Joel Sternfeld – Walking the High Line
I have been mulling over a post about the High Line for a while now, and have gathered quite a few links about the history of the elevated railway that recently re-opened as a wonderful park here in New York City. My favorite images of the structure have always been from Joel Sternfeld’s Walking the High Line series. You can see a nice slideshow of the photographs on the High Line website.
Of course there is a book, which I never got to see because it went out of print and is now hundreds of dollars on the secondary market. I was very happy to learn that Steidl has decided to issue a second edition, which is now available for sale on Amazon.com.
Joel Sternfeld, Walking the High Line
I’m curious to know how a second or third edition of a rare book affects the value of the first edition. I won’t lie when I say that I’ve been tempted to buy one of the more collectible copies of Walking the High Line out there, but it’s just not in my budget. Usually I don’t think of later editions as having the same collectible value, but I was surprised to discover not too long ago that my third edition of Sleeping by the Mississsippi is now worth almost $100. I buy my books for reading, not investment, but the effects of the market do have a significant effect on which books are available to us regular folk. It seems to me that Steidl must keep these editions pretty small to generate that sense of scarcity to encourage a quick sell-out.
If you are a collector, you might be interested to know that Jeff Ladd from 5B4 is currently selling a signed first edition of the book. Jeff is trying to raise some money right now, so if you did happen to be in the market for a collectible copy, you couldn’t buy it from a nicer guy.
Here’s some more Joel Sternfeld/High Line goodness from a 2002 profile on channel 13.
Stay tuned for a longer post about the High Line when I get some free time. It really is one of the coolest parks in the city and has a very interesting history.
Disclaimer: if you click through those Amazon links, I do get small percentage of the sale, but I only write about books that I love, and buy for myself as well.
September 24, 2009