Fall doesn’t announce itself so much as tap you on the shoulder — suddenly the day’s way shorter, night’s are way longer, the mornings smell different…and you’re in the mood to rediscover whatever’s been hiding in your own stacks. Maybe that’s just me. Either way, fall is prime time for finding things worth keeping. Or, time to sell! So here are five items I’d buy if I were you: a mix of photobooks, oddball originals, and a few pieces that land squarely in my sweet spot. Call it a fall harvest, call it a seasonal mood shift — these are the things that stuck to me.
Yukichi Watabe — Stakeout Diary 張り込み日記 (First Japanese Edition, Nanarokusha 2014, Photobook)
In 1958, Yukichi Watabe trailed Tokyo detectives as they hunted a grisly murder suspect, capturing trench-coat silhouettes, rain-slick alleys, and the quiet choreography of postwar policing. First serialized in Japanese magazines, the images vanished for decades until Éditions Xavier Barral’s 2011 book revived them and ignited a cult following. Nanarokusha’s 2014 edition, 張り込み日記, brings the work back to Japan in its most complete form: over 140 images sequenced like a visual noir. For collectors of Japanese photobooks, this is a modern classic—equal parts documentary, cinema, and mid-century mood, standing alongside Tomatsu and Moriyama in importance.
1980s Florida Wrestling Snapshot Album
I’ve always had a soft spot for the kind of pro wrestling I grew up on—pre-Vince, pre-pyro, Sunday-morning regional TV wrestling where the crowd was half the show. Which is why this homemade Jacksonville photo album (ca. 1984) hits me right in the heart. Fifty-seven fan-shot color snapshots mounted in a drugstore album, inscribed to Mike Graham for “pinning Kendo Nagasaki,” it’s pure DIY devotion: blood, sweat, blurred motion, and the energy only a Florida crowd could summon. Dusty Rhodes, Graham, Nagasaki—they’re all here, seen from the seats, not the spotlight. A match made in, well… you know.
Bettie Page Bondage Wrestling Photo
Speaking of soft spots: anything that mixes old-school wrestling energy with mid-century underground culture, and this Bettie Page / Irving Klaw 8×10 hits that sweet spot perfectly. Klaw’s staged wrestling scenes were part theater, part taboo—DIY sets, low-budget grit, and the kind of wink-and-a-nod erotica that defined the 1950s underground. And almost landed Klaw in a heap of trouble. And Bettie? She made every frame unforgettable. While Klaw’s 4×5 contact prints are common, these larger 8×10 enlargements—especially from the 1980s revival—carry a different weight. Bettie locked in a staged struggle, fearless and playful, is a cornerstone image for any pin-up or Klaw collector.
One Big Self: Prisoners of Louisiana (and other terrific photo books from Twelvetrees & Twin Palms!)
Every so often I get a little run of Twin Palms / Twelvetrees books in the shop, and it reminds me why Jack Woody’s publicationsare so amazing. One Big Self is one of the greats—Deborah Luster’s tintype-style portraits of Louisiana prisoners paired with C.D. Wright’s text to create a documentary project that’s as somber as it is humane. Shot large-format, sequenced with care, and printed in that unmistakable Twin Palms way, it has real weight—physically and emotionally. For collectors of contemporary documentary work, this is one of the essential titles from the early 2000s and a standout among recent arrivals that include an ultra-limited Winogrand title, Ginsberg’s amazing PHOTOGRAPHS, Jack Pierson and George Platt Lynes.
IMPERIAL: PHOTOGRAPHS • William T. Vollmann
About twenty-five years ago, when I had a small presence at Tall Stories in the Mission, I’d wander across the hall to the fine folks at Bolerium. It was there I first saw a book inscribed by Anne Rice to Bram Stoker. Wait…what? HUH? Authors inscribing books to their favorite dead writer? Authors inscribing books to their favorite dead poet? Authors inscribing books to their favorite dead musician? Now this is an idea to steal!! So when William T. Vollmann signed this copy of Imperial: Photographs, I asked him to dedicate it to his favorite dead photographer. Cause…Bolerium!
