Bint photoBooks on INTernet

Photobook Phenomenon
VicenC Villatoro
ISBN 10: 8417047050 / ISBN 13: 9788417047054
Published by Rm/Ccccb/Fundacion Foto Colectania

For close to a quarter century now, Hans Eijkelboom has been taking to the shopping streets of countless cities around the world (Amsterdam, New York, Paris, Shanghai—and now also Athens and Kassel) to photographically record the dizzying sartorial diversity that is such a defining hallmark of global capitalism—a plethora of visual (“surface”) difference that, when viewed from the perspective of an artist interested in discerning patterns, i.e., repetition, inevitably results in a document of arresting sameness.

A number of Eijkelboom’s mid-1970s photo projects, such as the aptly titled Identiteiten (Identities, 1973), presaged two defining features of the street photography that he is best known for, and which has preoccupied him since the early 1990s—his programmatic predilection for working in series on the one hand (a matter of form), and an almost exclusive focus on dress code on the other hand (a matter of content).

Eijkelboom, born in Arnhem in 1949, is a member of a generation of Dutch artists who played a key role in the establishment of conceptual photography in Continental Europe. His initial forays into photography had a strong performative bent, and almost exclusively involved one type of autoportraiture or other—“the presentation of self in everyday life,” in Erving Goffman’s felicitous phrase. These works were clearly informed by the efflorescence of 1970s Dutch performance art, all the while keying into the emerging discourse of post-1960s identity politics—the photo triptych De Drie Communisten (The Three Communists, 1976) presenting the artist dressed up as a Marxist, Leninist, and Maoist respectively, speaks volumes in this regard—though infused with a deadpan sense of humor all too often lacking in subsequent identity-based art practices. (Comedy, in his ongoing encyclopedic project, is a function of the illusion that dress cannot ever guarantee true distinction.)

Although there is an element of distancing in Eijkelboom’s work that may lend his project an anthropologizing, exoticizing slant (echoes of Desmond Morris’s 1969 The Human Zoo here), his is a deeply humanist practice at heart, and it is no coincidence that his work has often been compared to that of the great chronicler of twentieth-century humanity, August Sander—his work was recently surveyed, fittingly, at the August Sander Archiv in Cologne. It is tempting to characterize Eijkelboom’s subjects quite simply as “people of the twenty-first century” in turn, though presented in cool-headed, gridded sequences reminiscent of the work of Bernd and Hilla Becher and other pioneers of conceptual photography: a subject-object balancing act.
—Dieter Roelstraete

Works
Hans Eijkelboom
(b. 1949, Arnhem, Netherlands)

The Street & Modern Life, Birmingham, U.K. (2014)
Digital video, color, silent
30 min.

EMST—National Museum of Contemporary Art, Athens
De Drie Communisten (The three Communists, 1975)
Black-and-white photograph
58 × 120 cm
Neue Galerie, Kassel

Photo Notes 1992–2017 (2017)
270 inkjet prints
50 × 60 cm each
Stadtmuseum Kassel, Kassel

HANS EIJKELBOOM’S APPROACH TO STREET STYLE PHOTOGRAPHY IS EFFECTIVE BECAUSE IT PARODIES THE UNIQUE-INDIVIDUAL-WHO-STANDS-OUT-IN-A-CROWD TROPE.

PEOPLE OF THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY
HANS EIJKELBOOM, DAVID CARRIER
(PHAIDON)
US: OCT 2014

A group of 15 women wearing jean skirts. A group of 12 men wearing t-shirts emblazoned with animals. Middle-aged women in fur coats. Middle-aged men in tan trenchcoats. Multiple people with Louis Vuitton accessories. Dozens of people wearing white jackets. Yellow jackets. Red jackets. Fur-trimmed hoods. Burqas. Printed pants. Fanny packs. Cropped pants. Keffiyehs. Sun visors. Saris. Rain ponchos. And, of course, Canadian tuxedos.

These are just some of the clothing items that show up in People of the Twenty-First Century, a new book of street photography by Dutch photographer and conceptual artist Hans Eijkelboom. These photos are taken from Eijkelboom’s long-standing “Photo Notes” project, wherein he would station himself near shopping centres, museums, or busy city intersections and look for a clothing trend or sometimes common behaviour. After noticing the trend, such as women wearing striped tank tops or shirtless men on rollerblades, Eijkelboom would photograph these passersby. The results of the project are presented in People of the Twenty-First Century, signaling Eijkelboom as a photographer of street style.

Since the early ‘00s, street photographers have been documenting “street style”. Street style photographers capture “unique” and “interesting” outfits worn mostly by non-celebrities. The outfits that capture the attention of the street style photographer are usually admired because they strike a balance between “sophistication” and “elegance” on the one hand and “edginess”, “individuality”, and “quirkiness” on the other hand. The people featured on street style blogs create outfits that are well-coordinated, different, and have the potential to stand out in a crowd.

This kind of photography has evolved and changed over the past several years. For a time, street style photographers sought out their subjects, happening upon them in the streets or museums of the elite cities of the world. Many of us swooned over blogs like The Sartorialist and later Hel Looks. Maybe, if we lived in one of these cities, wondered why no one ever stopped us for a photo. Eventually, people began to make subjects of themselves, creating and maintaining a social media presence to show off their style and #ootd to a larger audience. Facilitated by the #selfie, we encourage others to notice and appreciate our great bargains, designer items, smart choices, and evolving styles.

There is much to read, even if primarily online, about how the rise of street style photography and fashion blogging have democratized fashionableness and made it accessible to the citizenry. One no longer needs to be a model, editor, designer, or actor to become a “presence” in the fashion world.

In fact, the writers of prominent style blogs have become present in the industry, covering openings, fashion weeks, and other important industry events. At present, street style photography captures the mega-outfits worn by the non-celebrity people who lurk outside of runway shows at the various fashion weeks. On street style blogs or in magazines that now have pages devoted to street style, the outfits are well thought out, and often comprised of a careful and complex combination of pieces from high- and low-fashion.

Yet, many of the items and outfits featured by street style photographers and increasingly bloggers can produce an alienating rather than a democratizing effect. Street-style-caliber outfits are not especially practical for people with young children, or for people without the time or inclination to stay apprised of lightning-fast trend cycles. They are also often out of the reach of people who are not thin, as well as those without the disposable income (or copious credit) to regularly update their wardrobes.

One of the things that makes People of the Twenty-First Century so compelling and so significant, then, is that it both broadens and upends the predominant understanding of street style as supercool, unique outfits worn by supercool, unique people. The book inverts the now-sedimented notion of street style, and re-articulates it as a broad category of sartorial expression that parallels and subverts the orderliness and systematicity of human culture.

Hans Eijkelboom (b. 1949) is a Dutch photographer and conceptual artist based in Amsterdam. Active since the ‘70s, he was part of the Dutch movement of conceptual artists whose engagements with “machine-like image reproduction and a radically deskilled anti-photography” informed Eijkelboom’s approach. Eijkelboom uses photography as the medium through which to execute his conceptual art works. In 1975, he completed “De Drie Communisten (The Three Communists)”, which depicted him next to portraits of Marx, Lenin, and Mao while wearing outfits that matched each communist.

Eijkelboom’s projects have also been united by a commitment to self-portraiture, underlined by what Tony Godfrey calls a “concern with identity, how we present ourselves and how others perceive us”. In 1973, he completed a photo series in which he photographed other people wearing his clothes (“People Wearing my Clothes”). Because Eijkelboom has long been committed to a methodical and meticulous approach to the image, his photographs are typically presented as serial images in a grid-like format.

The “Photo Notes” project, from which People of the Twenty-First Century emerges, started in November 1992 when Eijkelboom started a photo diary comprised of up to 80 photographs every day. Eijkelboom created a set of rules for photographing, and he followed them exactly. He would go into town, station himself outside of a city landmark or busy intersection, and wait until he noticed the repetition of a certain item of clothing or perhaps a behavior. Once he noticed something of interest (people wearing leather jackets) or selected a behavior (two women walking arm-in-arm), he would photograph as many people as he could find wearing the clothing or engaged in the behavior.

People of the Twenty-First Century displays Eijkelboom’s surreptitious street photographs in grids, with anywhere from nine to 15 images per page. Each page is “stamped” with a date, time, and location; the photos are presented in chronological order. The photographs were taken primarily in Amsterdam and Arnhem, NL (where Eijkelboom was previously based), but the book is decidedly international in scope. Taken together, the photographs are both indicative of and distinct from the assumptions that might be held about what clothing choices dominate in which locations. People wear fur coats in New York City and Paris, argyle sweaters in Nairobi and São Paolo, Che Guevara t-shirts in Amsterdam, Jesus t-shirts in Mexico City, “migrant worker bags” in Shanghai, over-the-knee socks in Tokyo, niqabs in Marrakech, hoodies in Cairo.

Several reviews have pointed out that People of the Twenty-First Century is a book about difference within sameness. Reviewers note that Eijkelboom’s photographs show us that even though people wear the same clothing items, they wear them in unique ways.

In his essay at the end of the book, David Carrier writes that Eijkelboom “uses repetition to communicate awareness of difference: the closer you look at any page of this book, the more diverse you will find the people who are dressed in similar ways.” Eijkelboom’s photos reveal, Carrier implies, the diversity among people and their fashion choices. In 2007, for instance, it was considered on-trend to wear a short jean skirt paired with leggings. (Eventually, we did away with the skirts.) On 24 April 2007, Eijkelboom photographed 15 women dressed this way. However, when one looks more closely at these photos, they discover that each woman has her own expression of this look. The shoes and tops worn with the jean skirts are different, as are the jean skirts themselves; some are pleated, some are frayed, and one is actually jean-skirt overalls. The women are racially diverse, and they have a range of hair styles.

At the same time, it’s important to consider whether the differences in the styling of cookie-cutter clothing are significant enough to applaud. Are minuscule variations on the same clothing item actually tantamount to difference in expression? Do we actually see difference and distinction when someone pairs Lululemon leggings with a blue racer-back tank top instead of a green ribbed tank top?

Importantly, Eijkelboom’s photographs illustrate not that clothing items themselves are monotonous but that the idea of a particular clothing item is itself uninspired. The book presents leopard print tops, flower-print tops, striped tops, blazers, hoodies, and scarves; however, all of these items are made distinct in terms of cut, shape, length, material. Insofar as the items are rendered distinguishable by details of tailoring and pattern, it is the idea or the concept of a leopard print top that is revealed to be redundant.

By focusing on the banality of and distinctions within unremarkable or “basic” clothing choices, Eijekboom’s photographs reveal, as Dieter Roelstraete argues, the “illusory logic of individuation” that upholds both the garment industry and fashion journalism. The book’s focus on the repetition of clothing items and, in turn, the paradoxical uniformity of personal style undermines the idea that we in the West understand our style as something that establishes us as distinct individuals. People of the Twenty-First Century shows us this in photographs of people wearing different iterations of the same clothing item, and it also shows us this across the photographs.

Nowhere is the uniformity of style more evident, however, than in the book’s representation of men in business suits alongside women in animal-print tops alongside men in NYPD police uniforms. The juxtaposition of these sets of photographs undermines our belief in the idea that fashion and clothing enable us to express our individuality.

