What impressed me most about that visit was physically encountering something that until then had almost belonged to the realm of imagination: artist's editions that united book and signed work within a single proposal. That gesture changed everything. The book ceased to be merely a container of images and became another piece within the collector's ecosystem.

Over time, I've visited other TASCHEN stores, and also other spaces that operate on that same border between bookstore, gallery, and visual cult site. But London was the first. And that gives it a different weight. It was the place where I clearly saw how a publishing house could build atmosphere, narrative, and desire around photography, not from theory but from staging.

Furthermore, that visit coincided with the launch of a Mario Testino book. There was a very present communication campaign around his figure, his work, and his visual universe, and all of that further reinforced the feeling of entering a space where books weren't just lined up on shelves, but were part of a larger narrative. A narrative made of images, proper names, exquisite editing, and a certain idea of glamour understood as visual culture.

For me, that store was exactly that: the first place where TASCHEN stopped being just an admired publisher and became an experience.