ON THE BOOKSHELF: Coffee Table Edition
I have had so many questions lately about the books I look at for inspiration, the books I read and even podcasts so I thought I would introduce a blog series called On The Bookshelf. I will go through everything from design books, coffee table books (today), life/advice/thought books, magazines and even podcasts. I apologise in advance because this series will not be focusing on fiction recommendations as I very rarely find myself reading fiction. The first post in the series will be my 'coffee table' books. These are mostly about aesthetics so I will be analysing the size, the materials and the content.
Since sharing is caring, if you think you have some good coffee table book recommendations, leave them in the comments!
The Encyclopaedia Of Dried Flowers, Yuki Takahashi
You'll see from my choices, I love flower books but I am quite particular surprisingly. I don't like them too be too perfect, I don't need to see the most beautiful perfect rose. So after days of walking around japan seeing dried flower stalls around our neighbourhood I found this book is Tsutaya and immediately knew I had to make it mine. It is all in Japanese but is mainly a visual book, if I wanted to find the name out of each flower I would just google translate so it's not an issue for me. Simple photography so the focus is on the dried flowers - perfect. It is medium sized with coated but not glossy stock. The cover comes with a dust cover which I threw in the bin, but the physical cover is a craft paper look which I actually don't mind.
La Flower Market, Mansur Gavriel
This is my newest edition to my book bench. Mansur Gavriel is one of those brands that just speak to me, they can do no wrong in my eyes. Their instagram is actually one of my favourites so when I saw they released this book I jumped to the online checkout. Imperfect but perfect. High contrasted flash photography inside a flower market - yes please. The hard cover is a lovely muted lemon linen so it feels really nice to hold and displays really well. Uncoated stock which suits the flash photography and I would say it is a large format book.
Find it here.
Extreme Beauty In Vogue
This book was given to me by my best friend for (I think) my 18th birthday. It includes insane photography from vogue and this book was my first introduction to Irving Penn. The photography in this book pushes the limits of beauty and I often just flick through this book in complete admiration. The hard cover book is large and in charge with a slightly coated paper stock. Mine has a cover that is protecting the book and to be honest I don't want to take it off so who knows
what is under it.
Find it here.
Still Life & Flowers, Irving Penn
If you can get your hands on any Irving Penn book you won't be disappointed. I just added Still Life to my collection and Michael hunted down Flowers for me for my 25th last year. His concepts for his still life photography is so clever and oh-so inspiring.
Strange Plants, xioxla
I got this book a few years ago now and it still such a lovely little coffee table book. It contains a curation of photographers/artists interpretation of plants. It is a hard cover and comes with stickers, need I say any more?
#GirlGaze How Girls See the World, Amanda de Cadenet
I bought this book on one of my last days in Japan. It was love at first sight even though I could only see a couple of pages. It is a submission based photography book by women for women. I find that I have a flick through this book when I am feeling a little useless and I remember how damn amazing women are. It a medium sized book but thick and juicy. It's hard cover with a fabric textured cover. Moody with a touch of pink.
In the youth of our fury, margaret zhang
This book was created by Australian creative Margaret Zhang. It is a beautiful book full of her own photography and creative direction. It is a beautiful large hard cover book with emotive photography and gold foil on the cover. It is the book I grab when I really just need to see beautiful things.