November 2023.

“They see the guns, us getting high, they see us drinking, they see us getting pulled over by the cops, tagging. They don’t see the moments that you capture, like with family, having a good time.... life.”
– Clever, member of WestSide Playboys 13

The Virgin of Guadalupe, with pious hands, looks down mournfully on the corner of Pico Boulevard from a mural painted on a liquor store facade. There is an angel beneath her and a spiral of barbed wire in the background. As the camera clicks, two figures step out the store - “Saca-me una foto...”

They were Muerto and Midget, two members of the notorious street gang The WestSide Playboys 13, and this was their neighborhood.

It was 1992, the most violent year in the history of Los Angeles, when British photographer Robert Yager began walking the neighborhoods of central LA.

Edited by Pouria Khojastehpay thirty years later, 550BC presents the first compendium of Robert Yager’s award- winning work spanning over a decade. From slanging crack on the corner to county jail visits, and back to the streets of Rampart-era LA, Yager’s authentic portrayal of the Playboys is an intimate look from a point of view only possible walking amongst them.

Specifications - Hardcover. 260 pages. Edition of 550. Dimensions: 32 x 22 cm.

December 2023

The First Edition was published in December 2018

THE NEW EDITION OF 550BC's FIRST EVER TITLE

‘‘In life, a man must either become angelic or human or animal. I have become none of these things.‘‘

Explore the gritty underworld of Tehran's gangland through the captivating story of a notorious gangster known as ''The Eagle of Iran'' and his associates. Dive into their criminal mystique, marked by tattoos with poetic stories, facial scars, and flashy rings. These gangsters, unapologetically flaunting their masculinity, draw inspiration from traditional notions of strength and control. Posing in tea houses to sharing snaps from notorious prisons, and revealing a complex bond with Shīʿa Islam. Unravel the profound impact of martyrdom on these criminals, as they navigate the echoes of war and seek redemption in the sacred shrines of Iran. Step into their turbulent reality, where the line between sin and sacrifice becomes blurred.

Specifications - Hardcover. 164 pages. Full-Color pages with spot-UV treatment may be slightly wavy. This is not considered a flaw and will flatten more overtime.

‘’Sometimes I feel like we are pawns in a game.
God whispers in one of my ears while the devil speaks to me in the other.
I try to do good but something stops me.‘’

Since the summer of 2018, photographer Federico Vespignani spent a few years with a group of kids from the Barrio 18 gang in Honduras and watched as they grew up within this imaginary border, becoming look-outs and then soldiers.

Surrounding the hill is an imaginary border and the kids from the neighborhood will tell you “La Dieciocho controla.” Their presence permeates every aspect of life in the hood and for some, the barrio is everything. Gang membership is a grey concept in Cerrito Lindo - it is just a part of life in the hood. It is the place you were born, where you are from. It is what they live, and outside of these blood-drawn borders, death waits.

Some of the portrayed in this book have lost their lives, some ended up in jail, some found god, and others left to look for something else.

The photographer Federico Vespignani (1988) is an Italian photographer and cinematographer. Since 2015 he has covered organized crime and environmental issues in Central America.

Specifications - Softcover. 112 pages.