“What art does — maybe what it does most completely — is tell us, make us feel that what we think we know, we don’t. There are whole worlds around us that we’ve never glimpsed.” Greil Marcus — Friday April 25th — —

The idea is to die young as late as possible. — Ashley Montagu — Friday April 25th — —

I love listening. It is one of the only spaces where you can be still and moved at the same time. — Nayyirah Waheed — Friday April 25th — —

99 x 99s

Luke Stephenson just started a Kickstarter campaign to publish his latest beautiful series in a collaboration with YES, who also designed ‘An Incomplete Dictionary of Show Birds’. Named ’99 x 99s’, the series is a photographic project which documents the story of the 99 ice cream through a photographic road trip around the UK. In the summer of 2013, over 25 days and 3,500 miles, Stephenson travelled around the coastline of Great Britain. Going from place to place the photographer was fascinated by the human touches that make each 99 ice cream unique. In the series the seaside ice cream vans and parlours that sold the 99s are also portrayed and the myths which surround this very British icon are discussed, giving the project a significant anthropological dimension, next to Stephenson’s excellent eye for finding beautiful aesthetics in unexpected places.

The reason to find funding through Kickstarter is Stephenson’s intention for the 99 x 99s book to be more ambitious than any of his earlier publications, in terms of size, page count, materials and finish than his prior publications. The interior of the book will be printed on premium quality matte art paper. The main pages features the vendor and relating ice cream per spread, complete with the location, date and weather. The book will also feature an essay by the author and broadcaster Michael Smith, who has stated on the journey: “It wasn’t just a journey to explore the 99, so much as a journey into the collective psyche and the land that had created it … as a rite of passage, American photographers do vast epic road trips down route 66. English photographers go to the seaside.” And Stephenson on his revealing journey:

As I traveled from place to place I became fascinated by the human touches that make each cone unique and the stories which shroud the 99 in mystery.

We can’t wait for the book to be published!

Make sure to support Stephenson’s 99 x 99s here!