Ultimately, in the way that People of the Twenty-First Century asks us to look at red jacket after red jacket after red jacket, it summons us to inadvertently elide the people wearing those jackets. In the way that the photos invisibilize the wearers of the clothes, it breaks down the belief that what we wear is somehow indicative of who we are.

Eijkelboom’s photographs also reveal the astonishing repetition of fashion trends and the patent eagerness of the public to continuously consume the same things as new trends. Photos from Amsterdam show a recurring trend of bare, female midriffs in 1997, 1999, 2001, and 2006. In 2014, after Photo Notes ended, there was another resurgence of the bare midriff via the repopularization of the crop top. Because our sartorial attention has been shortened by an industry that cycles through trends at warp speed (Cline, Overdressed), we get excited about “new” items, even if they have already been trendy before.

Along these lines, the photos also reveal our never-ending consumptive practices: there are dozens of photos of people carrying shopping bags, whether from department stores like Macy’s or fast-fashion go-tos like Topshop. In the context of the book, such photos suggest that endless consumption in mainstream stores, which profit from conformity, will never facilitate anyone having a unique personal style.

We also see the depiction of uniform style across age categories. When the jean-skirt-and-leggings trend was big in 2007, it was primarily worn by younger women. Yet, older people are also shown sharing different items in common: one page shows photographs of primarily older people wearing fleece zip-up sweaters; most of the women depicted in furs are also older. Especially revealing is the way that children are depicted throughout People of the Twenty-First Century. As much as we in the West encourage our children to believe that they are special and unique, Eijkelboom shows us that we often err on the side conformity, as is made clear by the photos of female children wearing Spice Girls t-shirts or pigtails.

People of the Twenty-First Century also shows us how the monotony and repetition of clothing circulates in a globalized context. Eijkelboom includes photos taken in Mumbai in 2010. One series of photos captures women in saris; another shows men in button-up shirts paired with recently re-popularized Gandhi caps; another series shows men and women in graphic t-shirts worn with jeans. Photos from Nairobi bear a similar pattern. Photos like these not only affirm the transplantation of Western clothing into the countries that largely produce it; they also demonstrate how people in non-Western countries are engaged in a complex blending of Western clothing with traditional items and styles.

This is a complex, thought-provoking, interactive and entertaining collection of photography. Eijkelboom’s approach to street style photography is effective because it parodies the unique-individual-who-stands-out-in-a-crowd trope. The photos isolate the individual in a crowd only to show that they are not distinct from those in the crowd from which they came. In this way, People of the Twenty-First Century shows us the absurdity of the concept of unique style but also helps us understand how people make their own looks out of repetitive cycles of the same things. Although the book is promoted as an assemblage of “anti-sartorial photographs of street life”, its take on fashion is, in the end, neither dismissive nor uncritically accepting of the notion of personal style.

BUTTURINI, Gian.
London.
(Verona): (Editrice SAF) [self-published], (1969).

Folio (333 × 270 mm), pp.[104]. 78 black-and-white photographs. Texts by Butturini and Luciano Mondini, poem by Allen Ginsberg. Quote by Robert Capa printed in black to front free endpaper, rear plain; contents and endpapers toned. Grey paper-covered boards, upper side lettered in gilt; toning to top edge, slightly cocked. Black-and-white photo-illustrated dust-jacket, text in white; toned, chip to head of spine with tape repair, light wear to corners, crudely price-clipped by hand, presumably by Butturini himself. Pencil note to copyright page: ‘Ref. autore 20-11-69’. Butturini’s contemporary presentation inscription in black ink with a spherical drawing to front free endpaper dated 1970.

First edition, a presentation copy. In these scathing photographs of Swinging London at it’s apex Butturini shows a side of London far from the popularised image of Carnaby Street, which he describes in his introduction as being an amusement park of sequins, bad taste, visual clamor, and sales pitch. Having been shocked at what he found on a visit to the City he felt compelled to create this report which contrasts a tourists idea of London with photographs of the homeless, addicts at Victoria Station, and ordinary working Londoners. At the age of 35 Butturini gave up a successful career in advertising to concentrate on photography, this was his first book. ‘Gerry Badger remarks that, ‘It is more Don McCullin than David Bailey... Occasionally, Butturini labours the social contrast, but all in all, this is the book that McCullin might have made about London but unfortunately never has - although he still might.’

Scarce, KVK locates 6 copies in Italian libraries; OCLC locates only 1 copy elsewhere: National Library of Australia.

Parr, M. and Badger, G., The Photobook: A History vol. III pp.154-5.

Gian Butturini: London
Text by Martin Parr, Allen Ginsberg, Gian Butturini, Luciano Mondini.

Featured image is reproduced from 'Gian Butturini: London.'
“Butturini’s London depicts the poor and the working class who failed to make good in the 1960s, contrasting that with the tourist view" -Martin Parr

In 1969 Gian Butturini was just over 30 years old and a successful graphic designer working in advertising. His journey as a photographer began at Victoria Station when he saw a young man staggering by with a syringe embedded in a vein. He began investigating 1960s London through the Nikon hanging from his neck.

Butturini’s photographs of London are full of pain and sarcasm but also joy and lyricism—hippies and fashionable young women share space with the homeless, the pacifist demonstrations and the orators at Speakers’ Corner. Butturini’s London, in the photographer’s own words, “is true and bare ... I did not ask it to pose.”

Gian Butturini: London is the new facsimile edition of Butturini’s cult 1969 photobook, which interspersed his black-and-white photographs with text by Allen Ginsberg. No less an authority than Martin Parr—who contributes a text to this new edition—has credited Butturini’s photobook with containing some of the best photographs ever taken of the British capital.

Gian Butturini (born 1935) began his career in the early 1950s as a graphic designer in Milan. The publication of London in 1969 marked his transition to photography. After catching the end of the Swinging Sixties in London, Butturini continued to take photographs, documenting the Troubles in Northern Ireland, Fidel Castro’s Cuba and violence in Bosnia, among other key sights and events of the 20th century.

Featured image is reproduced from 'Gian Butturini: London.'

Gian Butturini: London

FROM THE BOOK

EXCERPT
I have been collecting photobooks for over 40 years now. One of the most exciting moments on this journey is when you discover a book, for the first time, that is clearly a great book, but is not known or acknowledged as a significant contributor to the field.

Because of my natural interest in things British, I have paid particular attention to photobooks by British photographers and also books about Britain produced by foreign photographers. I found that many foreign photographers homed in on cities like Liverpool and London. Britain was in the midst of the swinging sixties, when the British youth scene became an international story. Strangely, this revolution was under-documented by British photographers, who were more interested in the fashion movement as photographed by people like David Bailey and Terence Donovan.

About ten years ago someone showed me the London book by Gian Butturini and I was immediately excited. Just looking at the cover made me think this has to be a great book. When I flipped through the pages, with its strong graphics and grainy imagery, it was abundantly clear this was an overlooked gem. What was even more exciting was that this book had slipped under the radar and was totally unknown in the city that it so ably portrays.

With my curiosity alerted, I wanted to find out more about Butturini and eventually found the contact details for his widow (he died in 2006) who, it turned out lived in Brescia, in Italy. I eventually met with Manuela and her daughter, Marta. Along with her brother Tiziano, Marta had decided to look after their father’s estate. I asked did they have any vintage prints from this project and whether they could tell us more about his time in London. With these questions (and some answers) the story slowly began to unravel.

Gian Butturini had established himself as a successful graphic and interior designer when he was posted to London in June 1969 to work on a trade show. There he found himself compelled to pick up a camera as the city—with its medley of drug users, the underclasses and fashionistas—had a profound effect on him. He realized his calling and started accumulating images which were speedily published later in 1969 in book form. The book cost five thousand lire and the small print run of 1000 copies sold out immediately, having been supported mainly in his town of Brescia, where he was already well known as a designer.

Butturini wanted to make a politically charged book. The London book was the start of his photographic calling and his left leaning manifested itself in his later books that he produced in conflicted territories such as Chile and Northern Ireland. The striking thing about the London book is the strong grainy quality of the images, woven through with the graphics of the same period. These place it firmly in a moment or—or more precisely— a decade of time. Using his considerable graphic design talents, he combined all kinds of tricks to build his narrative, from graphics, torn paper, drawings and small blow up of details of his images. The overall effect works perfectly.

In 2016, I curated an exhibition at the Barbican Gallery in London that explored the whole issue of the foreign photographers who have worked in the UK and of course featured the work of Butturini. We showed a series of prints, but also displayed four copies of the book in vitrines to show the audience the strength of the work. So now the cat is out of the bag and the book is now known and appreciated by a London audience. This is the curious thing about our photo-history. It is constantly being tweaked as new discoveries are made, and books in particular are a primary source of this constant shifting. We also get a chance to re-examine and re-define the contribution made by Gian Butturini, by reviving this and the other books that have been overlooked for far too long. Although the book is long out of print, and now fetching a very robust price in the secondary photobook market, this is where this reprint can really score. Suddenly, as in December 1969, a copy of this book can be purchased at a reasonable price. I hope you share the excitement I first experienced when I first encountered this wonderful work. - Martin Parr

Barcelona En Blanc I Negre (Elect.Arte) door Xavier Miserachs

Sociedad Editorial Eleca Espana (2003), Hardcover, 256 pages

Miserachs Barcelona

Xavier Miserachs, Barcelona, 1962. MACBA Collection. Courtesy of MACBA Study Centre and Xavier Miserachs Fonds. © The Estate of Xavier Miserachs.

Miserachs Barcelona

18 September 2015–27 March 2016

MACBA

Plaça dels Àngels, 1

08001 Barcelona

www.macba.cat

The Museu d’Art Contemporani de Barcelona (MACBA) is dedicating an exhibition to the Barcelona-based photographer Xavier Miserachs (1937–1998), whose work has been on long-term loan to the Museum since 2011. Miserachs Barcelona, focusing on the photobook Barcelona, blanc i negre (1964) offers a journey through time in which the images are arranged in the form of large murals, shop-windows, enlargements and projections, proposing new ways of seeing and reading photographs in the exhibition space. The exhibition will include a photography seminar and make available to the public Miserachs’ archive.

In September 1964, Miserachs published his major work, Barcelona, blanc i negre, a photobook bringing together nearly 400 of his photographs. From 1961, Miserachs worked professionally in advertising, photojournalism and, above all, street photography, “the pleasure of wandering around trying to represent what to me seemed distinctive and significant about the place.”

Miserachs participated in some exhibitions, but believed the best place for photos was in the pages of magazines and books. He wanted to make “a strictly photographic book of free style and content,” composed of images forming a set that can be read and watched like a film or novel. That is, a photobook—the model that at that time defined the history of photography, marked by the publication of masterpieces such as Life is Good & Good for You in New York by William Klein (1956) and The Americans by Robert Frank (1958).

Barcelona, blanc i negre draws on two models. The first is The Family of Man, a travelling exhibition initiated by the Museum of Modern Art in New York in 1955. It was here that Miserachs realised his true vocation and discovered that the photography that is often called “humanistic” and refers to abstract concepts can also serve to “tell, communicate, explain and increase the knowledge of others through our own experience.” The second is identified with the urban photobooks of William Klein, whom Miserachs admired for his “highly original way of portraying cities by focusing on the signs provided by their people and spaces.”

