SOME/THINGS COLLABORATOR NICHOLAS ALAN COPE'S NEW BOOK

'I moved to Paris from Los Angeles 10 years ago and haven’t been back since. But this is exactly how I remember it. Bright hot incessant clear light, casting blackety-black shadows from Brutalist blocks that take the history of architecture and silently reduce and contain it like lunar tombs. Or Aztec temples morphed into foam-core cartoons.

This kind of light makes decisions easier, more black and white. Good vs bad, pure vs impure, aspiration vs collapse. Determined grim optimism vs self indulgent despair. The suggestion of an old Hollywood monolithic black-and-white movie set encourages self invention and self consciousness as you make your way down an imaginary long white staircase. There’s not another living soul on the set and the spotlight is on you, wiping out any flaw or imperfection, hallucinating yourself into who you wanna be...

Exactly how I remember it...

/ Rick Owens, November 2012


Los Angeles-based Photographer and regular SOME/THINGS collaborator NICHOLAS ALAN COPE's new book, WHITEWASH, captures the contrasts of the city through stark black and white images of L.A's architectural landscape. WHITEWASH, which is published by POWERHOUSE BOOKS and includes a foreword by Rick Owens, is available now through select stockists. For more information, visit cope1.com.

/ WHITEWASH photographed by MATTEO CARCELLI at SOME/THINGS SECRET.