In 1979 Bill Owen’s “Publish Your Photo Book (A Guide to Self-Publishing)” included a
chapter titled “Letters From Self Publishers”. One of those letters was from
Richard Misrach. Here is the letter:
Bill Owens:
Here is the information you requested about
Telegraph Ave. 3 A.M
TELEGRAPH 3 A.M.: The Street People of
Telegraph Avenue, Berkley,
California by Richard Misrach; Cornucopia
Press, 1974. $17.00.
Original edition of 3,000 clothbound
copies. (500 copies remaining).
Printed by Phelps/Schaefer lithographics in
San Francisco: 80 pages,
8 5/8”, 64 photographs. Printed on S.D.
Warren’s Cameo Dull by
double impression offset lithography.
Cost per book: $5.00 per book plus expense
of complimentary copies,
Postage, advertising, storage,
distribution, etc.
Telegraph 3 A.M. received several awards
including the Western Books
Association Award in 1975. To date,
however, there has been no
profit. Books of this nature are never to
be considered commercially
viable ventures (although there are
exceptions). The value of pub-
lishing such books allows accessibility to
a small, but interested
audience. The nature of such a document
also makes more sense in the
book context than on a museum wall. By
self-publishing one is able
to maintain the integrity of the context of
the work, where large
publishing houses tend to “soup up” the
production, often distorting
the work, to reach larger audiences. Also,
in contrast to the tempo-
rary exhibition, the book can hang around
for years as a permanent
record and an object for continual and extended
viewing.
Special offer: $12.95 plus $1.00 shipping
and 6 ½% sales tax for
California Residents. Mail check and order
to:
CORNUCOPIA PRESS
10525 Clearwood Ct.
Los Angeles, California 90021
Sincerely,
Richard Misrach
The afterword to Richard Misrach’s book “TELEGRAPH 3 A.M.: The Street People of
Telegraph Avenue, Berkley” reads as follows:
This photographic project began curiously
enough. Spring 1972 was a time of personal difficulties and the direction of my
photography had been particularly disappointing. I was interested in
traditional landscape photography, but somehow, the images I made weren’t
rooted in my experience deeply enough to be satisfying. Up to that time, I had
attempted a half-dozen portraits which also proved unsuccessful. Then, in March
of that year, I had a prophetic dream…
I had been up all night with the stomach
flu and it was only in the early morning hours that my consciousness finally
fell away. What merged in its place were faces, angry faces. One at a time,
surrounded by darkness, they appeared in the distance. After each face
materialized, it advanced towards me, rushing faster and faster, until it
loomed large and terrifying, only to disappear and be supplanted by a new face
in the distance. The sequence was repeated over and over. The fear was only
relieved when I awoke, I took the dream as a mandate to photograph the faces I
had seen, which I recognized as the people of Telegraph Avenue.
That same day, I put my camera on a tripod
and walked down onto the Avenue. I was so intimidated by the street people that
twice, before I made a single exposure, I decided to abandon the idea and go
home. But somehow, I made that first exposure and from then on there was no
turning back.
Only later, after coming to know many of
the street people, did my original stereotypes and fears subside. I found many
of them to be the warmest and most giving people I had ever met.
After the first photographs, I found my
involvement expanding as the social and historical implications of the Avenue
became apparent to me. I became concerned with the paradox of romantic fantasy
and harsher reality that so marked the Telegraph scene. The Avenue had gone
through many sobering changes since the flower children era: street people were
crashing in parking lots, filthy streets and condemned buildings, and the
idealistic spirited rebellion of the late sixties had been all but destroyed by
the “system’s “ unresponsiveness. A bitter, disheartened mood pervaded the Avenue.
Yet, there remained the spark of the defiance and endurance that persist as a
reminder of a noble struggle. It is that spark which characterizes a
significant era in the history of Telegraph Avenue’s street culture. But more
important, it is the spark that suggests the sadness and beauty endemic to
humankind.
After “TELEGRAPH
3 A.M.: The Street People of Telegraph Avenue, Berkley” was published,
Richard Misrach 'dissapeared' into the desert to take photographs.