Barcelona, blanc i negre begins with a carefully disordered sequence that bursts into the city one morning. Later, you discover the city through its inhabitants, with stories of work and celebration, newly arrived migrants and the bourgeoisie of good families, slums, the Gothic quarter and Eixample, shop windows, advertisements and grafitti…and always people in the streets, of all ages and classes. The photobook seems to follow a classic maxim: “The city is its people.” Miserachs avoids tourist and historical clichés, preferring to delve into the theme of modern culture, the urban experience and its space: the city.

The great narratives of literature, film and photography of the last century are urban, and their heroes are waylaid walkers such as Eugène Atget, the pioneer of street photography, the active equivalent of the flâneur described by Charles Baudelaire and studied by Walter Benjamin. Like “the painter of modern life” of the Parisian poet, Miserachs is a curious passerby, an indefatigable pedestrian who walks the streets, markets and parks, browsing in shop windows and pavement cafes, stopping by the factories at knocking-off time and in station waiting rooms, and who ends the day on the dance floors and in the all-night bars.

Photobooks invite us to look and read. To adapt these actions to the museum, the exhibition Miserachs Barcelona proposes several ways of looking at and reading photos in the art space. The viewer encounters the photos of Barcelona, blanc i negre arranged in the form of large murals, shop-windows, enlargements and projections.

The exhibition opens with a twilight panorama, both unreal and documentary, that refers to the distant horizons of the cinema. Next, you enter the city, recreated in a Meccano-like construction that evokes the style of exhibition displays during the years in which Miserachs prepared his photobook. It is a model that began in the lecture halls of the Bauhaus and reached its photographic zenith with the portable structures used for The Family of Man.

Later, you can literally walk through the pages of Miserachs’ photobook and the crowded streets and squares of a Barcelona without tourists, thanks to large three-dimensional enlargements that transform the space into a stage design in which the viewer becomes an active participant. A further space is dominated by changing projections, in which the viewer is immersed in a past and present that constantly merge. Finally, Barcelona, blanc i negre is displayed on a screen in full detail. Here we also find copies of the photobook and the meandering itineraries followed by Miserachs during its preparation.

Exhibition organised and produced by MACBA.

Curator: Horacio Fernández

Publication

Miserachs Barcelona offers a selection of images from the book Barcelona, blanc i negre (1964), offering a new perspective on the original work. Barcelona: MACBA/RM, 2015. Trilingual edition (Catalan, Spanish, English). Two versions: library and portfolio.

READ LOOK AT THE PHOTOGRAPHS IN BARCELONA, BLANC I NEGRE, BY XAVIER MISERACHS

Barcelona

(Photo from Amazon, where you can purchase this for $1,400).

Something I didn’t realize until we spoke with some locals in Barcelona is that the Barcelona I thought I knew— cosmopolitan beach-side, salt spray culture capital—that Barcelona is relatively new. The city looked very different before the Olympics were held there in 1992; in fact, before the games brought international attention, Barcelona had no city beach at all. For the occasion, a stretch of industrial buildings were demolished and the beach was, well, built (so much for sous les pavés la plage).

It was hard for me to visualize. Even harder for me to visualize? Barcelona in 1964. The MACBA exhibit featuring the Catalán photographer’s work was extraordinary for this reason, putting the spotlight on the city and the Barcelonés whose local history seems completely overshadowed by the frenzy at tour-guide hotspots. The exhibit’s design, too, catapulted my imagination backward, as it aimed to interweave museum-goers with the people and scenes from Miserach‘s iconic black and white photos:

The exhibit is worth a visit (it’s there until March 28, so hurry!). I’m currently looking for, er, a more affordable option for the photography book, as it seems like somewhat of a collectors’ item. In the mean time, this Flickr page should do– & I’ve shared some of my favorites below. I think you’ll find evidence that Miserachs met his self-proclaimed goal to seek:

“the pleasure of wandering around trying to represent what to me seemed distinctive and significant about the place.”

Festes de Gracia, Barcelona, 1964

FromBarcelona3

from Barcelona, blanc i negre Micherach Flickr page (shared from toies.wordpress.com)

Preganziol, 1983 is a key piece of work in the oeuvre of legendary Italian photographer Guido Guidi. Taken in 1983, the sequence of images depict the same room in an attempt to measure space-time using light. Located in Preganziol, Italy, the small and dilapidated room has two windows from which sunlight enters; in each photograph the angle, intensity and volume of light changes. The work is an exploration of how to define and describe physical space and the idea of camera obscura more widely. This large-format and limited edition book has been signed and numbered by the artist. Includes a written piece by Roberta Valtorta. Published by MACK (London).

In 1983, Italian photographer Guido Guidi created a short photographic series, taken inside a room in Preganziol, a comune in the Province of Treviso about 20 kilometers north west of Venice. ‘Preganziol' consists of sixteen images, taken within the confines of four bare walls. The only light is from two small windows, opposite one another and the series follows the shifting of light across the walls as time progresses through the day.

Guido Guidi is interested in mapping the subtle changes of familiar places. For him photography is something autobiographical; it is synonymous with inhabiting, and the camera is the instrument that allows him to observe, appropriate and collect evidence and traces of lives experienced.

“In the moment that I take a photograph of something I feel that I am that thing; … I am what I photograph in the moment that I am photographing it. At least it is an attempt to be it, even if it is imperfect and imprecise. It is as if I am praying.” (From a conversation with Antonello Frongia and Laura Moro, Ronta di Cesena, 6 May, 2013)

Guido Guidi was born in Cesena, in 1941 and studied architecture in Venice at the beginning of the sixties. Influenced by Neorealist film and Conceptual art, Guidi began exploring Italy’s man-altered landscape in the late sixties. His work has been shown at the Venice Biennale, Fotomuseum Winterthur, Centre Georges Pompidou, Guggenheim Museum, Whitney Museum of American Art, MAXXI Rome and most recently, a retrospective of his work 'Veramente’ has been touring from Fondation Henri Cartier-Bresson through various venues in Europe.

With special thanks to Michael Mack, who has published two Monographs on Guidi’s photographs; ‘Preganziol 1983’ (2013) and ‘Vermanente’ (2014). A limited amount of signed copies of ‘Preganziol’ will be available to purchase during the exhibition.

This Week In Photography Books: Guido Guidi
Jonathan Blaustein - May 23, 2014 - Photography Books

by Jonathan Blaustein

My son graduated from Kindergarten this morning. It was quite the big deal. Lots of parents in attendance, lining the gymnasium bleachers like beakers in a chemistry class. Fun stuff.

There was five-song-medley that went on for ages. Or at least it seemed to, as we tried to keep our young daughter from shrieking at any moment. It’s fun for her, the screaming, and she does it with a smile.

Where was I? Losing focus today, as end of school year always finds my fried family worn down like a #2 pencil. Right. The graduation medley.

Each child sang and danced. Hips twisted. Caps and gowns swayed in the fresh mountain air. They opened with “First Grade, First Grade,” (to the tune of “New York, New York,”) segued through the Spanish numbers, and closed with “Happy” by Pharrell F_cking Williams. Had he been in attendance, I would have been “Happy” to beat him to death with that stupid oversized hat he insists on wearing.

All those 6 year olds, in matching outfits, doing identical choreography. At one point, my mother pointed to young Abigail and said, “Look at her go.” She’d found the one girl with that extra little rhythm. The one who could actually dance.

I began to pay more attention to the children in my vicinity. The moves were the same, yet ever-so-not. Differences were easy to see, once I was paying attention. Kind of like that story in the New Yorker the other week, that talked about how the road from Moscow to Lviv is lined with villages. Each can always speak to their neighbor town. But by the time you get to the end of the line, Russian and Ukrainian have diverged to two completely different languages.

Those dancing little New Mexicans came to mind immediately after putting down “Preganziol 1983,” a new oversized hardcover book by Guido Guidi, recently published by MACK. It’s like a Highlights magazine in a 1980’s dentist office. (Which one of these is not like the other…)

Open up and you see a black and white photo of a room with some pencil-written words. Then the same room in color. A well-worn space with an open window looking out across some trees. And a shadow on the wall, with a tree in it. It’s labeled A1.

Turn the page, and the image appears the same. Turn the page again and the image appears the same. Again. Turn the page again and the image appears the same. Again. Turn the page again and you wonder, what the hell is going on here?

Is it the color? Has there been a super-subtle shift in hue? No, that’s not right. Turn the page again, and you definitely notice the shadow has moved. Turn back to what came before, and sure enough, the shadow moves slightly each time.

Keep going, and you actually get to enjoy the minimal changes. At the end, we see a different view of a room, and intuitively know it’s another direction in the same space. The next two photos confirm, the final two directions, rounding out the book and the concept. B, C, & D.

Finally. A16. Room with no shadow.

(Take another look at the cover, and you see a sketch of a four-sided room, with A, B, C & D corresponding to walls in space.)

To be fair, I haven’t photographed the entire book. Seems crude to the artist to give it all away. Honestly, the whole thing might be too repetitive for you to splash the cash. Such a small little idea.

Or is it? Taking the time to notice how time and light are constantly shifting reality, even if we’re too dim or busy to notice.

Bottom Line: Beautiful, simple and maybe profound

Ahrend - Ahrend Holland: Een concern in vogelvlucht - Hilversum e.a., Ahrend, zonder jaar, (ca 1959) - ongepagineerd, (36) pp - geniet, gedecoreerd omslag - 26 x 26 cm

Ruim baan voor de nieuwe tijd Jan Versnel, architectuurfotograaf van de wederopbouw

Er staan weinig mensen op de foto's van Jan Versnel. Als ze er al zijn, geven ze slechts, met de maat van hun nietigheid, de ruimte aan....

