Most Popular Books by Hilton Als

"This book will change you." --Chicago Tribune White Girls is about, among other things, blackness, queerness, movies, Brooklyn, love (and the loss of love), AIDS, fashion, Basquiat, Capote, philosophy, porn, Eminem, Louise Brooks, and Michael Jackson. Freewheeling and dazzling, tender and true, it is one of the most daring and provocative books of recent years, an invaluable guide to the culture of our time.

Marrying the memoir and essay forms while exploring desire, Prince, and racism, Hilton Als’s My Pinup expands and delivers love. In this brilliant two-part memoir, the Pulitzer Prize–winning writer Hilton Als distills into one cocktail the deep and potent complexities of love and of loss, of Prince and of power, of desire and of race. It’s delicious and it’s got the kick of a mule, especially as Als swirls into his mix the downtown queer nightclub scene, the AIDS crisis, Prince’s ass in his tight little pants, an ill-fated peach pie, Dorothy Parker, and his desire for true love. Always surprising and stealthily—even painfully—moving, Als plumbs longing: “I inched closer to him as he danced to you, Prince. But already he was you, Prince, in my mind. He had the same coloring, and the same loneliness I wanted to fill with my admiration. I couldn’t love him enough. We were colored boys together. There is not enough of that in the world, Prince—but you know that. Still, when other people see that kind of fraternity they want to kill it. But we were so committed to each other, we never could work out what that violence meant. There was so much love between us. Why didn’t anyone want us to share it?”

Known for her portraits of family, friends, writers, poets, artists, students, singers, salesmen, activists, and more, Alice Neel created forthright, intimate, and, at times, humorous paintings that quietly engaged with political and social issues. In Alice Neel, Uptown, writer and curator Hilton Als brings together a body of paintings and works on paper of African-Americans, Latinos, Asians, and other people of color for the first time. Highlighting the innate diversity of Neel’s approach, the selection looks at those whose portraits are often left out of the art-historical canon and how this extraordinary painter captured them; “what fascinated her was the breadth of humanity that she encountered,” Als writes. The publication, which opens with a foreword by Jeremy Lewison, advisor to The Estate of Alice Neel, explores Neel’s interest in the diversity of uptown New York and the variety of people amongst whom she lived. This group of portraits includes well-known figures such as playwright, actress, and author Alice Childress; the sociologist Horace R. Cayton, Jr.; the community activist Mercedes Arroyo; and the widely published academic Harold Cruse; alongside more anonymous individuals of a nurse, a ballet dancer, a taxi driver, a businessman, and a local kid who ran errands for Neel. In short and illuminating texts on specific works written in his characteristic narrative style, Als writes about the history of each sitter and offers insights into Neel and her work, while adding his own perspective. A contemporary and personal approach to the artist’s oeuvre, Als’s project is “an attempt to honor not only what Neel saw, but the generosity of her seeing.” This catalogue is published on the occasion of the 2017 exhibitions of Neel’s paintings and drawings at David Zwirner, New York, and Victoria Miro, London.

The renowned photographer Catherine Opie takes on a challenging documentary project— an "indirect portrait" of Elizabeth Taylor through her home and possessions. One of America’s most celebrated living photographers, Catherine Opie works in series that are remarkably varied in both style and subject matter—from intimate portraits of the LGBTQ community to beautiful, nearly-abstract landscapes featuring ice-fishing houses. Expanding that astonishing range of subjects further is Opie’s ambitious recent series of photographs taken at the home of late movie star Elizabeth Taylor. Though glamour and celebrity are not common themes in her work, Opie was inspired by the possibilities this project offered—recalling William Eggleston’s series on Elvis Presley’s Graceland, or her own photographs of Obama’s 2008 inauguration, both of which represent indirect portraits of their subjects. The images in this moving collection were culled from photos Opie took over the course of six months, both on the grounds of and inside Taylor’s home. The subjects are wildly diverse—a dog-eared remote control manual, close-ups of Taylor’s enormous closets, shelves of tchotchkes and priceless works of art—telling more about Taylor’s life than any "celebrity" portrait ever could. Through Opie’s thoughtful curation, Taylor’s home tells a poignant story and reveals the arc of a fascinating life.

Over the past twenty years Peter Doig has established an international reputation as one of the finest painters working today. This catalogue looks in depth at the work he has produced since re-establishing contact in 2000 with his childhood home of Tri

Exhibition catalog of photographs taken with a rapatronic camera of nuclear tests during the 1950s by Harold E. Edgerton with Herbert Grier and Kennth Germeshausen. Also included are photographs of Hiroshima taken by an anonymous photographer shortly after the 1945 bombing.

Daring and fiercely original, THE WOMEN is at once a memoir, a psychological study, a sociopolitical manifesto, and an incisive adventure in literary criticism. It presents a series of portraits that analyzes the role that sexual and racial identity play in the lives and work of a series of subjects chosen by the author. Among these subjects are his own mother and the mother of Malcolm X.

