CALIFORNIA DREAMING: PHOTOGRAPHS BY PAUL JASMIN

Gottingen, Germany: Gerhard Steidl Druckerei Und Verlag/Edition 7L, 2010. First Edition. First Printing.. Hardcover. As New/As New Dust Jacket.. Gottingen, Germany: Gerhard Steidl Druckerei Und Verlag/Edition 7L, 2010. Hardcover. As New/As New. First Edition/First Printing. 160 pages. Retrospective collection of color photographs. One of the most beautiful art photography books of our time. The First Hardcover Edition. Precedes and should not be confused with all other subsequent editions. Published in a small and limited first print run as a hardcover original only. The First Edition is now scarce. A brilliant production by Dimitri Levas: Oversize-volume format. Black cloth boards with titles embossed on spine, as issued. Photographs and text by Paul Jasmin. Printed on pristine-white, thick coated stock paper by Steidl in Gottingen, Germany to the highest standards. In pictorial DJ with titles on the cover and spine, as issued. Presents Paul Jasmin's "California Dreaming". His third collection of photographs of his beloved Los Angeles, as embodied by the young Americans who are irresistibly drawn to it, who are themselves irresistible. Jasmin's focus is on the beauty of the male and female face and body which they embody. All of the models were students at the Art Center College of Design Pasadena (Batch 2005-2009), where Jasmin taught photography for a long time. In other words, Jason Wilder, the subject on the cover, and all of the other Beautiful People in the book, aspire to be artists, designers, and creative photographers themselves, working behind the camera rather than posing in front of it. As with "Hollywood Cowboy" (2002) and "Lost Angeles" (2004), these images, in a melancholy mood, may very well be the first and only time we will see them as the unbearably sexy youth that they all are. The title is from the anthem-song by The Mamas And The Papas, and begs the question: What does it mean as far as these portraits of youth are concerned? "I always tell my students that they have to develop a rich fantasy life and have a highly active imagination. California is an alluring place, but I look at Hollywood as a state of mind; it's all in the imagination. Our culture today is crammed full of celebrity imagery, Photoshop reality, digital enhancement, and I for one am not buying into it. It is when I see the faces of the models and students and aspiring artists who pass through my life that I long to photograph them. That is my fantasy life. They keep me dreaming" (Paul Jasmin). What a life. An absolute "must-have" title for Paul Jasmin collectors. This copy is very boldly and beautifully signed in black ink-pen on the title page by Paul Jasmin. It is signed directly on the page itself, not on a tipped-in page. This title is a contemporary art photography classic. As far as we know, this is the only such signed copy of the First Hardcover Edition/First Printing available online and is in especially fine condition: Clean, crisp, and bright. A rare signed copy thus. 100 color plates and vintage photographs from Jasmin's personal archives. One of the finest American artist/photographers of our time. A fine collectible copy. . ISBN 3869300302.