WILLEM ELLENBROEK 17 oktober 1997, 00:00

ZIJN WERK ademt het licht, de lucht en de ruimte van toen, of hij nu een vrijstaand huis, een wenteltrap, fabriek, tentoonstellingshal, een keuken of iets simpels als een kantoorstoel fotografeert. Jan Versnel (1924) werd de architectuurfotograaf van de Wederopbouwperiode in Nederland. Zijn foto's zijn er, soms meer dan de bouwwerken zelf, de afspiegeling van. Hij laat die architectuur op een bepalende manier zien, niet alleen vanuit een onverwachte hoek.De mens is altijd gehaast, gaat snel aan iets voorbij. Hij is gewoon aan zijn omgeving, ermee vertrouwd. Zijn leefwereld is een decor geworden dat hij niet meer waarneemt. Iemand anders moet hem weer op het bijzondere ervan wijzen. De foto's van Jan Versnel hebben dat vermogen, maar het zit 'm niet alleen in een ongebruikelijk standpunt dat verrast. Zijn werk draagt de opvattingen van die wederopbouwarchitectuur uit. Hij zoekt, in elk onderwerp, dat levensideaal van een nieuwe, onbezorgde toekomst.Uit de foto's van zijn tijdgenoot Cas Oorthuys spreekt de heroïek van de wederopbouw in mensenwerk, aanpakken, handen-uit-de-mouwen. Oorthuys' foto's barsten van leven en drukte - op straat, in de havens, op de bouw. Ze zijn een ode aan de zesdaagse werkweek, zingen het lied van de arbeid en de ploegendienst. Oorthuys was links, geëngageerd. Hij stelde zich met lotgenoten als Emmy Andriesse, Eva Besnyö en Carel Blazer in dienst 'van een nieuwe maatschappij, waar middenin de mens staat'.In de foto's van Jan Versnel, die zich evenzeer door de nieuwe dageraad aangestoken voelde, zit de grote verwachting van wat er komen gaat in de nieuwe omgeving die voor de moderne mens ontworpen werd. Hij zette dat neer in een van godgegeven licht, onder een immens, hemels wolkendek alsof hij tegelijk ook die nieuwe dageraad wilde vastleggen. Hij werd de fotograaf van het Nieuwe Bouwen. Zijn foto's drukken uit wat de stedebouwkundige Cornelis van Eesteren aan de vooravond van de grote stadsuitbreidingen van die jaren verwoordde: 'Toen wij begonnen was dat in een soort gelukssfeer. We voelden ons uitverkoren tot een nieuwe levenshouding.'Het werk van Jan Versnel is nu gedocumenteerd in deel zes van de prachtige, door het Prins Bernhard Fonds opgezette serie Monografieën van Nederlandse Fotografen, voorzien van inleidingen van Solange de Boer en Maarten Kloos. Het laat het historisch oeuvre van de man zien, die zich direct na de oorlog op zijn visitekaartje - bij een foto van de classicistische gevel van theater Carré - presenteerde als architectuur-, reclame-, reportage- en industrieel fotograaf.Van dat classicisme komen we al gauw niets meer tegen. Versnel maakte, via Gerrit Rietveld, kennis met de architecten van het Nieuwe Bouwen en werd er onmiddellijk door gegrepen. Hij voelde hun idealen aan, hij leerde zien hoe zij keken. Op zijn beurt leerde hij de mensen kijken hoe die nieuwe architectuur wilde dat er naar gekeken werd. 'Ze mogen het gebouw weer afbreken', moet de architect Alexander Bodon ooit gezegd hebben, 'ik heb er een foto van Versnel van.'Hij werkte voor die hele generatie naoorlogse architecten en ontwerpers, voor Rietveld, Bodon, Salomonson, Van Eyck, Maaskant, Oud en Dudok, voor Crouwel, Premsela, Friso Kramer en Kho Liang Ie. Zijn foto's bepaalden het gezicht van bladen als Forum en Goed Wonen. Hij werd een fotograaf met een missie, beeldmaker van een nieuwe tijd. Eind jaren zestig - met de opkomst van een andere architectuur die zich tegen de geest van de Nieuwe Zakelijkheid keerde, zoals het Nieuwe Bouwen zich daarvoor weer tegen de Amsterdamse School had afgezet - namen zijn opdrachten af. Hij ging les geven aan de Rietveld Academie, de opvolger van zijn vroegere leerschool, maar bleef zijn oude opdrachtgevers trouw. Rietvelds werk legde hij een paar jaar geleden opnieuw vast.Jan Versnel is geboren in de jaren twintig. Zijn vader was timmerman en nam zoonlief 's zondags trots mee langs de bouwwerkplaatsen waar hij werkte om hem de vorderingen te laten zien. De oorlog blokkeerde zijn opleiding aan het Instituut voor Kunstnijverheidsonderwijs, waar Bauhaus-leermeester Mart Stam directeur was. Na de oorlog werd hij assistent van de arts en fotograaf Nico Jesse. In 1947 begon hij voor zichzelf, klein, bescheiden. Hij fotografeerde overdag met een geleende camera en drukte 's avonds af in de donkere kamer van een vriend. Hij had een aantal opdrachten nodig voor hij zijn eigen apparatuur kon aanschaffen.Een halve eeuw lang heeft hij de modernistische ontwikkeling in de architectuur en vormgeving gevolgd, als boodschapper van een voorhoede. Hij drukt er zich, in zijn boek, bescheiden over uit: 'een rare manier van kijken, voortdurend gericht om dat wat karakteristiek is zo goed mogelijk in beeld te brengen'. Hij heeft nog les gehad van Bernard F. Eilers, de eerste in Nederland die zich, begin deze eeuw, specialiseerde in architectuurfotografie.Versnel stelde zich in dienst van de bedoelingen van de architect, wat niet wil zeggen dat zijn fotografie niet zelfstandig is. Zijn foto's hebben een eigen stempel. Hij bestudeerde zijn onderwerp tot in de plattegronden, draaide er aan alle kanten omheen, keek, woog en maakte, met zijn technische camera, relatief weinig foto's. De keuze was al gemaakt voor hij op de sluiter drukte. Op zijn eerste foto's zie je, net als bij Oorthuys, nog beelden van de arbeid, van bouwvakkers en dokwerkers. Hij had ze nodig, zoals de gehelmde bouwvakker op de kroon van het Shell-gebouw in Amsterdam-Noord, om de grootsheid van een ontwerp te laten zien. Hij vond snel die eigen, typische, verstilde uitdrukking die zijn foto's kenmerken.Hij werkte voor architecten en voor ondernemingen, voor vormgevers en ontwerpers. Er zal werk bij zijn - voor folders, kalenders, jaarverslagen en ander reclamemateriaal - dat nu niet veel meer zegt. Hij fotografeerde gebouwen, die monumenten in de architectuurgeschiedenis zullen worden, maar ook een eens misschien hoopvolle architectuur die in onze dagen, versleten en uitgewoond, nodig aan stadsvernieuwing toe is. Veel op het gebied van de sociale woningbouw werd toen al, in de bestedinsgbeperking die de wederopbouw omgaf, goedkoper en bekrompener uitgevoerd dan de bedoeling was.De stoelen en tafels die hij fotografeerde, de keukeninrichtingen en woonkamerinterieurs, mogen nu gedateerd, uit de mode, ouderwets zijn. Zijn historisch oeuvre mag gedateerd zijn, maar blijft - net als de oorspronkelijkste van de gebouwen en ontwerpen die hij fotografeerde - toch eeuwig.Want in zijn foto's van de uitbreidingswijken en interieurs, die die tijd feilloos documenteerden en daarmee tot geschiedenis maakten, zit een typisch, persoonlijk element dat nooit veroudert. Zo goed als uit zijn architectuurfoto's het grote ideaal van het Nieuwe Bouwen spreekt, spreken zijn interieurs van de nieuwe verwachtingen van de toen baanbrekende stichting Goed Wonen met zijn modelwoningen in elke nieuwbouwwijk - een even revolutionaire roep binnenskamers om licht, lucht en ruimte.Het Nieuwe Bouwen en Goed Wonen gooiden de vensters open, braken alkoven en suitedeuren weg, zetten de zware gesculptuurde meubelen van vroeger aan de kant voor zon en licht, en lichte en lenige meubels. Het waren de gloriejaren van Pastoe, Ahrend, Gispen en Tomado. Versnel speelde erop in en voegde er zijn visie aan toe. Zijn foto van het interieur van Total Design geeft de illusie van een manifest van De Stijl.Er zit een typisch handschrift in zijn meubelfoto's. Hij licht ze uit hun omgeving, maakt ze zelfstandig, plaatst ze in een ruimte. Hij liet zien dat ook een eenvoudige stoel, een zithoek of een aanrecht het nieuwe leven kon verbeelden. Zijn foto's stonden misschien in dienst van een opdrachtgever of van een ontwerpideaal, maar hij gaf er een eigen visie bij. Hij wist van sommige onderwerpen - een loods vol tafelonderstellen; restmateriaal van de slotenfabriek Lips - sculpturen te maken die aan het werk van de constructivist Naum Gabo doen denken en soms zelfs - in een foto van stoelen van Eero Saarinen - aan de aardse rondingen van Henry Moore.Uit de wederopbouwbeelden van Cas Oorthuys die ook gedateerd zijn maar nooit verouderen, weerklinkt het swingende lawaai van de werkstad, de bebop van de heimachine. In die van Versnel klinkt een andere muziek die minder luidruchtig en heftig is, ingetogener maar toch van die tijd, cool. Hij had liefde opgevat voor de idealen van die jaren, hij geloofde erin en dat geloof zit in zijn foto's.Hij moet veel van het werk van Gerrit Rietveld gehouden hebben. Hij fotografeerde het expositiepaviljoen dat Rietveld in 1955 voor Park Sonsbeek bij Arnhem maakte en dat hetzelfde jaar weer werd afgebroken. Hij begreep Rietveld, hij voelde de kracht van de ruimte die in het ontwerp school. Het paviljoen kon in 1965 in Otterlo herbouwd worden, naar men zegt dankzij de foto's van Versnel. Bouwtekeningen waren er nooit gemaakt.Hij maakte, twee jaar geleden, in opdracht van het ministerie van Onderwijs, Cultuur en Wetenschappen een reportage van Rietvelds gerestaureerde Nederlandse paviljoen voor de Biënnale van Venetië uit 1954. Zijn foto's - verzameld onder de titel De mooiste ruimte die ik ken - vormen een postume ode aan die idealen van toen, aan het begrip ruimte in de architectuur dat het Nieuwe Bouwen verbeeldde. Versnel laat zien hoe Rietveld in het expositiepaviljoen het licht en de wereld binnenlaat, hoe delen van het gebouw schijnbaar ongemerkt in elkaar overgaan en zo een nog groter gevoel van licht, lucht en ruimte oproepen en daarmee, in de idealen van toen, hoop en verwachting.Versnel wist waar hij moest staan om dat effect te laten zien - op de plek waar Rietveld wilde dat wij gaan staan.Jan Versnel. Deel 6 in de serie Monografieën van Nederlandse fotografen. Uitgeverij Focus, ¿ 95,-.Eerdere delen in de serie zijn gewijd aan Sanne Sannes, Koen Wessing, Pieter Oosterhuis, Emmy Andriesse en Piet Zwart; volgende delen aan Paul Citroen, Eva Besnyö en Nico Jesse.

See also

Ahrend Design Collection PDN Photo Annual 2011 Rene van der Hulst Company Photography

PARIS / Fritz Henle (Photos), Elliot Paul (Text)
1947, Chicago, Unpaged (60 plates), 235 x 312 x 13, Signed by the photographer

Eyes on Paris shows how artists engaged in photography (French and immigrants alike) saw, experienced and captured Paris with the camera. The artists’ gaze oscillates between documentary interest and subjective perception, a chronicler’s duty and the projection of personal feelings. Around 400 photographic works by important representatives of 20th-century photography enter into a dialog with epoch-making books, portfolios or rare portfolio works. After all, no other city in the world has been the subject of as many outstanding publications as has Paris: from Atget to Ed van der Elsken, from Robert Doisneau to William Klein.

My LibraryLibraryThing

"Paris 1938": A Story in Pictures for Life Magazine

By Fritz Henle

This journal article first appeared in 1989 in the Harry Ransom Center's The Library Chronicle.

Self-portrait. Fritz Henle. Self-portrait. ca 1938.
© Fritz Henle Estate

Fifty years ago, in July 1938, I sailed on the British liner "Mauretania" from New York to Le Havre with the assignment to create photographs of "Life in Paris." Two years earlier, in September 1936, I had arrived in New York on the huge new liner "Europa," the fastest ship racing across the Atlantic. For me it was now a race with time, since I had only two weeks in which to complete my task. When I suggested in the summer of 1938 that I be sent to Paris, I knew that my object would be to show the people of this great city in a time of tension amidst the forebodings of a terrible tyranny facing them across the border of their country. I was certain that such circumstances would result in a colorful picture-story, and I was determined not to disappoint my editors at Life. In the end it was they who disappointed me.

