The idea for this book came to me when I took an iPhone picture of a set-up that my wife had arraigned on a shelf in my office of Santa toilet training Bart Simpson that I posted on FaceBook. My wife is constantly creating little altars with family pictures, paintings, books, statuettes and other objects. I realized that I had already been photographing the altars on shelves and counters at home and in other houses. They interest me because of their personal, intimate, careful or casual arrangements. Who hasn’t stolen a few moments to read the book titles on living room shelves looking for insites of the inhabitant’s interests? But we also can’t help looking at highly designed displays of merchandise on store shelves. They are designed to attract our attention, which they do, even if the shelves are empty, as in a grocery store the day before a storm. Instead of selfies, therefore a book of Shelfies.