HUNGER’s esoteric book edit
It doesn’t matter whether you’ve trawled through the Taschen website, hit up the charity shops in a trendy area or gone deep down an eBay hole — a coffee table book is the perfect present for that friend you made down at The Spurstowe who probably won’t be your friend in a couple of months. The more niche the better, and the more “provocative” the better. This is HUNGER’s edit of the best books to pop under the Christmas tree, likely in understated brown wrapping paper. Actually, these won’t even go under the Christmas tree will they? They’ll be heading to your east London local. The kind of establishment where a decent chunk of the patrons do that thing where you tie a scarf around your head. They’ll be going to that graphic designer (who occasionally does a supper club) that won’t outlive “cuffing season”. Anyway — fill your boots.
Who doesn’t love titties? I have a coaster with some (big) boobies on at my house and get a real kick out of telling whomever comes round that they’re in fact mine. You could perhaps do the same with this Taschen book.
A fashion match made in heaven — 90s supermodel Kate Moss captured by era-defining Peruvian photographer Mario Testino. It’s also silver, meaning it would look rather lovely on that sideboard you paid way too much for at the Princess May car boot.
Lost + Found by David LaChapelle
I thought that David LaChapelle and David Chapelle were the same person, which made it rather confusing when I saw that the latter recently directed a music video for Jade Thirwall. Anyway, this is a curated selection of the photographer’s best work, featuring the likes of Pamela Anderson, Miley Cyrus and Amy Winehouse, to name just a few.
Same kinda vibe as the tits book — this time with women’s nether region area. This one’s cheap and cheerful (only fifteen quid) though let it be known that I would pay at least double if it was instead called “The Little Book of Minge”.
One for the guy off Hinge who’s really into The Sopranos. Especially good because it’s not about The Sopranos, and he’ll likely lecture you about how mafia-related media isn’t just some big homogenous mass. There’s a lot of nuance.
Not a book, but this cover of Orienteer Magazine features both Kiko Kostadinov and a friendly looking lamb.
Basically Atomic Habits for people that wear Salomons.
The edgiest thing you can plop atop your acrylic Kartell side table? Softcore pornography of naked women photographed in Ibiza.
Musician Daniel Avery and photographer Keffer got together to chronicle club culture over a decade. One for the guy that does pills like they’re going out of style… Which they kind of are? Fair to that guy.
More than one hundred pages of nothing but Pacino. And it’s Japanese.
Whopper of a collection of archival photography that focuses on the British skating scene from the late seventies to the mid nineties. My dad is in this — twice.
Featuring the ladies who bared all for HUNGER’s founder and editor, none other than Rankin.
The nature of wanky posery is that it’s not necessary to have actually been around for whatever scene (or era) you’re stealing from and appropriating/ For example, you should have absolutely no qualms about buying this collection of rave posters from the nineties even though you were born in ‘02.
Don’t need to do much of a sell on this one — anything involving Larry Clark (the director of Kids) is instantly cool. This particular book chronicles when Clark was heavily into shooting Valo, a nasal inhaler that contained loads of amphetamine. Obviously.
On the Dance Floor: Spinning Out on Screen
I’m going to position this as a less obvious version of the A24 screenplay books. It’s a visual-stroke-literary compendium of dance scenes in films. As you can see, the cover features the one from Ex Machina, which I tried to learn for at least two weeks.
As we put it ourselves (we interviewed Mat Maitland a couple of weeks back) this is the digital collage pioneer’s limited-edition love letter to magazine art.
Aphex Twin – A Disco Pogo Tribute
Again, no sell needed. It’s fucking Aphex Twin.
The American skateboarder and artist, rendered by cult-y publisher Rizzoli.
Who? She’s the bird who did the shoot of Kim Kardashian in a buzz-cut wig. But British visual artist Nadia Lee Cohen is also far, far more than that. Case in point? This book, which is in its sixth edition.