Since 1928 I had considered myself a full-fledged photographer and the doors to the world stood open before me, even though I was young and my great desire to spend my life with a camera found little support. Soon, however, I managed to get myself accepted in the famous "Bayerische Staatslehranstalt fϋr Lichtbildwesen," located in Schwabing, the well-known artist center of Munich. I arrived with a large black portfolio of photographs, a collection which I had created as an autodidact. In my hometown of Dortmund I had built myself a tiny darkroom in the basement of our house under the musicroom, and with great perseverance and devotion and while listening frequently to the most beautiful sounds of classical music (my father, a famous surgeon, was also the director of the philharmonic society and many great artists were our guests and rehearsed before their concerts), I had produced a set of photographs, which I was able to show to the young and enthusiastic teacher, who received me at the door on Clemens-Strasse 33.

Woman.
Fritz Henle. Young Woman with Loaf of Bread, Paris. 1938.
© Fritz Henle Estate

All odds were against me, sincere there were already many more young people applying for the courses that the school could accept. However, in order not to discourage me completely, this beautiful teacher, who had introduced herself as Frau Hanna Seewald, asked me to open my portfolio. When she looked at my photographs she grew very silent and after some time she said, "We cannot take you into the first class." It took all my courage to reply, "Then take me into the second class. In the first class I will only have to repeat what I have taught myself already. "My determination impressed her and she suggested that I see the director. When we left his office the battle had been won. It was an unheard-of-victory. The next day I calmly entered the second class.

I still had a long way to go before I would become a photographer for Life in the very early years of this famous magazine. After my years in Florence and Italy, I was sent by the Lloyd Triestino organization to India in 1934 and a year later to China and Japan. My first book, This Is Japan, was nearly finished in September 1936 when I left Germany for the last time with the assignment to create a similar volume to be devoted to the "United States of America." This book, however, never materialized, but when I found myself engaged by Life I was confronted by new and fascinating challenges. My photographic essays on "New York—52nd Street" and "Thomas Jefferson High School" in San Antonio, Texas, were great hits and the editors were happy to be able to rely on my concepts and my independence. After these large photo essays had been published, I suggested in the summer of 1938 that they send me to Paris. Only a few days later I found myself on the way.

Housewives.
Fritz Henle. Housewives, Paris. 1938.
© Fritz Henle Estate

As soon as I arrived, my determination not to disappoint my editors found its echo in my fascination with the city. It was the first week in July and Paris was full of life, a life full of surprises and events beyond my imagination. I was a newcomer and I could only sense the importance of the innumerable images before my eyes. I was alone and though there was a Life office, there seemed to be nobody ready to advise me. I was not astonished, for I had been alone on all the assignments in my young career. So I decided to become myself part of the life of Pairs. The city's inhabitants seemed to accept me, the young man with the little box, with two lenses hanging from his neck. If ecstasy can be prolonged, then my two weeks in Paris were frequently consumed by such a wonderful sensation. There was the Seine and the old river-steamer, whose captain conversed with me hardly realizing that my knowledge of French was rather limited. There were the three housewives sitting on a bench interrupted in their gossip as if they had been waiting to have their picture taken by me. I had only to walk a few minutes and a new scene would open up before my eyes. There was the portal to Notre Dame with the two men sitting on a bench in front, having nothing better to do. Les Halles, the huge market, announced itself from a distance by its noise and its many smells—a crazy mixture of cheeses and fruits and all the other palatable items for the French kitchen. Men were cutting up great wheels of cheese. A young market-woman was humming a sweet melody. Another one looked majestic, like a well-known yet forgotten dowager.

Then there was music: I was drawn to it around the corners of some narrow streets. There was the organ-grinder with his performing monkey. The audience was delighted. All windows and doors had opened and it seemed to me as if the people had joined just for me in the performance of the monkey and its proud owner, the organ-grinder. Their faces expressed a kaleidoscope of emotions. To behold this scene with my camera was a challenge full of excitement and equally of joy, since I myself became part of the performance. On Bastille Day I had this same intimate sensation. Music was everywhere; people danced in the street and the cafes were even more crowded than usual. A chanteuse tried to charm her audience with some sexy songs, but she herself seemed to enjoy them best. To have her picture taken was the flattery of day! (There were few small cameras hanging from people's shoulders in 1938!)

Cafe.
Fritz Henle. Café on the Bastille, Paris. 1938.
© Fritz Henle Estate

After a hectic Bastille Day, I found myself on a quiet Sunday morning walking up to Montmartre. A priest passed me, unaware of the colorful pictures painted on the wall. Two tired-looking cadets from St. Cyr were finally on their way home. Going through the Louvre garden I encountered the woman resting on a chair under the monument to a Roman god, who was made of stone yet seemed alive through the repetition of his pose. In the the Jardin de Luxembourg two women under an umbrella were engaged in a gossipy conversation and in another quartier I found Mme. Niska, the fortune teller, trying to convince a passerby of the unfailing power of her art to unveil the destinies of unhappy souls. I was tempted to pay her some francs and ask her about the success of my story. I never would have believed her and the true story turned out to be too much of a disappointment. Also, my time was terribly limited. I had only two weeks in Paris and I still wanted to go to see the races at Longchamps and, of course, I could not miss Versailles.

Whom did I meet under the Tribune at Longchamps but Baron de Rothchild, talking to a jockey. At the time I had no idea who the gentleman was. In 1945 when I looked through my Paris collection with Alexey Brodovitch, the famous art director of Harper's Bazaar, he exclaimed, "This is Baron de Rothchild." A famous name indeed. The officer in his shiny helmet trying to get the attention of the lady in the latest fashion in white was a quickly conceived image, a possibility that my Rolleiflex could capture within the fraction of a second. Coming to the other side of Longchamps, I was delighted by its rather picturesque contrasting scene. People standing on the fragile little chairs, trusting their weight to the dangerous chance of a collapse. An old couple sitting on the steps in the heat of the July afternoon. An old man leaning against his vintage Renault. This side of Longchamps reminded me of Central Park in New York on a sweltering summer day. Quite a different impression from the top-hats and the ladies showing off their latest fashions a hundred meters across the race track.

Woman.
Fritz Henle. Mademoiselle Niska, Paris. 1938.
© Fritz Henle Estate

My time in Paris in July 1938 was a happy one. I had chosen to stay in a small hotel in Montparnasse, quite simple, with a rickety elevator, which carried me to my little room with bath on the top floor, from which I could look out over the old roofs and chimneys. And it was summer, the windows were open. Not far away a young woman fed her little pet canary, which never seemed to tire of filling the neighborhood with its song, a lovely ode to beauty fitting perfectly into my surroundings. I examined the tiny bathroom, which at night had to serve me as my darkroom. It worked out well and with the simple people around me I felt immediately at home. But to develop my Kodak 120-roll-films in a bathtub was not exactly easy. I had decided not to waste any time engaging a lab. Fifty years ago it was difficult to find one. Photography was still a craft, which one had to master oneself and I never had trusted anybody else to develop my precious films. I bought three 11 x 14 trays, mixed my chemicals, and after having spent some busy days photographing the "Life in Paris" started to process my first batch of negatives.

It must have been midnight and only a very dim green light gave me the necessary direction. I was bent over the old bathtub, which held my three trays. My developing technique was rather unorthodox, but having applied it for many years I had become a virtuoso at handling six films at a time by clipping their ends together with a metal clip. The trays were filled with sufficient developer, short-stop, and hypo, so that my 120-size roll-films were easily submerged. With great care, the films, now clipped together at both ends like an elongated "U," were turned around in the solution one after the other in practically complete darkness. To bend over the bathtub for six minutes seemed an eternity! But in the excitement of awaiting to see my images appear quite faintly on the backs of my films, I never noticed the strain on my back. The dim green light was so faint that only with my trained eyes could I make the decision that I had arrived at the perfect stage of development. The hands on my watch, which I kept away from the film indicated six minutes had passed, the time when the development had reached the decisive stage. From then on it was to my final judgment, but rarely did I have to add many more seconds to reach the point where I felt I would have my ideal negatives.

Woman.
The Woman and the God, Paris. 1938.
© Fritz Henle Estate

One night, however, I almost met with disaster in my makeshift darkroom. Hardly were my six rolls submerged in the developer than I found myself in total darkness. I had to count the seconds, count the minutes, and time became an eternity. Carefully I went through my procedures until I finally decided to wash my films in the basin above the tub for what seemed to me one hour. My little hotel must have seen the times of Daguerre. However, by being so old-fashioned, it also had great charm. During that night I did not mind too much the ancient elevator, the creaky yet comfortable furniture, and the bathtubs that were not so inconvenient to less demanding clients like myself. I was more worried about my precious films and anxiously awaited the light of day. How elated I was! When I held the films with 12 exposures each against the light through my window, the negatives were perfect.

I was so absorbed in creating my story about "Life in Paris" that I almost missed my return passage to New York. With great pride and anticipation of a beautiful spread in the magazine, I turned the results of my efforts over to the picture department. The two weeks in Paris had seemed like two months to me and my collection of photographs surpassed anything I could have imagined. My editors, however, thought differently and when they returned my images and negatives to me I felt crushed. It was the greatest disappointment of my then young career. But in July 1938 I was of course not prepared for the wonderful developments of later years. I felt hurt but not defeated. I believed that time would tell.

Book cover.
Fritz Henle. Paris 1938.
[Texts by L. Fritz Gruber, Fritz Henle & Kurt Wettengl.]
Heidelberg: Edition Braus, Edition Hazan 1989

For many years the negatives and prints were locked away in the steel file of my hideaway; my little studio and darkroom at 667 Madison Avenue. I never looked at my Paris pictures again. When I thought of their rejection it was like a physical pain. But then this changed overnight in August 1944, when De Gaulle marched with his troops on Paris to liberate the city. Mme. Lazareff, the picture editor of The New York Times, called me in the late afternoon and asked if I had ever been in Paris. Reluctantly I replied: "Yes in July 1938, but what does this have to do with the news that your General De Gaulle will liberate Paris within a few days?" As a French lady and the wife of the publisher of the Paris Soir, Mme. Lazareff insisted on seeing my photographs and all through the night I made a set of one hundred new 8 x 10 enlargements. The old prints I did not like anymore and with great determination I managed to keep my 10 o'clock appointment the next day. Mme. Lazareff received me immediately at West 43rd Street and I spread my pictures out on her large desk. I will never forget how this lovely lady broke into tears. I myself had quite a time keeping my composure. The following Sunday my pictures of Paris were on four pages of The New York Times Magazine. They made quite a hit. Alexey Brodovitch published one of my images—"Mme. Niska"—in a full-page spread in Harper's Bazaar and when he saw my complete collection in 1945, he became so impressed that he decided to make the layout for my book Paris, which was published in 1947.

Since then more than forty years have passed and my pictures were almost forgotten. But I was fortunate and never gave up in believing them. I was convinced that time would tell. While working on my archive in the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center, I came across my Paris collection. More than one hundred of these images are now in the Ransom Center's Photography Collection and the "Paris 1938" show, with about one hundred of these photographs, will have its vernissage first in the museum of Dortmund, Germany, during the celebration of my birthday on June 9th. From there it will travel to other museums in Germany and France during the 150-year celebrations in 1989 of "The Year of Photography." Fifty years have passed since I created my Paris pictures, and even though they were forgotten, my believe that time would tell never failed me.

