Dashwood Books

Before Instagram, there were photography books. Dashwood Books is one of the best places in New York to remember why they still matter. Walk down the steps to its underground storefront, and you’ll find it full of people quietly flipping through weighty coffee table books, nobody minding how long anyone stays.

The shelves are devoted entirely to photography: new monographs beside rare and out-of-print treasures. A book printed on paper has things a screen never will: the quality of the printing, a scale that shifts from one title to the next, an object made in whatever form best serves the images. So browse all afternoon, but also buy the book. A feed disappears; a book you come back to, again and again, until slowly you begin to see differently.

David Strettell, who was once an assistant to photographer Mario Testino and a cultural director at Magnum Photos for twelve years, opened Dashwood in 2005 as the only photography bookstore in New York.

He recently opened Dashwood Project, a gallery space on East 4th Street, where work by artists they collaborate with is shown, celebrated, and sold.