Kanye West: Glow In The Dark

by Nabeel Ahmad on October 13, 2009

Love him or hate him, you can’t deny his talent as an artist. Kanye West has managed to cross numerous platforms as an entertainer, including music, art, and fashion. He has become an icon for his over the top antics and his eclectic music and style. His most recent tour, The Glow In The Dark Tour, was has been documented beautifully by photographer Nabil Elderken and is the backdrop for Kanye’s photobook, Glow In The Dark.

Kanye West takes you on a musical and visual odyssey that no antihero has taken you on before. If you didn’t have a chance to check the tour out, it was visually stunning! This deluxe volume represents another leg of that voyage, giving you a gorgeous photographic ride through West’s life, both on and offstage, as well as into the intimate technologies of his creative process with top visual artists of today. The instrumentals are tracks from his set remastered to echo John Williams’s famous score (“Jesus Walks” is Vader’s theme). In personal sketches and reference imagery, 3-D models of the holodeck-ian stage, and costume designs (including his Grace Jones–inspired outfits for opening act Rihanna), West once again expands a medium and triumphs in the artist’s epic struggle to be creative. With a CD including previously unreleased instrumentals from the show as well as an interview with tour collaborator Spike Jonze, the book is not only a memento of one of the most successful musical performances of the year, but it is also an experience all its own.

The hardcover photobook has written commentary by Kanye West, is 288 pages with over 400 photographs taken by Nabil Elderkin on and offstage. The book also features an interview with tour collaborator Spike Jonze and a CD with unreleased music and interviews. Glow In The Dark will be available Oct. 20 for $50 and a Deluxe edition featuring a clamshell case with larger, higher quality photos, will retail for $225.