Valerie Phillips has been one of my inspirations since I picked up a NYLON magazine in the 2000s. I’ve always felt like our styles are in sync when it comes to photography. Just that raw energy and capturing those moments that seem fleeting at the time but hold so many emotions when looked back on in the future.
My introduction to her work has been sort of kismet. I remember reading NYLON and seeing her work but when I was an intern at Big Magazine I was working at the desk next to her PR rep and they gifted me a copy of Monika Monster, Future First Woman on Mars.
Now over the past few years I’ve gotten a few more of her books and zines and even done some articles on her upcoming projects. This leads me to her new book, Candy Cat Head published by Marginal Press (Japan).
In Candy Cat Head, Phillips draws on her lifelong obsession with making, collecting and assembling ephemeral material – from scrapbooks, photo albums and collages to daily diaries filled with stickers, loose-leaf binders-of images and lists. As she writes in the book’s text:
“I’ve always been obsessed with making, collecting and assembling things: scrapbooks, photo albums, collages, diaries full of ephemera and lists…”
The book presents unseen imagery, contact sheets, mini lab-prints, photocopies, cut-ups and collages: the “leftovers” from her earlier published books with subjects Monika, Lacy and Courtney.
“Candy Cat Head is a Halloween cookie recipe. It’s also a collection of scrapbooks I assembled with the multitude of leftovers from the books I made with Monika, Lacy and Courtney … unseen imagery that didn’t fit in the published edits.”
Candy Cat Head aligns with her longstanding themes: the curiosity of girlhood, the tangibility of physical encounters in an internet-era, the blending of the analogue (scrapbooks, collages) and digital. It invites viewers and readers to reflect on connection, memory and how we document our lives.
“Phillips immerses herself in the lives of young women … by documenting their passions, dreams, and aspirations; breaking free from stereotypes and clichés.”
The book will debut at the Tokyo Art Book Fair in December 2025, where Phillips will appear for a signing, with her publisher Marginal Press on Saturday December 20th (16:00-17:00)
—
The edition is a limited print run, appealing to collectors of photobooks, zines, and independent publishing. Available in Japan December 2025, rest of the world early 2026.
