posted on 01 Nov 2015

New and Used by Marc Joseph

I just love eccentric books like this one. Photographer Marc Joseph grew up in Ohio and downtown Cleveland in the 1970s and spent his formative years drifting around used book and record stores where he developed his artistic sensibility. In this book he pays homage to these shops and has put together a collection of colour photographs that capture his time in the new and used stores he loved so much.

With the help of his editor, Damon Krukowski, Joseph has also brought togther a batch of inspirational prose and poetry in the form of short fiction, prose poems and personal essays by notable musicians and professional authors. You'll find a piece by Thurston Moore of Sonic Youth and by the novelist Jonathan Letham - so some high quality stuff is on offer and all of them are little hymns to the beauty of used books and records.

This collection couldn't be described as conventional by any stretch of the imagination. The second hand bookshops and used record stores aren't shown in any sort of documentary way but more in a way that is best described as impressionistic - the photographs give you a clear sense of what caught Joseph's artistic eye and they certainly aren't the predictable images you might have imagined. But that is what makes this book such a joy.

There is also a sense that Joseph is capturing something that we all fear might be on the way to extinction as so many second hand book and used vinyl record shops close down because of the escalting cost of high street rents combined with the changing habits of customers turning to digital download. It may not all be bad news however because there is some evidence that the tide is beginning to turn and that there is a significant minority of people who want to preserve the experience documented in New and Used. It's hard to see that these shops will ever be places that will appeal to the majority but as a cult interest there's life in these old dogs yet. 

Terry Potter

November 2015