Flaunt

Limited advance copies available at:
ICP Photobook Fest, New York City, September 6-8
Unseen, Amsterdam, September 19-22
Miss Read, Berlin, October 11-13.

Expected to ship in November.

“What sets D’Elia apart in the saturated field of street photography is her profound ability to forge instantaneous, intimate connections with strangers. Her photography becomes a conversation based solely on spontaneity and sincerity, where the subject and the artist share a fleeting, transformative encounter.”  
—Claude Grunitsky, CEO of the Equity Alliance, founder of TRACE and TRUE Africa, and a Visiting Social Innovator at the Harvard Kennedy School’s Social Innovation and Change Initiative.

This book is a collection of portraits taken of New Yorkers en route, wearing their own clothes in their own way for over two decades. In a time when everyone takes photos of themselves or someone they know, something shifts when a person is photographed by a total stranger. Two people meet for an instant in a spontaneous and intimate exchange that reveals through the anonymity of the encounter the fragility, vitality, and realness of human connection. When chosen out of hundreds to photograph within a fleeting but affirming exchange, a person can feel truly seen, if only for a moment in time.  And so, New Yorkers flaunt it and move on. These New Yorkers are the real style raconteurs with a visible sense of self. Their style is undeniable, but is taken a step further by making something unseen, visible.  The sartorial potency of these portraits draws the eye, but there seems to be an elegant alignment between what they are wearing and a confident sense of self. Within these chance encounters in New York’s distant and not so distant past, an inner and outer splendor is harnessed with a whisper saying, “This is me.” 

Elissa D’Elia is a photographer, writer, and educator who loves coffee, bike riding, and the tarot.

Author: Elissa D’Elia 
Text: Claude Grunitzky
Design: Caleb Cain Marcus, Luminosity Lab

ISBN: 978-1-959684-09-1
Dimensions: 7.87 x 11.81 inches
Number of pages: 128
Binding: Hardcover

Expected to ship in November.