The Pulitzer–Prize winning and Guggenheim-honored Hilton Als curates the best essays from hundreds of magazines, journals, and websites, bringing “the fierce style of street reading and the formal tradition of critical inquiry, reads culture, race, and gender” (New York Times) to the task. “The essay, like love, like life, is indefinable, but you know an essay when you see it, and you know a great one when you feel it, because it is concentrated life,” writes Hilton Als in his introduction. Expertly guided by Als’s instinct and intellect, The Best American Essays 2018 showcases great essays as well as irresistibly eclectic ones. Go undercover in North Korea, delve into the question of race in the novels of William Faulkner, hang out in the 1970s New York music scene, and take a family road trip cum art pilgrimage. These experiences and more immersive slices of concentrated life await.

"Lorna Simpson, which accompanies a major mid-career retrospective organized by the American Federation of Arts, offers a comprehensive examination of this artist''s remarkable achievement over a period of more than twenty years of production. The works featured include examples of the artist''s earliest photograph and text works, in which she introduces the basic elements of combining a figure whose body is often cropped or whose face is hidden from view with fragments of text that confound the viewer''s expectations of narrative and identity. Simpson''s illustrious career is charted up to the present with film and video installations from 1997 to 2004, as well as the artist''s most recent photographs."--BOOK JACKET.

From her earliest work, Alice Neel''s unstinting, visionary engagement with the lives of those around her resulted in a queered, inclusive oeuvre. This aspect of her work is explored for the first time in this new catalogue. Curated by Hilton Als and organized in collaboration with the Estate of Alice Neel, At Home: Alice Neel in the Queer World highlights the artist’s vibrant involvement with the human condition and extends the reach of her recent retrospectives at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Barbican, and the Centre Pompidou. Within a lifetime of painting, Neel painted many people from many walks of life––this catalogue is the first to focus on queer communities and those who circled within them. This collection of paintings includes rarely seen works of individuals including Frank O’Hara, Allen Ginsberg, and Adrienne Rich, as well as the bohemian theorists, Greenwich Village activists, artists, and politicians who populated these spaces. Published on the occasion of the exhibition at David Zwirner in 2024, this catalogue accompanies Neel''s first significant exhibition in Los Angeles. Edited and with a text by Als, the volume includes newly commissioned contributions by Alex Fialho, Evan Garza, and Wayne Koestenbaum.

"In 1964, Richard Avedon, at the time the world''s most famous fashion photographer, and James Baldwin, a leading literary voice in the black struggle in America, collaborated on a searing portrait book, Nothing Personal. This controversial classic from the heart of the American civil rights movement explores the contradictions and extremities at the heart of the American experience, and is especially timely in the age of Donald Trump. Avedon''s subjects range from intellectuals, politicians, a former slave, newlyweds, preacher Billy Graham, pop singers, and civil rights activists, shot in his signature formal and graphic black and white, often tightly cropped. The collection is all the more poignant through its bold and deliberate juxtaposition of specific images, such as Jewish gay poet Vilen Ginsberg placed opposite the American Nazi Party. Avedon''s work with mental asylum patients, shot in a grainy documentary style, is equally harrowing, although he chooses to end Nothing Personal on a hopeful, positive note, with images of children and parents reveling in the Californian ocean. The photographs are complemented by Baldwin''s four-part polemic: a critique of a society that he feels is unjust, alienating, divisive, and therefore in the midst of an existential crisis. In a highly personal and pertinent testimony, Baldwin openly writes about his own experience of harassment by a racist policeman on the streets of New York. This is a meticulous reprint of the original, which has long been out of print, produced in close collaboration with the Richard Avedon Foundation. A 72-page accompanying booklet features never-before-seen outtakes, contact sheets, portraits of the authors at work, preliminary layouts, correspondence, ephemera, and an essay by Baldwin expert and Pulitzer Prize winner Hilton Als."--

Published to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the Museum of the City of New York and the centennial of the consolidation of the city''s five borroughs. The rich visual tale (portraits, views, prints, and photographs spanning four centuries) is interwoven with essays by noted New York City authors on such themes as architecture and urbanism, fashion, theater, cultural diversity, and parks and open spaces. Commentaries by the Museum''s staff on the illustrations offer a unique perspective on the city''s unique history of urban growth and dynamism. Includes an index of the illustrations but not of the essays. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

Provocativa talvez seja a definição mais justa para a escrita de Hilton Als, crítico da revista The New Yorker que escreve sobre teatro, cinema, música, artes visuais e comportamento há mais de trinta anos. E não apenas quando ele trata de temas em si polêmicos como aids e pornografia, mas principalmente quando os assuntos são amor, amizade e morte. Garotas brancas é seu primeiro livro com ensaios inéditos, boa parte deles perfis de personagens centrais da cultura pop do século 20 misturados à própria vida do autor. O livro, porém, começa com um longo texto autobiográfico, que inaugura um estilo singular. Somos capturados pela história de seu longo e idiossincrático romance com um homem mais velho, que se confunde com referências culturais as quais marcaram toda uma geração. Transitando entre os fatos, Als trata de estética, gênero, sexualidade e negritude, e exibe uma capacidade analítica aguda ao refletir sobre a trajetória de artistas como Michael Jackson, Eminem, Truman Capote, Richard Pryor, Louise Brooks, Flannery O''Connor, e também sobre figuras menos conhecidas, mas igualmente brilhantes, como Louise Little, mãe de Malcolm X, e o editor de moda da revista Vogue norte-americana, Andre Leon Talley. Algumas dessas personagens são "garotas brancas", uma definição fugidia, que dá título ao livro e vai ganhando contorno ao longo dos textos. Hilton Als, filho de imigrantes de Barbados que sempre viveu em Nova York, faz da cidade também uma figura central do livro. Criado em uma família negra de classe média, sua vida e obra são repletas de ambivalências e indignação. Talvez, por seu autor ser atacado com palavras como "você é muito gordo, você é preto demais, um horror, um horror!", ou acusado de ser sensível demais para o mundo em que nasceu, Garotas brancas seja uma expressão brilhante do multifacetado início do século 21.

