agree that I am not the most exuberant of humans. I tend to be monotonous and often pessimistic. I live a pretty great life and while I appreciate it, there are few things that really bring me joy. If you were to ask me what makes me the most happy in life I would immediately answer the Miami Dolphins winning a game, but that happens pretty rarely. My second answer would be when I open the first box of something I have created.

When I was 15 I started a magazine and a record label and assembling that first box of records was one of the greatest moments of my life. Since then I have made all manor of media and merch and it always brings me great pleasure. Recently I have produced four photo books/zines/albums and I brought them all to the LA Art Book Fair and it was the best thing to happen in ages despite spending the previous week photographing naked porn stars.

I have been to the NY Art Book Fair a bunch of times and it’s always great but thanks to PaperWork NYC this was the first time I have ever sold anything at an art book fair. I had copies of my new book Dinner With Igor, the zine Food Tattoos, my expensive Vegas photo album and the special Fuck LA zine and print I made just for the fair.

I actually sold a ton of stuff. I got back less than 10 Dinner With Igor’s and I had Dana DeArmond sign five of those. I got back about 15 of the 50 Fuck LA’s that I made and I had April O’Neil sign five of those. I even sold one of the Vegas albums even though I mostly brought them for display. I have sold more than 10 of them but they have all been to fans of my work, not just people who picked it up randomly at the book fair. I got a ton of Food Tattoos back but I brought a ton of them too but still I think I have less than 100 of the 300 I originally printed. All good news.

Aside from selling stuff I also bought a ton of stuff and met a few of my favorite artists. I bought Ed and Deanna Templeton’s out of print zine collection and I finally got to meet Ed. I ran into Tony Stamolis who I love as an artist and have been friends with via the internet for years. He loved Fuck LA so I traded him one for a print which actually came in the mail today. I met Tom Neely of Henry and Glenn Forever fame and got him to sign a copy of the first book. I also got to meet Bill Daniel an old punk rock photographer who I have bought several photos from over the years (including photos of Henry Rollins & Glenn Danzig oddly enough) and got a photo he shot of Glen E. Friedman who I also own a photo (and many books) by. I probably spent another $200 on top of that so I probably didn’t make quite as much money as I could have, but I have no complaints. Pretty epic weekend.

I took a handful of black and white photos and a few snapshots at the book fair and a few at the Love//War show. I figured they made sense together as a small 35mm gallery you guys might enjoy.

So click here to see my 35mm shots from the 2015 LA Art Book Fair at the Geffen Contemporary at MOCA! (Very mildly NSFW)

And click here to see my recently updated Etsy store featuring all my books, zines and other photography items perfect for Valentines Day or Presidents Day or some other holiday that you could justify spending money on my arts.

Ed Templeton

Ho99o9

Booth Babe

Ray Potes Of Hamburger Eyes

Day By Day

April O'Neil

Bill Daniels

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