They say time flies, and they’re not kidding.
Three years ago this week, I rebooted my newsletter,
, on . It’s a small milestone, but still one to celebrate. I’ve been having a lot of fun writing for you and enjoy the community I’ve found here. More than 38,000 readers subscribe today, and it feels good to connect with so many like-minded photography people.Thanks again to everyone who supports my work with a paid subscription. I don’t paywall anything, and yet more than 400 of you have signed up for paid subscriptions to keep FlakPhoto going. I appreciate you!
To celebrate, I’m giving away two copies of Stephen Shore’s newest book from MACK. Early Work is a beautiful book and a window into the early eyes of one of our greatest living photographers. I love Shore’s work and know many of you do, too. Here’s how MACK describes the book:
At the age of six, Stephen Shore received a Kodak Darkroom kit, a gift that unearthed a passion and inquisitiveness that would go on to define his entire life. Shore began to develop a unique relationship to the chemical alchemy of the darkroom and to the camera itself: a tool through which he would uncover the characters and complexities of the world around him.
Early Work collects for the first time the entirely unseen photographs created during Shore’s early teenage years between 1960 and 1965, a period of rich experimentation that precedes his time working with Andy Warhol at The Factory. These sophisticated and ambitious images demonstrate Shore’s already-complex understanding of the photographic form, and the particular attention with which he approached his surroundings. It offers a unique record of the vibrant energy of New York in the early 1960s, and reveals the themes that provided a constant source of interest for the young photographer.
Above all, Early Work offers an authoritative account of the innate sensibility with which Shore approached not only his craft but the world around him, from this early age.
Submission is easy: Tell me why you want this book!
You can reply to this email, write to me at flakphoto@gmail.com, comment below, or drop me a line on my Instagram post by clicking here:
Just tell me why you’d like to add this Shore book to your collection.
I’ll draw two random winners from the replies on Monday, September 22, 2025.
That’s it! Thanks again for reading, folks, and for supporting my work. It means more to me than you know. I’m looking forward to hearing from you!
It's Stephen Shore. Why say more? ;)
I love seeing artists’ early work, especially favorite photographers. It’s interesting to see how they evolve over the years and what influenced them at an early age. Also, I always appreciate seeing street photography of the distant past.