Legendary Photography Director of New York Magazine, Jody Quon  has not one, but two extensive book collections from which she draws for her iconic covers. She totes books back and forth from her NYC apartment to her office for instant inspiration. Jody knows that there is no separating words and images – her work proves that photos can have a monumental effect on the stories that fill the pages of the magazine. We were thrilled to get a look at the bookshelves that inspire the woman behind influential images with unshakable social impact.

Book that changed my life…

Christiane F. Autobiography of a Girl of the Streets and Heroin Addict.

I read this book when I was 13 years old, and it was her raw story that exposed me to the power of addiction, and how fragile one’s life path could be.

Book I’m reading now…

The Uninhabitable Earth: Life after Warming by David Wallace-Wells.

Book I always give as a gift…

A used Nora Ephron book collection from eBay.

Favorite book cover…

The Breast by Philip Roth. 

This is a type cover that remarkably evokes the sensuality of the breast through a font and its proportion and spacing. 

If I could be any character in a book…

Nabokov’s Lolita…

Favorite photo book…

Hard question – almost impossible to answer, but ONE of my favorites is a relatively unknown book from 1968 from France called Les Erotiques Du Regards by Marc Attali and Jacques Delfau. It is a perfect book of black and white reportage images of feminine sensuality, paired with poetic and witty prose in a surprising mix of fonts and scale. The overall graphic impact of the book is magnificent and is a reminder of the power of the printed page and the overall potential beauty of a book.

Most important book in my collection…

Another hard question – I have many … my first important book was the first edition of Allure by Diana Vreeland, which I purchased for $200 in 1993! And immediately following, I bought the first edition of A Wonderful Time: An Intimate Portrait of the Good Life by Slim Aarons, also for $200. A lot of money back then. The next book was another first edition – Les Dîners de Gala by Salvador Dali. I have all the Richard Avedons and Irving Penn books, but I also love my cherished Marcel Vertès’s – Variations by Vertès. I found this at a used book dealer stall in a suburban shopping mall in Montréal. My books are not limited to photography. I adore my book, Domenico Gnoli, published by Franco Maria Ricci, which was a most thoughtful gift from one of my favorite collaborators, the great artist Maurizio Cattelan. My cherished monograph on Arp … Also, a funny side note – one of the photo books that caught my attention when I was a child was The Red Couch: A Portrait of America. It was a book that I discovered on my parents’ bookshelves, and it made such a lasting impression on me. I just loved the stunt of this red couch showing up all over the country. People are always surprised to hear me reference that book! I can be very high-low.

Relationship for me between written words and visual images…

Context is everything. The mutual dependency of word and image cannot be overstated.

Way I organize my books…

The bulk of my collection resides in my office, as I am constantly bringing books from home for use at work and often neglect to bring them back. Those books are arranged alphabetically. I need to be able to access them on a moment’s notice, and this is the best and most efficient system.

Book I read to my children…

So many! Maurice Sendak’s Nutshell Library, Shel Silverstein’s The Giving Tree, Winnie the Pooh!

Favorite line from a book…

“We tell ourselves stories in order to live,” Joan Didion, The White Album.

Favorite place to read…

In bed. 

Book I love to re-read…

Crazy Salad: Some Things About Women by Nora Ephron.

Guilty pleasure book…

 Bunny Mellon: The Life of an American Style Legend by Meryl Gordon. 

I love reading about how other people live. I learn so much. Everything informs what I do and how I live.