You've probably heard of much-lauded photographer Boogie and his amazing black & white snapshots of Brooklyn life at ArtCoup.com, but Brooklyn-based publisher Powerhouse books has done the art(sy) world a great favor by issuing the first proper collection of his work. It's All Good is assembled from pictures that Boogie took in some of NYC's grimiest hoods (Bed-Stuy, Bushwick, Queens) - pictures that capture a side of life that a lot of us will hear about but never truly know: dudes with hoods pulled over they eyes and two glocks drawn, crackheads and junkies living in squalor that would kill most, little kids having fun in the midst of it all because they don't know any better. The candid and incredible B&W snaps are interspersed with graphic anecdotes from some of the subjects that Boogie has photographed. To say this collection is "entertaining" would be an insult to the people who had to keep living after these pictures were taken; to say that it's sobering and endlessly fascinating would be more on point. The book is designed proper, too, with fully printed front and back covers on heavy hardcover stock, and the photographs are reproduced on 12" x 8" pages. 136 pages. Highly recommended.

reviewed by mgmnt