Ross McDonnell‘s Joyrider was the Charcoal Photobook of the Month for October, 2021. Due to production and shipping delays, it only arrived here on December 3. The book is a look inside the now long-demolished Ballymun projects in Dublin, at the young people who hung out in the abandoned housing estate and what they got up to in the months leading up to the Block’s demolition. As one might expect, for whatever reason and on whatever side of the political spectrum, it’s not the most upbeat look at adolescence.

Today’s Special: New York City Photographs 1969 – 2006 is a collection of Jeff Rothstein‘s photos, made in the city and in the years mentioned in the subtitle. There’s not much more to say about it, really, but I’ll try…

The Day in Its Color: Charles Cushman’s Photographic Journey Through a Vanishing America was another Twitter recommendation, and a really nice find. Eric Sandweiss’ nearly book-length essay provides background and commentary to Charles Cushman’s expansive archive of color slides. While I wish there was more in the way of plates, it’s all together a good thing, and really rather obnoxiously cheap.

Someone on Twitter recommended Camera Work: The Complete Photographs one day in early 2020, and a week or so and less than $5 later, I had this beat-up softcover copy in my hands… If you have any interest in early photography, the development of photographic modernism, the arc of 20th Century photography, or photographic history more broadly, it’s pretty much a no-brainer.