Each bookstore will act as a concierge, recommending "the book you should read now" to FASHION HEADLINE readers. Every Saturday, we will introduce books selected by Shelf, a Harajuku bookshop (3-7-4 Jingumae, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo) that specializes in foreign books.




■ "A Box of Ten Photographs" by Diane Arbus

This is a luxurious catalog for the Diane Arbus exhibition that began this April at the Smithsonian American Art Museum (SAAM) in Washington, D.C. (until January 21, 2019). This book features the masterpieces of female photographer Diane Arbus, who was also famously paid homage by Stanley Kubrick in the film "The Shining" with the twin illusions.

"A Box of Ten Photographs" is a portfolio created by Arbus one or two years before her short life ended by suicide. The original was a beautiful arrangement of 10 prints housed in a delicate glass case, each beautifully presented on thick tracing paper with a handwritten title. Only five sets of this portfolio were sold during Arbus's lifetime.

This book is divided into two parts: the first half is a reproduction of the fifth set purchased by Harper's BAZAAR art director Bea Feitler, and the second half contains commentary by the exhibition curator. The photographic pages, which appear as if they were bound into the photographic paper itself, are truly beautiful. The portfolio was originally made up of ten prints, but Arbus gave one extra print as a gift to Bea Fetler, and she hand-corrected the title on the cover from "Ten" to "Eleven," and these details have also been faithfully reproduced.