#nyc
Jeff Mermelstein
MACK Books
English
Softcover
160 pages
150 x 190 mm
2020
#nyc is Jeff Mermelstein’s multifarious, comic and heartbreaking survey of contemporary life as learned through overseen text messages. Written in the new language of acronym and initialism, truncation and cipher wordplay, interrupted by the occasional longueur, people appear to have few inhibitions when faced only with their own reflection in a phone screen, such that they pour their heart-felt desire and lust and hate and vitriol in unfettered streams of text consciousness.
Chaucerian in its breadth and humor, this project reveals the complex inner lives of the city’s residents, and the intriguing richness of emotion that exists within the most innocuous moments of everyday life: on the train, a park bench, or in the street. Here, a short history of New York unfolds, as told directly by one resident to another.
About the Artist
Jeff Mermelstein was born in 1957 in New Brunswick, New Jersey, and studied at Rutgers College and the International Center of Photography. His career combines personal photographs with assignments for publications such as LIFE, The New Yorker, and The New York Times Magazine. In the tradition of other photographers such as Helen Levitt, he has photographed street life in New York City extensively as well as September 11th and its aftermath.
His works are held by institutions including the Art Institute of Chicago; the International Museum of Photography at George Eastman House; and the New York Public Library. He has received the Aaron Siskind Foundation Individual Photographer’s Fellowship and the European Publishers Award for Photography. Mermelstein has taught at the International Center of Photography since 1988.
Mary O’Donnell Hulme.
About the Publisher
MACK is an independent publisher of award-winning books on visual arts, working with the world’s leading artists, writers, curators and cultural institutions.
Established in London in 2010, founder Michael Mack wanted to create a publishing house that connects new and established authors to a wider audience in beautifully designed editions. Rooted primarily in photography books, their publishing has expanded into art, literature and critical studies, working with some of the world’s most pioneering creative minds and institutions. Over this time, they have sought to build an extensive cultural programme, bringing our authors to audiences across the world in talks, workshops, fairs and signings.
From the beginning, MACK have held several core principles close to our heart: to make new, established and largely unavailable books accessible to everyone. Alongside maintaining their long-standing relationships with some of the worlds’ most established artists, they strive to bring long out-of-print books back into the market. They are also dedicated to supporting new and emerging voices in contemporary art, and our annual First Book Award gives artists anywhere in the world the opportunity to submit their work for publication, without any fees or referrals.
In the 10 years they have been around, MACK has come to represent an innovative and open-minded approach to publishing.