Heidelberg, July 1988

Photobook Phenomenon
VicenC Villatoro
ISBN 10: 8417047050 / ISBN 13: 9788417047054
Published by Rm/Ccccb/Fundacion Foto Colectania

Dutch Dreamgirls Sex Jef Rademakers Erik Kessels / Paul Kooiker Terribly awesome photobooks

Fair Play with Fina HESTER KEIJSER Erik Kessels Special Books Photography

Bridge Babies Dorothy W. Wilson Terribly Awesome Photo Books Erik Kessels Paul Kooiker Photography

Photobook Phenomenon
VicenC Villatoro
ISBN 10: 8417047050 / ISBN 13: 9788417047054
Published by Rm/Ccccb/Fundacion Foto Colectania

Fascinations and Failures Photobook Phenomenon Erik Kessels Photography

Monday, March 7, 2011
Here Comes the English Sunrise
It's been hard to find time to write something new lately, so I thought I'd re-post something old. This was first published in December 2009.

"He who binds to himself a joy
Does the winged life destroy;
But he who kisses the joy as it flies
Lives in eternity's sunrise."
~ William Blake

There was a time, from the late 1700s through the Victorian era, when it was often said that Britain was the "empire on which the sun never set." Similar things have been said of other empires, including Persia and Spain, but Britain's dominion is the most recent.

Is that the reason why the English are so fond of sunrises? It's hard to say, but their penchant for the orb and its arching rays has led to images of considerable beauty, both humble and grand.

This is the cover of one of my favorite books, The English Sunrise, by Brian Rice and Tony Evans, published in 1972 and now out of print. Although yellowed with age, my copy remains a jewel of a thing — an 8" x 8" paperback filled with seventy-six lovingly positioned images, plus those on the front and back covers, each one an English sunrise. To me this is sufficient argument for why printed books can never be completely replaced by e-books. The English Sunrise can still be found second-hand; I encourage you to do yourself a favor and seek out a copy. You'll see sunrise-bedecked houses and pottery, furniture, radios, tea cozies, signage and even a slot machine. Here are just a handful of examples — not necessarily my favorites, simply chosen at random.

A gate in Shaftesbury.

A handbag.

A leaded glass window.

The entrance to a pub.

The leather door panel of a 1933-36 Jaguar SS1 saloon car.

A bird cage.

A shopfront in Birmingham.

"The grand show is eternal. It is always sunrise somewhere; the dew is never dried all at once; a shower is forever falling; vapor is ever rising. Eternal sunrise, eternal dawn and gloaming, on sea and continents and islands, each in its turn, as the round earth rolls."
~ John Muir

Anthony Mathews
Publisher of innovative art books
Thursday 16 January 2003 00:00 GMT0

The Independent Online
Anthony Roland Mathews, art-book publisher and designer: born London 19 August 1930; married 1954 Madge Wilson (one son, two daughters; marriage dissolved 1965), 1965 Jill Thomas (one son, one daughter; marriage dissolved 1975), 1981 June Scott (one son, two daughters); died Oxford 4 January 2003.
A loquacious charmer of great personal generosity, Anthony Mathews was an innovative publisher of art books. If his company had been operating today, it might have been at the forefront of the Britart boom.

After studying illustration and graphics at Wimbledon School of Art, Mathews worked on British Rail's innovative corporate design in the early Sixties. From 1966 to 1970, he was production manager with the fine art publisher Editions Alecto and worked on limited-edition prints with artists including David Hockney (a series based on Cavafy poems), Claes Oldenburg (a project entitled London Knees), Jim Dine, Richard Hamilton, Jasper Johns, Ed Ruscha and Frank Stella. In the late Sixties, he was an early promoter of Gilbert & George's performance pieces

Mathews utilised his formidable technical ability in his first two books by the controversial pop artist Allen Jones, Allen Jones Figures (1969) and Allen Jones Projects (1971). Covering the artist's television projects as well as his more familiar paintings and sculptures, the works broke new ground by incorporating Jones's raunchy reference material and preliminary sketches. One of the books concluded with several pages of "advertisements" for Jones's favourite artists. Mathews also published a pioneering work by Udo Kultermann, Art-Events and Happenings (1971), and Polaroid Portraits (1972), photographs by Richard Hamilton by leading contemporary artists including Francis Bacon and Andy Warhol.

In 1970, Mathews formed a specialist publishing company with the magazine designer Peter Dunbar and the art dealer Barry Miller. The first book produced by Mathews Miller Dunbar was its most successful. The English Sunrise (1972) by Brian Rice and Tony Evans was a photographic exploration of the sunrise motif in middle England – in suburban stained glass, on garden railings, in trademarks and elsewhere. Mathews issued several more in the same format, all containing illustrations reproduced in a uniform postcard size – including Afghan Trucks by Jean-Charles Blanc (1976; exuberant personalised livery), Façade by Peter and Tony Mackertich (1976; art deco architecture), Lost Glory by Ian Logan (1977; US railroad logos) and Classy Chassy by Ian Logan and Henry Nield (1977; pin-ups on American war planes).

In 1975, MMD published the first work devoted to spray-can graffiti. Watching My Name Go By by Merlyn Kurlansky and Jon Naar documented this New York phenomenon in vast, lavish photo-spreads. The Other Women (1976), by the theatre designer Barry Kay, was an equally groundbreaking photo-essay on the extensive transgender communities of Sydney and Melbourne. Mathews also published two collections of photographs by his friend David Bailey and the beautifully produced Monet at Giverny (1975) by Claire Joyes.

Following the break-up of MMD (the partnership was financially disastrous), Mathews devoted his considerable energies to Idea Books, a specialist art-book importer. The Los Angeles artist Ed Ruscha's deadpan works Nine Swimming Pools and a Small Fire, Twenty-six Gasoline Stations and Every Building on Sunset Boulevard are now collector's items.

When Idea Books went into receivership, Mathews returned to book design, working primarily for Thames & Hudson in London, Alvise Passigli of the Scala publishing house in Florence and Idea Editions in Milan. He designed and produced a number of books on architects, including Adolf Loos, Carlo Molino and Gio Ponti, and new-wave Italian designers, such as Bruno Munari and Andrea Branzi.

Moving to Italy in 1977, a country he loved, Mathews lived with his third wife, the artist June Scott, in a cottage on the Passigli estate outside Fiesole, where he was an endearing, chatty host for an endless succession of English visitors. Mathews's mind was a storehouse of out-of-the-way knowledge, particularly on food and drink. "Do you know they cook a dish with lampreys and bitter chocolate in Bordeaux?" he would announce, simultaneously waving his untipped Gauloise in the air and pouring you a glass of Chianti. "Had it once. Not an experience I'd care to repeat."

He appeared to move constantly in a great cloud composed of talk, cigarette smoke and hilarity. One of his most characteristic gestures was wiping a tear of laughter from the corner of his eye.

Mathews settled permanently in Oxford in 1994. The amputation of a leg did not diminish his charm or energy. He died suddenly on the eve of taking a holiday in Italy, his first alone with June since the birth of their three children.

Christopher Hirst

Photobook Phenomenon
VicenC Villatoro
ISBN 10: 8417047050 / ISBN 13: 9788417047054
Published by Rm/Ccccb/Fundacion Foto Colectania

Antlitz der Zeit by August Sander from The Klieg Light on Vimeo.

Heinrich Hoffmann, ed.

Winterhilfswerk-Heftchen

(Winter Relief Fund Booklets)

Bild Dokumente Heinrich Hoffman, Munich, 1937-41

Der Fuehrer Macht Geschichte (The Fuehrer Makes History),

26 books x 36 pp; each book 49 mm x 37 mm (1,5# x 1,25#)

Paperbacks, aproximately 17 b&w photographs per book.

Kampf in Holland Winterhilfswerk-Heftchen (Winter Relief Fund Booklets) Propaganda PARR/BADGER III Heinrich Hoffmann Photography

“ONE OF THE MOST POIGNANT PHOTOBOOKS EVER PUBLISHED”

KZ - Bildbericht aus fünf Konzentrationslagern.

N. p. Amerikanischen Kriegsinformationsamt im Auftrag des Oberbefehlshabers der Alliierten Streitkräfte. (1945). Contains 44 photographs, taken during the liberation of five concentration camps: Buchenwald, Belsen, Gardelegen, Nordhausen and Ohrdruf. First photo publication in postwar Germany. (28) p. In fine condition.

The aim of publishing this brochure by the American Office of War Information and the Psychological Warfare Division was to show the German population the horror of the death camps in Germany. However because of the inefficiency of the distribution most of the pamphlets were given to prisoners of war camps. Despite the large number of the publication only a few copies remained. The photographs of the pamphlet played important role as evidences in the Nuremberg Trials. It includes the famous and controversial photo of the Nobel Laureate Elie Wiesel in Buchenwald (first published in the “New York Times” on May 6, 1945 with the caption “Crowded Bunks in the Prison Camp at Buchenwald” taken inside Block 56 by Private H. Miller of the Civil Affairs Branch of the U. S. Army Signal Corps on April 16, 1945.)

[Parr-Badger I. p. 188; 194., Cornelia Brink - Ikonen der Vernichtung. Öffentlicher Gebrauch von Fotografien aus nationalsozialistischen Konzentrationslagern nach 1945. Berlin, 1998. Akademia Verlag.]

The Birth of Sweet Life Ed van der Elsken 1959 travelling from IJmuiden to Dakar Photography

Views & Reviews London Martin Parr Gian Butturini Photography

Amazônia (1978), de Claudia Andujar e George Love

Views & Reviews Why Photobooks are Important Gerry Badger Photography

the Table of Power Jacqueline Hassink Iconography of Work Mirelle Thijsen's Choice of Company Photobooks Photography

Hans Eijkelboom potraits and cameras 1949-2009 Photography

The photobook according to Martin Parr Photography

Home, 1991-2002

Home is a dive inside the Swedish housing developments. On this occasion, Lars Tunbjörk goes back to his native town of Boras, where he strips his house bare. The images are both ordinary and unreal. The men and women are omnipresent in this artificial universe made to their measure. However, no human outline is visible. The white light is intense and the colors very bright. So much so that they transform these photographs into kitsch and loud posters. Exteriors alternate with interiors, but it makes no difference: the private space is as anesthetized and standardized as the public space. Both are centered by the geometry of the architecture and the furniture, which sometimes contrast with the shapelesness of a strip of land covered with thick plants or the chaos of a heap of dry undergrowth.

Lars Tunbjork: HOME. Gottingen: Steidl/Hasselblad Center, 2003. First edition. Square quarto. Pink cloth stamped in black, with plate tipped in debossed front cover, no dust jacket as issued. 106 pp. 49 color illustrations. Bibliography and exhibition history.

11.5 x 11 hardcover book with 106 pages and 49 color plates expertly separated and printed at the Steidl headquarters in Gottingen. Introductory text by Goran Odbratt. Elegant design by Greger Ulf Nilson. Published on the occasion of the 2002 exhibition Lars Tunbjork Home/Office at the Hasselblad Center, Sweden. Final volume of a trilogy with two previous titles Country Beside Itself (1993) and Office (2002).

