ENDLESS BUMMER - Scarce Fine Copy of The First Edition/First Printing: Signed by Dirk Westphal - ONLY SIGNED COPY ONLINE

Westphal, Dirk (Photographer) & Sanders, Jeremy (Designer)

ISBN 10: 0982074727 / ISBN 13: 9780982074725

Published by New York City, NY: Glenn Horowitz Bookseller, 2009, 2009

About this Item

1st Printing. Signed. Unpaginated. Published in 2009. Artist Book. One of the best photography books of our time. The First Edition. Precedes and should not be confused with all other subsequent editions. Published in a small and limited print run as a softcover original only. The First Edition is now scarce. A brilliant production by Dirk Westphal and Jeremy Sanders: Regular-sized volume format. Pictorial softcovers with titles on the cover and spine, as issued. The cover design is a work of art. Photographs by Dirk Westphal. The latter are presented on the right-hand side while the location where the photograph was taken is printed in black letters on the opposite page. Brief Afterword. Printed on thick coated stock paper in the United States to the highest standards. Without DJ, as issued. Presents Dirk Westphal's "Endless Bummer". "Endless Summer" Meets "Jaws". Collection of color photographs from all over the world, a witty homage to surfing, particularly "Endless Summer" (1966), the one film that made it a global phenomenon. The "bummer" in the title (what we would now call a "photo bomb") refers to the fact that in every photograph, the menace called the shark suddenly appears to ruin everything: We only see its fin, but that's scary enough for the surfers and for us. The photographs were taken in such summer-hedonic places as Australia, Bali, the British Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, Barbados, Nicaragua, the Bahamas, Costa Rica, the Andaman Islands as well as Southern California, where the surf culture began and continues to flourish, the very real threat of sharks notwithstanding. Westphal's ambivalent feelings about surfing, especially its somewhat overblown mythical status, is beautifully captured by the photographs, which shatter the myth just a little: "Nothing cancels mellow beach vibes faster than the threat of a shark. Thows a little cold water onto surfing's overheated mythology" (Dirk Westphal). An absolute "must-have" title for Dirk Westphal collectors. This copy is very prominently and beautifully signed in black pen-marker on the title page by Dirk Westphal. It is signed directly on the page itself, not on a tipped-in page. He designed his signature such that it looks like a shark's fin. This title is now collectible. As far as we know, this is the only such signed copy of the First Edition/First Printing available online and is in especially fine condition: Clean, crisp, and bright. A scarce signed copy thus. 25 color plates. One of the most brilliant living artist/photographers. A fine copy. ISBN 0982074727.

Seller Inventory # 14965

Bibliographic Details

• Title: ENDLESS BUMMER - Scarce Fine Copy of The First Edition/First Printing: Signed by Dirk Westphal - ONLY SIGNED COPY ONLINE
• Publisher: New York City, NY: Glenn Horowitz Bookseller, 2009
• Publication Date: 2009
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0982074727
• ISBN 13: 9780982074725
• Binding: Soft cover
• Illustrator: Dirk Westphal
• Edition: 1st Edition.
• Condition: Fine
• Dust Jacket Condition: None, As Issued
• Signed: Signed by Author

About this title

Synopsis

In the past fifty years surfing has grown from an eccentric pastime practiced in a few isolated locales into a broad cultural phenomenon known well beyond Southern California and the Hawaiian Islands. No cultural document has expressed the low-key cool of the surfer ethos better, or done more to extend its reach, than Bruce Brown s 1966 film, Endless Summer. It s a road movie. It s an instantly nostalgic sun-baked reverie. It's a quest, but with no sense lack of urgency, just male bonding, sunsets, a few comic moments, semi-coherent platitudes, and lots of mellow vibes. It is, in sum, one of the foundational legends of contemporary surf mythology. It is a compelling mythology... but it also has a lot to answer for. Spicoli may have been hilarious, but the inarticulate beatitude of the average surfer dude is insufferable, and the affectations of the wannabe are even worse (especially when herbally enhanced, as they so frequently are). And that s without even getting into the endless catalog of dreck marketed through some supposed connection to surfing. So when Dirk Westphal explores the rhetoric of surf culture in his art, he does so at some risk. It s a strategy that allows him tap some deep resonances, but it also requires a rigorous approach else the work devolve into gooey sentiment or beer commercial cliché. This series proves his mettle. Nothing cancels mellow beach vibes faster than the threat of a shark, so it s tough to imagine a gesture more alien to surf culture than going to the beach only to make a fin from whatever odd materials may be at hand, dive in the water, and lurk menacingly near shore. All together these photos are like a reverse remake of Endless Summer, a world tour of impromptu performances each throwing a little cold water onto surf culture s overheated self-mythologizing.