About |
New York City based design & culture studio, Arthurious, launches a photo journal series Sidewalk Botanist with an in-depth look at visual culture in small towns and neighborhoods across America through city details, artifacts and architectural elements. Each issue provides a photographic survey of signs, lamp posts, trash bins, sidewalk textures, house numbers, and local details that help uncover the essence of a place. A necessary reference for designers, architects, artists and visual connoisseurs.
Sidewalk Botanist is designed and independently produced by the team at Arthurious and is the outcome of a larger study on how to make our cities more delightful for a new generation of sophisticated cultured urbanites — the “culture class”.
“For me, the city is much more than its buildings, roads, or coffee shops,” says Arty Bedny, creative director of the series, “it’s the small details, those tiny visual cues that define a place”. From the day he got his first camera, Mr. Bedny has been capturing the elements of the streets: “On the road, I was always deeply curious to see how those cues differ from town to town.”
The inaugural issue of Sidewalk Botanist featuring Hudson, New York has received a warm welcome from the design community — and was followed by issue two featuring the neighborhood of Red Hook in New York City, and issue three dedicated entirely to San Fransisco, California. Two new issues are scheduled to be released this fall: Montclair, New Jersey and Greenpoint, New York City.
“Our passion and profession is to observe and uncover patterns of meaning in the city”, says Hovig Garabedian, editorial director and publisher of the series. “For the past two years, we have been exploring off-beat neighborhoods in and around New York City and small towns along the East Coast observing and documenting every detail imaginable. “Walking and observing has become our main method of understanding a place.”
The name, Sidewalk Botanist, was inspired, largely, by Walter Benjamin’s depiction of the flâneur as the modern day urban spectator, one who was fond of “botanizing on the asphalt”.
The journals are designed and edited in New York City and printed full-color on premium recycled, uncoated paper with great touch and feel. Bound in foil stamped colored cover. Current issues can be purchased on sidewalkbotanist.com at $18 each. Gift editions and subscriptions will be available later this year.
Select photographs from the series are also available as framed prints at $125 each. Photo shows and events will be announced on sidewalkbotanist.com