Channel surfing. To begin his essay for the book Nothing Personal, James Baldwin describes watching commercials on his black and white television. His unique command of language transforms this normally mundane and ubiquitous experience into a revelation of the American consumer subconscious and its addictions to surfaces, quick fixes, sexual gratification, and power.
Nothing Personal was first published in November 1964 by Atheneum Publishers and Penguin Books priced at $12.95, equivalent to $130 today. A paperback edition was released the following year in April by Dell Publishing, costing $1.50. In 2017, the book was reissued by Taschen Books and is now out-of-print, commanding up to $1,200 as a rare book.
Nothing Personal is a large-format, slipcased book containing a four-part essay written expressly for the book by Baldwin and fifty-four photographic portraits made by Avedon taken between 1954 and 1964. The book’s radical design was conceived by Marvin Israel, the influential art director at Harper’s Bazaar, the leading fashion magazine of the time, where Avedon was his close colleague and collaborator.
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