DownloadThe Portobello Bookshop Gift Guide 2024

Richard Baker Author, Editor & Illustrator

Richard Baker is a Brooklyn-based still-life painter who started painting dog-eared copies of vintage paperbacks several years ago. He scours used bookstores in search of appropriately careworn paperbacks to immortalize in his portraits: "No precious first editions, no rare things--just your common companions." He depicts paperback editions from the 1960s and ’70s, faithfully portraying not only the front cover’s original details, but also signs of its passage through time—creases, worn bindings, and all.