You are what you eat, how you coif, what you wear might be subtext for Lorenzo Vitturi’s Dalston Anatomy.

One of the most talked about self-published books of 2013 (SPBH), it made most of the year-end top tens and was short-listed for the 2013 Paris Photo/Aperture Book Prize.

This is a photo book as object, from its content—evocations of Vitturi’s gritty east London neighborhood and its diverse population undergoing transformation—to the artful production that incudes unique cloth covers made from Vlisco Holland wax batik fabrics.

Last night, the original photographs that comprise Vitturi’s extraordinary view of Dalston’s super-heated lifestyle, opened this week at Yossi Milo Gallery. Don't miss it.

Vitturi began to feel the pressure of change when London's Underground extended a branch from the city center to his east end neighborhood. Without quite knowing what he was up to, according to a 2013 interview, he began picking up discards in the local market, which found their way into a series of towering, wildly balanced sculptures that Vitturi fashioned primarily out of food items combined with bits of jewelry and fabric. These he photographed against backdrops of boldly patterned cloth and brightly painted walls.

The neighborhood’s strong Afro-Caribbean vibe comes through, and some of the pages have vertical borders in the colors of national flags from the region.

In the book, the sculptures are sequenced among close portraits of Dalstonians sporting street-wise fashions and elaborate hairstyles and headgear. After a dizzying run of pages jammed with color and detail a group of portraits and still-lifes will be separated by a blank facing page. 

In the middle of the book a section printed on bright white uncoated paper offers texts by poet Sam Berkson in maximum-size caps that, I'm guessing, are intended to be read aloud, adding an intentionally DIY soundtrack. 

There is so much to take in, from the frenetic pacing of images to the visual overload that you might not notice, straight off, that some of the portraits are shot from prints laid flat on the floor, with pieces of bright chalk (graffiti tools?) set on top of the faces. And the book's title aptly suggests Vitturi's process of dissecting his surroundings to reveal what makes Dalston throb with vitality.

Lorenzo Vitturi | Dalston Anatomy continues through December 13, at Yossi Milo Gallery, 245 Tenth Avenue, NY, NY.

Editor's Note: A digital mishap caused this post to be inadvertently sent yesterday; my apologies for the duplication.