NIGHTMARE OF HALLOWEEN PAST HC

As a child, Halloween was the favorite season of award-winning artist Gary Baseman — an extension of his love for other-worldly monsters as well as characters from film and television. In the 1990s, he began collecting more than 2,000 dark, playful and surreal vintage photographs of people in masks and costumes, mostly gathered at flea markets. Taken by unknown photographers, the images are intimate tributes to Halloween and a piece of American cultural heritage.

For many years, these photographs have inspired Baseman not only to paintings, but also to countless costumes and masks of his own, which he uses for photography, video and performance art. The photos collected here speak volumes and prompt even more questions: what initially seems uncanny soon becomes endearing once you recognize that the people beneath the eerie masks and macabre costumes are smiling and having fun. A distinctive blend of nightmares, childhood memories and strange beauty runs through this book.