"Shawn - It’s weird; I am so thankful that these books of Phil's photography covering these events exist, but I was then and am now against those books existing, if that makes sense. I’m glad they do, but I wish they didn’t? The idea originally, especially the first one, was that it was an experiential event for the people who were there and photos weren’t even supposed to end up on BME Extreme."
In our latest book, a companion to the ModCon at 25 lecture I'll be presenting this August in Berlin, I discuss how I don't think ModCon books should exist. There's a lot to unpack there, I'm sure.
We're going to be making a total of 50 copies (+ four APs) and I'll be setting aside some for y'all who can't make it to Berlin; they're costly (limited run + page count + extras included) but I hope worth it for body mod nerds.
One of the most rewarding parts of revisiting twenty-five years of ModCon has been reconnecting with guests that made the events special. It's easy to look at the existing ModCon media as an anatomy book - split penises here, split balls there - but the folks behind the modifications were always much more dynamic than the mods themselves.
John, 2001 (need to fix that in the book; this is what APs are for) and 2024. Photo courtesy of our friend Halo Walter who recently met/documented John when he was visiting Philadelphia.
I'll be putting the listing up for the available books once we check out the APs and make sure everything formatted the way wed wanted it to; they'll ship mid-August.