Saturday was a true New York 10—a day for roaming a favorite neighborhood [for me, the East Village]; having some delicious, forbidden foods [at Porchetta]; then total immersion in photobooks at Dashwood [33 Bond Street] before meeting friends for the evening.

Miwa Susuda was at the front table, unshelving collectors’ editions for collectors to browse, including Nobuyoshi Araki’s Erotos, in a sizzling red jacket and binding. I was on a black-and-white bent so I then paged through Mitch Epstein’s newest book, New York Arbor {Steidl 2013]. Epstein, known for working in color, photographed outstanding tree specimens throughout the five boroughs, in black and white, over a period of 20-some years.

Some are prize specimens, pruned and trimmed to maintain their splendor while others are slow-moving contortionists that wrap around obstacles to hold their claim on a shrinking site. Epstein evidently chose to shoot on days with enough cloud cover to filter the light, creating a sublime gray scale tonality. Tonight Epstein is giving a talk, followed by a panel discussion, at The Cooper Union, presented by The Architectural League. As of this morning, tickets/$15 were still available. If you can’t get there, stay tuned for information about a book signing with Epstein coming up at Dashwood Books.

Next was Jason Evans’ NYLPT (Mack 2012), a celebration of the urban experience in a collection of double-exposed images he shot in New York, London, Paris, and Tokyo—hence the title. Widely known for his photo blog, The Daily Nice, which he launched at the outset of the Internet as a platform for photography, Evans’ heart lies in the tradition of street photography and the unexpected meetings that continually unfold along the avenue. He says: “Sometimes you visit a place and it looks exactly as you expected it to, like it does in pictures or on TV or at the movies. It’s like a feeling of nostalgia for something you’ve never known.” The book, in the style of an album, but with images on left-had pages facing middle-gray pages on the right, flows with the synchronicity of a fast-paced remix of city life. Image above from the NYLPR Slideshow on WeFolks.com.

Jason Evans was selected as the 2013 Photographer-in-Residence at Art Gallery of Ontario [AGO], where his project goes on view this week. Information. On Thursday, May 2, Evans will be performing an edition of “Music for Looking” in the gallery. The event is sold out, but you never know. The exhibition is presented in conjunction with Scotiabank CONTACT Photography Festival, which runs May 1-31. Information.

This just in from Peter Kuper: 
The forty-second meeting of the NY Comics & Picture-story Symposium will be held on Monday, April 29, 2013 at 7:00 PM at Parsons The New School, 2 West 13th Street in The Bark Room (off lobby: Peter will make a presentation on Drawn to New York, an illustrated chronicle of three decades in Manhattan and New York as a subject for artists.