New photobook

black and white journey
off the strip in las vegas
french photographer

Frédéric Stucin is a French photographer I was made aware of years ago through his portraits, commissioned by left-wing newspaper Libération to illustrate their last-page profiles of people well, and less-well, known.

I follow him on social media and when he announced a subscription to edit a book of photos he had taken on a trip to Las Vegas, I signed up. There was also an exhibition in a Paris gallery, which I was unable to attend. Those subscribers who were able to go were given their copy at the time - I had to wait for it to be delivered by post.

The time was Saturday. It is a beautiful book, perfectly printed, beautifully bound, and the photos (I had seen glimpses of them on FB and elsewhere) are a magnificent collection of shots quite unlike the Las Vegas we're used to seeing.

In extra, you'll see the dedication on the title page. It reads:

"For Thomas,


Wandering by the sound of Bob Dylan and Albert Ayler, inspired by Jim Jarmusch's cinema.

Thank you for your support

In friendship

Frédéric Stucin"

I showed the book to Julie and she said "well you should work on an exhibition or something". I love it when she pushes me like that. I sat down at my  desk and started selecting photos from the past few years. So far, I've kept 243 black and white photos ranging from portraiture (including a few Train Dreamers, for those of you who'll remember them) to street scenes to nudes/erotic photos. I'm not done with my first selection but I noticed I've kept very few of the ones I took since we've been here. Landscapes and cows don't seem to get on well with urban portraits... I've kept quite a few trees, though, so that could be a theme.