Edition Announcement #275 - Todd Hido

PLEASE NOTE PURCHASING LIMITS BELOW.

Good morning collectors—it's Sara today—so thrilled to introduce #4124 from the series House Hunting by Todd Hido. Go, grab your print, fast, now. They won't be around for long. Then come back because it's a perfect day for looking at and reading about photography and art for a little too long. It's gray and rainy in New York and Jen and I have been to sleep too late and woke up too early—but talking about Todd and this edition are the kind of things that make you excited to get out of bed when it's just plain miserable outside and you're on the edge of exhaustion.

Jen is still in San Francisco, so we have been chatting over IM. Our conversations about the artists we are working with are always ongoing—we send links to images, articles and interviews back and forth, commenting along the way. Studio visits are cemented by this type of dialogue, in addition to, of course, actual conversation, when we are in the same place at the same time. It's a process we've been honing for a couple years now.

Jen's history with Todd extends much farther than mine and ours, so I will start there.

Jen: He was one of the first people who showed me the path of "art for everyone." In part, because my first experience with his work was meeting him at a book signing. The signed copy of Roaming that I got that day was my first experience of an "art book" that had deep resonance for me. It is personal and universal and democratic all at once. But it was the interaction with him at the gallery that opened the door for me—the universality of the experience and emotion that the work depicted, combined with the democracy of having access to such an evolved body of art work because it was presented in the form of a book.

Like a lot of great artists, like, say, Raymond Carver, Todd's making something beautiful, deep and moving out of the mundane—taking our every day and creating moments that feel so nostalgic and familiar, but are uniquely his own.

Sara: The beauty and nostalgia in Todd's work are what initially turned me off to it. I had been art-school trained to be wary of both. But, because his work is so freaking gorgeous, I couldn't stop looking—and I realized that I could really spend time with the images and not get bored. If I was lucky like you and had snagged a copy of Roaming (or any of his books), I imagine hours would be lost to them.

Jen: I love how much he loves books, and I also think that his love of books and the way he uses them is part of what makes it so easy for him to understand what we're doing [at 20x200], and why it makes sense to him for HIM to do it. Having published so many books, Todd understands firsthand what it means to have a broad audience engaged in the ideas that inform his practice, and guess what? He LIKES it; it doesn't sully his work to have a lot of people, all kinds of people, engaged. It enhances the process and, I think, it kind of makes him work harder.

Sara: He totally does love books! I had read that interview with him and he said something about finding inspiration in books. And it makes sense. His house was full of them! And places to sit down and actually look at them.

Jen: After we spent the afternoon with him, everything about putting the edition together felt SO right. I left his house that day not only feeling like it was great that we could work with him, and amazing that it was going to happen, but also that it HAD to happen, because 20x200 seemed a perfect extension of his practice, a bridge between his books and the very scarce-to-date (not to mention tres cher!) photographs that you see in his exhibitions.

Sara: Yeah, for certain. I was also so happy to see and recognize that quote from The Road. You think of Raymond Carver, but this work, and this image, now really remind me of that book. The Road is probably McCarthy's most personal work to date. It's elegant and sparse and also strangely optimistic—the father and son are seeking out means of surviving and it becomes clear that they won't be able to carry on without the help of other people that they trust. And for as desolate as Todd's photos can be, I think there's something of that in them.

PLEASE NOTE THE FOLLOWING PURCHASING LIMITS:

- We're limiting collectors to two 8"x10" prints each, and only one per collector for prints 16"x20" and larger.
- This edition is not eligible for any discount or promotion.
- We reserve the right to refund purchases if we determine that a single collector has acquired multiple prints or used a discount code.

Previous Newsletter : Edition Announcement #274 - Michelle Vaughan