HOME may be a portrait of a uniformed modern residential nightmare, but in its silence, the repressed personality of place humorously yet quietly resonates from the book's spreads. In these manufactured and manicured suburban landscapes, a sense of loss lingers in the atmosphere and although there is no threat, the nightmare of the suburban abyss is unavoidably evident.

"An emptiness permeates our cities, smaller towns, and moves along the roads. It did not use to be there. When it began to emerge, it went undetected for some time, suppressed beneath a kind of dizzy tipsiness that spread across the country and was everywhere, and which perhaps transformed the very fundamentals of that country. That is why I dread those houses, that sit on the outskirts of any medium sized town, and were constructed in a period of weeks early in the decade."— Goran Greider, on Lars Tunbjork's photographs

"Lars Tunbjork returns to the city, the area, the house, and the rooms where he grew up. This homecoming is not unarmed. Nobody could see this reality with the naked eye only. Through the camera, he turns our attention to matters overlooked. To the bypassed. Thus, he watches over a place that he's still belonging to. And the place responds."— Goran Odbratt, from his introduction

Published on 20 April 2015
Lars Tunbjörk – obituary
Written by BJP Editorial

Office, Food industry, Tokyo, 1999

Lawyer's office, New York, 1997

Home, Stockholm, 2000

From the series Vinter, Stockholm, 2006

From the series Vinter, Kiruna, Sweden, 2004

From the series Vinter, Kiruna, Sweden, 2004

All images © Lars Tunbjork /Agence VU

Lars Tunbjörk, the renowned photographer best known for his vividly colourful, quietly witty photography of everyday life in Sweden, has died.

Lars Tunbjörk, the renowned photographer best known for his vividly colourful, quietly witty photography of everyday life in Sweden, died this month aged 59, writes Thomas Cox.

Tunbjörk was one of Sweden’s most celebrated photographers. Headlines from Swedish media publications included epithets like “Lars Tunbjörk changed the way we see ourselves” (Sweden Radio) and “Lars Tunbjörk showed Sweden through his own melancholy” (Dagens Nyheter).

Born February 1956 in Borås, in the south of Sweden, Tunbjörk was 15 when he started taking photographs during work experience at his local newspaper Borås Tidning. After school, he began freelancing for the national newspaper Stockholms-Tidningen, before the fine art photography world first recognised his work with the Swedish Picture of the Year award for a black and white documentary picture of Swedish everyday life.

Tunbjörk’s international breakthrough came in 1993 with the book Country Beside Itself. His best-known series include Office (2001), which captures office workers in unexpected positions while working – such as under the desk – and Home (2003), in which minimalist shots of everyday things – playgrounds, flowers, armchairs – expose a quiet absurdity in Swedish suburbia.

Tunbjörk’s most recent work was a series for The New York Times last year capturing the people and environment of trailer parks on the fringes of American society.

Speaking to The New York Times in 2011, Tunbjörk said: “Especially in my older work, I was looking for strange, absurd situations, going on endless tours to festivals, campgrounds, and shopping centres. If I found an interesting place, I could stand there for hours, waiting. I often get asked if my pictures are staged. They are not.”

Throughout his career, Tunbjörk had solo exhibitions at the International Centre of Photography in New York (1995), the Moscow Photobiennale (2004) and the Gallery White Room in Tokyo (2008). His work was shown as part of group exhibitions in Photo Espania in Madrid (1998), X Biennale of Photography in Italy (2003), as well as the Photographer’s Gallery (2003) and the National Gallery (2007) in London.

Museums including MoMA in New York, the Centre Pompidou, the Maison Européenne de la Photographie in Paris and the Moderna Museet in Stockholm held samples of his work. He also won first prize in the Arts and Entertainment stories at the World Press Photo Award in 2004 for his collection of behind-the-scenes images of Paris Fashion Week.

No cause of death has been given. He is survived by his wife and two daughters.

"From pictorialism to Provoke: the most extensive history of Japanese photobooks ever published" Among others the over 500 pages counting book features such renowned photographers as Yoshio Watanabe, Akira Hoshi, Hayao Yoshikawa, Shinichi Kato, Yasuo Wakuda, Tetsuo Kitahara, Moriyama Daido, Koji Taki, Takuma Nakahira, Yutaka Takanashi, Kimura Ihei, Hamaya, Katura, Kazano, Kikuti, Mituzumi, Watanabe, Yamahata, Sozo Okada and Kazano Karuo, among many others. -- "'The Japanese Photobook, 1912–1980' illustrates the development of photography as seen in photo publications in Japan—from the time of influence by European and American pictorialism, the German Bauhaus and Imperial military propaganda, to the complete collapse and destruction of the country in 1945. Then followed a new beginning: with the unique self-determination of a young generation of photographers and visual artists highlighted by the “Provoke” style as well as protest and war documentation of the late 1950s to the early ’70s, the signature Japanese photobook, as we have come to know it, was born.

With detailed information and illustrations of over 400 photo publications, an introduction by Kaneko Ryuichi and essays by Fujimura Satomi, Duncan Forbes, Manfred Heiting, Mitsuda Yuri, Lizawa Kotaro, Shirayama Mari and Matthew S. Witkovsky, this is the first extensive English-language survey of Japanese photobooks of this period." (publisher's note)

About the main author:
Ryuichi Kaneko is a critic, historian, and collector of photobooks. He has authored or contributed to numerous publications, including 'Independent Photographers in Japan 1976–83' (Tokyo Shoseki, 1989), 'The History of Japanese Photography' (Yale University Press and Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, 2003), 'Japanese Photobooks of the 1960s and ’70s' (Aperture, 2009), and 'Japan’s Modern Divide' (J. Paul Getty Museum)

The story of Japanese photobooks, from 1912-1990
Written by Alex Jackson

From Sanrizuka photobook,1960s. The protest books erupted as a visual representation of widespread dissatisfaction across Japan. The protest books were a key form of artistic expression throughout the 1960s and 70s and incorporated the photograph into political struggles for representation. Included in The Japanese Photobook by Mafred Heiting and Kaneko Ryuichi, published by Steidl

The celebrated Japanese photobook in the 20th century - from the death of the Meiji Emperor to its anti-establishment heyday

Few countries have experienced as rapid a transformation as Japan during the 20th century. Once a closed country with extremely limited interaction with the outside world, it opened its borders to become a pioneer in many fields – including photobooks. Now a new compendium, The Japanese Photobook, 1912-1990, brings together some of the most important publications, a mammoth endeavour that took editor Manfred Heiting six years.

“It is in photobooks we saw the 20th century unfolding,” he says. “This is not a selection ‘best of’ or ‘the most valuable’ of photo books. It is intended to show the development of the Japanese photobooks and publishing, how it relates to the cultural development of the country, how it captured its most important historic events – and including all the book details – and differences in publishing.”

Together the photobooks depict how Japan adopted and adapted external influences into its daily life, but also the ongoing influence of Japanese culture. First used extensively by the military and brought into the public sphere with the photobook showing the funeral of the Meiji Emperor in 1912, Japanese photobooks have been a source of photographic inspiration around the world, particularly in the mid-20th century.

“Photography came late to Japan – and all ‘raw materials’ needed to be imported,” says Heiting. “When the few Japanese photographers and architects returned from studying at the Bauhaus, they brought those ideas home. These photographers adopted many ideas and started making some very interesting photobooks.”

As a key form of artistic expression in the region, Japanese photographers and publishers quickly used photobooks as a propaganda tool, and to document the changes in the country. When World War Two was over, the photobooks took on a different relevance as a means of social expression, depicting the mood and political situations in flux. An extended period of unrest provided fertile ground for young photographers to really experiment, while documenting what was going on in their country – particularly those involved with the Provoke magazine published on 1 November 1968, and 10 March and 10 August 1969.

“There was Hiroshima, Nagasaki and the American occupation, but also the uprising of students and farmers against the seizure of land for Narita Airport. It all unleashed the desire of the young generation to say that they had enough,” explains Heiting.

“The Provoke and protest publications are the most important Japanese contribution to photography and photobooks and photo magazines worldwide. The photobooks after the 1950s demonstrate a very unique Japanese identity to us.”

Unfortunately, Heiting sees the gradual demise of the artistic potential of the Japanese photobook starting with John Szarkowski’s exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in New York in 1974. It was there that he told the show’s co-curator, Yamagishi Shoji, that “good photographs need to have a white border”. Ultimately, this led to a homogenisation: “That killed the uniqueness of Japanese photobooks. They all began to look like the ones in the West,” concludes Heiting.

The Japanese Photobook, 1912-1990, is published by Steidl, €125

From the Hiko Kanno, 1934, and Jinkotsu Toyomi no Shinkosei, 1932, photobooks. This was part of an avant-garde photography movement in the 1920s and 30s, influenced by European photography. Photography was seen as an extension of artistic expressions like poetry and had many muses, including the human form, or the sensations brought about by new experiences, such as using an airplane for the first time. Included in The Japanese Photobook by Mafred Heiting and Kaneko Ryuichi, published by Steidl

From Kamera to kikansha photobook, 1938. This was part of an avant-garde photography movement in the 1920s and 30s, influenced by European photography. Here, the photobook explores some of the new technologies of the age introduced to Japan. Included in The Japanese Photobook by Manfred Heiting and Kaneko Ryuichi, published by Steidl

From Front photobook, 1942-43. The Japanese military were the first to see the potential of photography back in the late 19th century and used it continually ever since. They found it to be an effective method of propaganda during the war years. Included in The Japanese Photobook by Manfred Heiting and Kaneko Ryuichi, published by Steidl

From Front, Immortal Hind and Idainaru Kensetsu: Manshukoku photobooks, 1943-44. The Japanese military were the first to see the potential of photography back in the late 19th century and used it continually ever since. They found it to be an effective method of propaganda during the war years. Included in The Japanese Photobook by Manfred Heiting and Kaneko Ryuichi, published by Steidl

Photobook Phenomenon
VicenC Villatoro
ISBN 10: 8417047050 / ISBN 13: 9788417047054
Published by Rm/Ccccb/Fundacion Foto Colectania

Takuma Nakahira
For a language to come
Photographs: Takuma Nakahira
Text: Takuma Nakahira
Publisher: Fudo-sha
192 pages
Pictures: 103
Year: 1970

Comments: Hardcover with jacket and card slipcase, 300 x 212 mm. First edition, 1970. Gravure printing. Included in Martin Parr & Gerry Badger, The Photobook, vol. I, p.292-293 ; Ryuichi Kaneko & Ivan Vartanian, The Japanese Photobooks of the 1960's and 1970's, p.130-133.

"Through his photographs and writings Takuma Nakahira was both the chief polemicist for the Provoke group and its political conscience. Along with Moriyama's Sashin yo Sayonara (Bye Bye Photography), his book Kitarubeki Kotoba no Tameni (For a language to come) marks the apogee of the Provoke period. It exhibits all the characteristics of the Provoke style - an unabashed revelling in "bad" photographic technique, the mannerisms of the New York School pushed to the edge of coherence. These qualities would tend to make the casual reader bracket it with Moriyama's masterpiece, yet a closer look at Nakahira's book reveals that Nakahira's sensibility is quite different. Althoug the more political of the two, Nakahira didt not photograph "political" subjects directly, but utilized a troubled lyricism to express his disaffection with the colonization of Japan by American consumerism. Whereas Moriyama is jumpy and frenetic in tone, Nakahira displays a brooding calm. For a language to come closes with several shots of the sea, and the book's narrative is punctured at intervals with marine images. Far from suggesting boundless space, this is a dark, bleak and menacing sea, with the consistency of soup, a metaphor for claustrophobia and a narrowing of horizons.

