Within Arm’s Reach

Retrospective monograph

Born in Amsterdam in 1957, Ari Marcopoulos came to New York in 1979 and quickly became part of the downtown art scene that included up-and-coming artists such as Jean-Michel Basquiat, Keith Haring, and Robert Mapplethorpe. Since then, Marcopoulos has become recognized as a key documentarian of contemporary culture as it unfolds: recording the emerging hip-hop scene, shooting snowboarders hurtling down a vertical mountain face, or chronicling the vicissitudes of his own family life, Marcopoulos’ works unerringly capture the zeitgeist.

Marcopoulos appears to have an uncanny connection with the people he photographs, from Andy Warhol to Kiki Smith, John Cage to LL Cool J, and many other characters both famous and unknown. His self-taught style brings his subjects in close and captures, without sentimentality or voyeurism, the intimate essence of their daily lives. Populated with idiosyncratic characters, each of Marcopoulos’ photographs is particular to a unique time and place; yet his images reach us through their expression of familiar themes such as the meaning of family, the solitude of nature, and the quest for adventure. Like all great photographers, Marcopoulos has the ability to distill a riveting and timeless image from the flux of activity that surrounds us.

The book is the first monograph on Marcopoulos’ work, gathering works from three decades and accompanied by an essay by Stephanie Cannizzo. Published with the University of California, Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive (BAM/PFA), Berkeley (CA).

Awarded in the competition “The most beautiful Swiss books 2009.”