And though the image may be etched in our memory, it gives us with each new viewing something as fresh as it did the first time we saw it. We often reread a poem by Yeats we have from memory, a story by Eudora Welty we've read twenty times, or a chapter in Joseph Campbell we've read, underlined, and annotated, and we do it purely for the pleasure and reward of hearing their words again. It is the same in all the arts. Such art is the art of perpetual renewal and perpetual reward. Art that doesn't exert such an effect upon us is forgettable.
Unforgettable art is the only art that counts, that matters.
It's the only art we are interested in, and its presentation in both image and word is the only agenda we have. Where fine-art photography and literature meet is not a new place to us, but a place that has been lost in the shadows of a rapidly moving society relying on an increased interdependence with technology. The readers and collectors of Volume I responded with great enthusiasm both to the literary content and the exemplary quality of fine bookmaking. In response, we give you Volume II of 21st and extend our commitment to bringing you a marriage of the finest photographers, writers and craftsmen in the world. We are dedicated to publishing the finest of contemporary images, the finest writing, both creative and critical, about contemporary photography, and the most physically beautiful vehicle for such work that has ever existed.