Some Los Angeles Apartments, by Ed Ruscha

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Why?

“I've always been a huge Ed Ruscha fan and have been a fan of his 16mm films. It goes back to the thing that inspires me: the super mundane. He got me back into motion picture film, which I grew up making as a kid. This book is kind of an anthology. The original Los Angeles Apartments came out in the 60s maybe. And then this book is kind of about that book and also contains his book on gas stations.

So in some cases you'll see the picture of the thing which he was inspired by. There's a famous standard gas station painting, and you'll see the photograph that he took as the template for that as the study. Growing up in Los Angeles, this book also has apartments that I recognize, that's another reason that it's really neat to me.”
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- Adam Goldberg, Photographer

Emmet Gowin, by Emmet Gowin

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Why?

“He's got a long career, and he's known for these really intimate portraits of his family. It's a beautiful book, and there's a lot to read about him in the beginning. So much of his work is arguably this mundane stuff around the house, but it's fantastical looking. What he manages to do at home is so profound and so deeply moving. Some of it is very posed; some of it isn't. There's a lot of nudity. And it's extremely earthy. It's her and the earth, and babies and the earth, and her pregnant. 

At the end of the day, there's just nothing that's much more effecting than seeing your family, and your wife, and your wife grown older, and your wife in these intimate moments. There's a picture of her peeing standing up, which is this brilliant shot. Her legs are a V. There are these great lines in the barn where she's peeing that are parallel to her legs. Shafts of light bursting through. It's really profound stuff. And again, it really walks that line between incredibly stylized and a snapshot.”
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- Adam Goldberg, Photographer

Chromes, by William Eggleston

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Why?

“I've always been intrigued by how Eggleston walks this line between documentary photography and art photography. I’m looking at one particular photograph right now through the windshield of a guy washing his windows and the 76 sign in the distance. The photo is bifurcated by that. That thing on your windshield, the sort of shade, gradation of your windshield— it's just so remarkable. It's so stunning. It's essentially a snapshot. My focus is on the mundane, or that the mundane is intimate. There's this feeling of it being spontaneous, but also being very painterly.”
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- Adam Goldberg, Photographer