#45: Extra Terrestrial

Here’s a little something you didn’t expect: not only do we make a magazine once a year, but we also make books. We’re having a party this week at our studio to launch the book that you should definitely come to. On the off chance that you don’t enjoy a good time, they’re also available for purchase online here.

Reception: Thursday, January 30th, 6-9 PM at Park Street Studio.
With music and wine kindly supplied by our friends at Physica Wine.


EXTRA TERRESTRIAL is the latest publication from NY-based photographer Reggie McCafferty. Exploring the use of fiction to build a documentary language based in folklore and mythology, the book celebrates the unlikeliness of life on Earth and probes the human tradition of looking to the sky for answers.

Despite the title, it is not a book about aliens or UFO’s, but about what it means to be human. Consequently, EXTRA TERRESTRIAL is intentionally split into two words, intended to be understood as both “extremely of the earth and simultaneously beyond it.” Duality here is a recurring theme. Being read in two ways - as a traditional thematic collection of photography and/or as a narrative recounting of its own folktale - the story follows a common creation myth trajectory.

EXTRA TERRESTRIAL imagines a human existence that returns to its terrestrial roots to find value in the Earth and the non-human beings that we share this planet with. The book marvels at the mystical nature of insects & plants, contemplates ancient human rituals of baptism and stone lifting & wonders at the cosmic effects of vibrations created by transcendental musicians Sun Ra and TUI.

The images convey a poetry that is both tongue-in-cheek and deeply human. Employing humor as a mechanism, McCafferty celebrates the idiosyncrasies of a society that thrives on expression and misunderstands its own rationality. Ultimately, the images ask us, what is the role of humans in the story of Earth, and what agency do we have to move through history? Which traditions have we carried with us and which have we chosen to leave behind?

EXTRA TERRESTRIAL would suggest that we must look backward in order to step forward, to reassess the ability of fable and folklore to document and appreciate the identity of any given time period. Italo Calvino discusses this subject in his final work, “Six Memos for the Next Millennium,”

“Whenever humanity seems condemned to heaviness, I think I should fly like Perseus into a different space. I don’t mean escaping into dreams or into the irrational. I mean that I have to change my approach, look at the world from a different perspective, with a different logic and with fresh methods of cognition and verification…. In the boundless universe of literature there are always new avenues to be explored, both very recent and very ancient, styles and forms that can change our image of the world….”

As Calvino suggests, a literal and factual reading cannot always account for the full scope of human experience. It is the role of myth, poetry and allegory to fill in those gaps.

It is apparent that we humans have created a modern world that is so truly peculiar that it could only have been described as alien by our ancestors. And yet, the thread that ties us to our collective pasts is undeniable. Modern consciousness is built upon the experiences of those who came before us and, in their tradition, we still look to the sky on a clear night to wonder if the answers to our most basic questions are hidden somewhere amongst the cosmos.

Price $40
Available for online purchase here.

Edition of 300
4-color offset print
Thread sewn binding
100 pages
9.75 x 7 inches
Translucent PVC dust jacket cover with UV print
Designed by Bettina Garofalo

And finally a few links to cleanse the pallet:

Blowing bubbles with Hermeto Pascoal
Season of the Sled Dog because I found a Husky last week
Look up to see the Planets Align
How to stay safe with Bas Rutten

-Reggie