A staff writer for "The New Yorker" and author of "The Women" presents a brilliant discussion of James Baldwin and two intellectual worlds, black and Jewish. Through his portrait of both devastating and inspiring intellectual connections, Als offers a narrative on disenfranchisement and the complex roles that race and religion play in the definition of a self.

Long awaited, the first survey of the work of one of America''s foremost contemporary fine art photographers For almost 40 years, Catherine Opie has been documenting with psychological acuity the cultural and geographic identity of contemporary America. This unique artist monograph presents a compelling visual narrative of Opie''s work since the early 1980s, pairing images across bodies of work to form a full picture of her artistic vision. With more than 300 beautiful illustrations and made in close collaboration with Opie, the book marks a turning point in the consideration of this artist''s work to date.

L''odyssée américaine de Richard Avedon et James Baldwin L''ouvrage magistral de Baldwin et Avedon publié en 1964 enfin réédité Cette réédition soignée de l''ouvrage Nothing Personal signé Richard Avedon et James Baldwin explore les problématiques et les contradictions qui n''ont cessé d''être au coeur de l''histoire américaine, et se révèlent particulièrement d''actualité aujourd''hui, à l''ère de Donald Trump. Utilisant à la fois l''image et le texte, Avedon et Baldwin interrogent la formation de l''identité et les liens qui sous-tendent autant qu''ils ébranlent les rapports humains. Un livret complémentaire de 72 pages présente un essai inédit de Hilton Als, critique et lauréat du prix Pulitzer, ainsi que de nombreuses photos supprimées d''Avedon et jamais montrées auparavant, des lettres, des prototypes de maquettes et des documents d''époque. En 1963 et 1964, Richard Avedon, l''un des photographes de mode les plus célèbres au monde à l''époque, s''associe à James Baldwin, son ancien ami de lycée devenu un romancier reconnu, un essayiste et une plume importante dans le combat pour les droits civiques aux États-Unis, pour réaliser Nothing Personal, un livre sur les conditions de vie en Amérique. Les sujets photographiés par Avedon - des icônes de la lutte pour les droits civiques, des intellectuels, des politiciens, des chanteurs pop, les patients d''un asile psychiatrique et des Américains ordinaires - sont soigneusement juxtaposés, recadrés et rigoureusement ordonnés. Ainsi, le parti nazi américain est placé en regard du poète juif et homosexuel Allen Ginsberg et un général Eisenhower usé cède la place à un Malcom X en mouvement. Les patients diminués d''un asile psychiatrique en appellent à la chaleur humaine, et sont suivis par une mère enlaçant son enfant. L''essai polémique en 4 parties de Baldwin renvoie la critique d''une société déconnectée, injuste et clivante, prise dans une crise existentielle. Dans ce témoignage extrêmement personnel et pertinent, l''écrivain raconte sa propre expérience de harcèlement par un policier raciste dans les rues de New York, sa ville d''origine. Pourtant Baldwin, comme Avedon, clôt son oeuvre sur l''incontournable besoin d''amour, et son pouvoir. Mis en page par le légendaire directeur artistique Marvin Israel, Nothing Personal représente le triomphe du minimalisme. Le format surdimensionné du livre présenté dans son coffret blanc ainsi que le placement saisissant des images et du texte ont révolutionné la mise en page et la forme des livres de photos. Cette réédition soignée de l''original, épuisé depuis des décennies, a été produite en étroite collaboration avec la fondation Richard Avedon. Ancien collègue d''Avedon au New Yorker et spécialiste de l''oeuvre de Baldwin, Hilton Als raconte la fabrication de Nothing Personal et la relation personnelle et créative entre Avedon et Baldwin. Als témoigne aussi avec émotion de son amitié avec Avedon et de l''impact que ce livre a eu sur sa propre vie. À sa sortie en 1964, cette vision de l''Amérique selon Avedon et Baldwin a inévitablement divisé la critique, et les deux hommes ont essuyé les attaques les plus rudes, certainsles accusant de parler au nom de l''élite libérale, d''être des moralistes de Hollywood et de ne représenter en rien le sentiment réel des vrais Américains. Ceci vous rappelle quelque chose? La sortie du livre coïncide avec l''exposition organisée à la Pace/MacGill Gallery de New York, première exploration exhaustive du travail d''Avedon pour Nothing Personal.