He Read Me Like a Book
Connecting with loved ones, starting a photo book, and my favorite printed matter from the last couple of months
Hi friends, happy Monday. 2025 continues to be the longest 3 weeks of any year ever recorded by mankind, and I’m still not quite sure why this season of the America show is so insane already. TikTok, Wildfires, and inaugurations, oh my! I hope you dear reader have been able to find a little peace and calm, wherever you might reside. Personally, I’ve been trying to max leveling my contact with friends and family to feel more connected and less lost during these times. Dinner parties, birthday drinks, long Facetimes, funny messages over DM. Contact comes in all forms, and it’s been mentally and spiritually quite helpful.
This past Sunday I went on a three hour walk around Barcelona. I started at my apartment, which is rather central in the city, and down toward the sea, slowly but surely. I made a promise or resolution, whatever you want to call it, to visit the sea more often. The joke in Los Angeles is that you never visit the ocean unless you live west of the 405, which is true, it feels like another planet. But my proximity to the Mediterranean is much nearer, and after a brisk 40 minute walk, I’m there.
I documented my journey in my Instagram Stories, unapologetically “spamming the feed” with all the beautiful and weird things I saw along the way. I love seeing what other people see, if they’re on a trip or just in their day-to-day life, but perhaps that’s my personal voyeuristic nature. Recently, I’ve been thinking of all the photos I take, and how I should do something with them, when my friend Lindsay mentioned that I should put together a photo book of Barcelona. I feel a small book, similar in size to old Penguin Classics, along with a very “tooth-y” textured paper would be awesome. Thinking long term, it would be incredible to have a series of these little photo books stacked on a shelf, documenting different times and places in my life. I’m going to start working on it this week and I’ll share more soon.
Which leads us nicely into these weeks newsletter, a collection of printed matter that I’ve been collecting for the past couple months. It’s a mix of art books, magazines, and interesting projects that have been inspiring me to want to make more physical objects. Now more than ever it’s important to support creatives making interesting work to keep our culture continuing to grow and thrive.
I hope your week is chill, be sure to drink water and go for a long walk 💙
ALTARS by Jenna Saraco →
One of the coolest books I’ve seen lately is Altars by Jenna Saraco, which was inspired by a photograph of Saraco’s father taken in the 1960s, who is pictured as a young altar boy on a family trip to Italy. Working with designers7publishers Natasha Mead and Yasmine Ganley, the book is an exploration and meditation on a century-long story of family affinities, ritual, personal history and culture. There’s such a beautiful and mysterious energy to the book that I haven’t seen before, featuring scans and film photos which bring and extra layer of dimension. The three of them sat down for a lengthy interview with Éditions Magazine through their process which I highly recommend reading, it’s so inspiring.
🍚 — As soon as I saw the cover of Gohan: Everyday Japanese Cooking I was immediately charmed. Author Emiko Davies describes the cookbook as “simple dishes, based on peak season foods, that my Japanese mother and grandmother made. The favourite bites and flavours from all our annual trips to Japan as a child and teenager, like onigiri, or the fried prawn sandwiches that remind me of my grandfather.” I could eat Japanese food everyday and this book totally has me sold.
📕 — I’m still a fan of Ryan McGinley and his intimate nude portraits so it was exciting to see that the book collecting photos from his recent show Yearbook (nsfw if you’re literally at work lol) had been released. The exhibit was quite epic as his photos covered massive walls and even the ceilings in some spaces, creating an incredibly immersive and colorful show that highlighted the diversity of the human body in all it’s beauty and wonder.
TYPE01 Magazine with Olsson Barbieri →
TYPE01 is a British magazine by Amber Weaver that champions and support the exciting creative craft of type and design, and in their latest issue, they’ve teamed up with Olson Barbieri, who’ve curated a brilliant look at food packaging. In my opinion, OB are at the top of the game when it comes to the branding of food and spirits, always crafting identities that are playful and nuanced. In the issue they’ve focused on exploring how packaging influences not just the marketplace but our relationship with food, the environment, and each other, as well as highlighting innovations in sustainable packaging, the emotional and cultural power of food, and the role of typography in shaping perceptions.
🍽️ — Famous For My Dinner Parties is a cute little zine that focuses on celebrating, portraying, questioning and discussing different aspects of the culture around food and eating. It has a similar feeling to what Kyle and I did with Boy Club almost a decade ago (!!!) which I love, it’s very authentic and weird in the best way.
🌚 — The newest edition of Acne Paper is titled Nocturne, and is inspired by the night in many ways. “This issue’s theme feels even more prescient given that nocturnal enchantment is under threat from over-stimulating technology and an incessant information cycle. The very essence of dreaming – whether in daylight or under the cloak of night – and the richness of the inner world is being disregarded. The power of the imagination is being diminished.” The issue looks incredible, especially the photography, all of which feels so outlandish and wild, and it’s also FIVE HUNDRED pages, so you know there’s a lot of inspiration inside.
Sunroom Monthly Flyer Club →
Sunroom is a Chicago-based risograph print studio run by Clare Byrne and Jacob Stolz and together they’ve come up with a brilliant little idea, the Sunroom Monthly Flyer Club. Each month they send a fresh risograph-printed flyer inspired by the month or time of year, and always beautiful and interesting. It’s such a simple and charming idea that I think would be great to get for yourself, or better, as a gift to someone. Imagine a kid in your life getting their very own piece of art in the mail each month, in a letter addressed to them? How awesome would that be?
✏️ — Kenya Hara, world famous architect and designer of objects, is back with a new book simply titled Draw, where he gives insight into the early stages of his design process. Ranging from tentatively sketched beginnings to confident designs of complex concepts, you get to see the formative stages of how he brings to life his ideas. Ironically, Paula Scher has provided a cover quote for a book called Draw. Perhaps she asked ChatGPT for some help in writing it? 🤔
🏠 — Belgian interior designer Peter Ivens has released his new book, aptly titled Houses, where he shares his timeless style and impeccable interiors.For over a decade now he’s been in close collaboration with his partner in crime Bea Mombaers without really dividing their roles in the classic way, blurring the lines between architecture and decoration. Peter’s use of contrast in materials, as well as texture in materials, are so well done, everything element of his projects feels like they are all exactly in the right place.
I saw that Japanese cookbook at a Japanese pop up (inside a Japanese ramen shop) and I thought about buying it. It was the illustrations that got me.