The other overwhelming metaphor in the book is fire, an apocalyptic, post-Hiroshima conflagration, often expressed indirectly in Nakahira's night pictures with swathes of burned-out lens flare. These "natural" metaphors - water and fire - remind us that this is essentially a "landscape" book, though a landscape of the mind. The two, however, are inextricably related (...). These are sad, beautiful pictures of half-light - and half-life. They are quintessential Provoke images, and stand for much postwar Japanese photography prior to the 1980s."

Martin Parr & Gerry Badger, The Photobook: A History, vol.I

1 Photobook printing

1933: Frühsommerliche Empfindlichkeit (Faksimile 2005)

Shoka Shinkei - Early Summer Nerves. / Kiyoshi KOISHI. – Faksimile der 1933 im Naniwa Shashin Club in Osaka erschienenen Originalausgabe. Nr. 134/600. – Tokyo: Kokusho Kanko-kai 2005. – 2°. [25] Bl. mit 10 Abb., 12 S. Kommentarheft mit englischer Übersetzung. Aluminium-Deckel mit Ringbindung in illustriertem Schuber. – (Masterpieces of Japanese Photography ; 02)

Das nur in wenigen Exemplaren erhaltene Künstlerbuch der japanischen Moderne von Kiyoshi Koishi (1908-1957) wurde 2005 durch Kakusho Kanko-kai in Tokyo als Faksimile herausgebracht. 600 Exemplare erschienen dann bei Kakusho Kanko-kai selbst (vorliegend) und 100 Exemplare bei Nazraeli Press. - Die Deckel sind beim Original nicht aus Zink, wie bei Parr/Badger aufgeführt, sondern aus einer Aluminium-Legierung.

Ref.: Parr/Badger, The Photobook, volume I, S. 113. Fotografia Publica, S. 148.

2 Photographers and Designers

Miyako Ishiuchi
Yokosuka Story
Photographs: Miyako Ishiuchi
Text: Ken Bloom & Miyako Ishiuchi
Publisher: Shashin Tsushin Sha
Year: 1979
Comments: Softcover with obi as issued, 235 x 290 mm. Black & white photographs. First edition, 1979. Referenced in Parr&Badger vol 1 p304.

"Yokosuka - it was a place that I never thought I'd go back to, a city I wouldn't want to walk in twice ; it was land best forgotten as far as I was concerned. Never did I think I would go back like this.

The gloomy darkness and cold excavations of Yokosuka, where odd things and happenings were fused in a complicated interlocking, threw shadows that stayed with me for a long time, even after the city was far, far away. By getting away, I expected the shadows to dissolve and disappear, but instead, after I left, a new feeling - different from when I lived there - began to well up and take over. I felt that I had to go back there with a camera, yet somehow my legs just wouldn't head in that direction. To Yokosuka... (...)

It had been nine years since I left, but my Yokosuka was still there as it had been. The gloom had grown deeper and the excavated mountain faces had become steeper. Though years had passed, nothing of this "Yokosuka" had changed."

Barakei

HOSOE, Eikoh and Yukio Mishima.
Barakei / Killed by Roses.

Tokyo: Shueisha, 1963. First Edition. Folio. 43 black and white photographs, 4 color illustrations on vellum, 2 gatefolds. Number 91 of 1500 press-numbered copies, SIGNED by Hosoe and Mishima, and additionally INSCRIBED in silver marker by Hosoe to a collector. Arguably the most famous Japanese photobook of the 20th century. Writer Yukio Mishima is the model for Hosoe's lavish surreal production; his collaboration in the project pushed Hosoe's artistic talents to the brink, creating a final document that transcends the inherent limitations of book arts. (Parr / Badger, v1, 280-281; Roth 164-165; Open Book 194-195; Auer 422).

3 Photo Magazines that Produced Photobooks

Shomei Tomatsu
Nippon
Photographs: Shomei Tomatsu
Publisher: Shaken
200 pages
Pictures: 150
Year: 1967

Comments: Original silver cloth with title debossed on hardcover with acetate dust jacket, 227 x 195 mm. First edition, 1967. Monotone Gravure printing. Very scarce and collectible copy!
A retrospective book, Nippon, published in 1967, is full of dramatic, often contradictory-seeming, images of landscapes, holy men, traditional actors and half-hidden artefacts. It is also a major assessment of Japanese postwar national identity. It was the first publication of Tomasu's own publishing company Shaken. Most of the photos assembled in this volume were shot on assignment in various parts of the country between 1955 and 1967.

4 Compendium

5 Self-Publishing

ANOTHER COUNTRY IN NEW YORK ：Airplene (reprint)

Daido MORIYAMA
These books is a new reprinted facsimile edition of Daido Moriyama's famous self-published Xeroxed publication Another Country in New York from 1974.

Book Size 315 x 215 mm
Pages 90 pages
Printing silkscreen softcover
Publication Date 2013
Publisher Akio Nagasawa Publishing

Photobook Phenomenon
VicenC Villatoro
ISBN 10: 8417047050 / ISBN 13: 9788417047054
Published by Rm/Ccccb/Fundacion Foto Colectania

Exhibition - In the Shadow of the Pyramids by Laura El-Tantawy at Gulf Photo Plus
DateFriday, March 6, 2015 at 10:39PM

In the Shadow of the Pyramids by Laura El-Tantawy is the latest exhibition at Gulf Photo Plus, on till Saturday, 4th April 2015.

Laura El-Tantawy began this series in 2005 when she was compelled to explore the essence of Egyptian identity in the hope of coming to terms with her own. Guided by childhood memories, her photographs are not meant to be objective observations of a nation, but rather personal reflections of Egypt through her own eyes.

In the Shadow of the Pyramids is a first person perspective exploring memory and identity. With images spanning 2005 to 2014, what began as a look in the mirror to understand the essence of Egyptian identity expanded into an exploration of the trials and tribulations of a turbulent nation. The result is dark, sentimental and passionate.

Here's a small selection of images from the exhibition.

The series was published in a book that was released earlier this year. The book can be purchased at Gulf Photo Plus or ordered online.

Juxtaposing the innocence of the past with the obscurity of the present, the book is an experience, edited to look like a one night’s encounter. A peaceful and tranquil day suddenly turns violent and chaotic, it’s claustrophobic, until a new dawn rises and there is hope again.

Images via Gulf Photo Plus and Laura El-Tantawy. © Laura El-Tantawy

Exhibition details
Dates: 4th March - 4th April 2015
Venue: Gulf Photo Plus, Alserkal Avenue, Al Quoz, Dubai (location map)

Collectif
Resistencia Popular Generalizada
Publisher: Ministério da Informmação da República Popular de Angola
160 pages
Year: (1977)

Book of photographs dedicated to the civil war in Angola in the years 1975-76,
With over one hundred black-and-white and color, was released in Luanda in 1977.
The captions of the photographs are in three languages:
Portuguese, English and French

VLADISLAV KRASHNOSHEK AND SERGIY LEBEDYNSKYY »EUROMAIDAN« – selected by HANNAH WATSON

»EUROMAIDAN is a stealthy book, it looks small and lo-fi, but it creeps up on you. When you start looking through the pages, there is an exquisite sense of the beauty in the handmade pages, the printing glossy like tar, and the tension in what it depicts, that feels quite breathless. It is understated darkness, in all senses, with saturated tones and glimpsed moments, like traumatic flashbacks.«

Editorial Board of the Truth About the Beijng Turmoil
The Truth About the Beijng Turmoil
Beijing Publishing House, Beijing, 1989
L 22CM X H 29,5CM E 0.9CM

Richard Avedon and James Baldwin
Nothing Personal
Atheneum Publishers, New York, and Penguin Books Ltd, Harmondsworth, Middlesex, 1964
L 28CM X H 37CM E 2CM

Kikuji Kawada
Chizu / The Map (Signed and stamped)
Photographs: Kikuji Kawada
Text: Kenzaburo Oe
Publisher: Bijutsu Shuppansha
98 pages
Year: 1965

Comments: Hardcover, in a slipcase and a box, 225 x 150 mm. First and true edition, 1965. Extremely scarce copy and one of the most collectible japanese photobooks. Included in The Japanese Photobooks by Kaneko & Vartanian ; The Photobook by Parr & Badger, vol.1. Pristine copy in a very fresh slipcase (slightly colored). Signed and stamped by the photographer!

First published on August 6, 1965, the 20th anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima - The Map ("Chizu") is one of the most important photobooks ever. It has appeared in Roth's Book of 101 Books, Parr & Badger The Photobook : A History, Vol I and the Photobooks of the 1960s and 1970s by Ivan Vartanian and Ryuichi Kaneko as well.

"No photobook has been more successful in combining graphic design with complex photographic narrative. [as its] various layers inside [are] peeled away like archeological strata, the whole process of viewing the book becomes one of uncovering and contemplating the ramifications of recent Japanese history -- especially the country's tangled relationship with the United States. Kawada's photographs are a masterly amalgam of abstraction and realism, of the specific and the ineffable, woven into a tapestry that makes the act of reading them a process of re-creation in itself. In the central metaphor of the map, in the idea of the map as a series of interlocking trace marks, Kawada has conjured a brilliant simile for the photograph itself: scientific record, memory trace, cultural repository, puzzle and guide."--Parr & Badger

Photobook Phenomenon
VicenC Villatoro
ISBN 10: 8417047050 / ISBN 13: 9788417047054
Published by Rm/Ccccb/Fundacion Foto Colectania

Hardcover. Dimensions: 10.2in. x 7.5in. x 1.0in.As the photobook becomes increasingly broadly recognized as a genre with its own rich history, canon and critical culture, Photobook Phenomenon surveys the views of those who have played a leading role in defining this genre: Martin Parr, Gerry Badger, Markus Schaden and Frederic Lezmi, Horacio Fernandez, Ryuichi Kaneko, Erik Kessels, Irene de Mendoza and Moritz Neumuller. In addition, it features various contemporary artists who have contributed a genuine vision to the medium and who discuss the creative processes involved in producing a photobook: Laia Abril, Julian Baron, Alejandro Cartagena, Jana Romanova, Vivianne Sassen, Thomas Sauvin i Katja Stuke and Oliver Sieber. Photobook Phenomenon also explores the challenge of displaying a photobook through a number of interactive systems that make it possible to look through and experience the book and photography from diverse viewpoints.

Kajta Stuke & Oliver Sieber
Japanese Lesson. A Future Book
Autoedició, 2016

Jana Romanova
Shvilishvili (El fill del fill)
Autoedició, 2015

Thomas Sauvin
???? (Xian)
Autoedició, 2016

Laia Abril
Lobismuller
Autoedició, 2016

Julián Barón
Memorial
Autoedició, 2016

Alejandro Cartagena
Santa Barbara Return Jobs to US
Autoedició, 2016

Viaviane Sassen
Umbra (Ombra)
Autoedició, 2014

Estació Beta – Llibres de consulta

16 fotògrafs de Taiwan, Xina, Japó i Korea
SHOUT
Voice of Photography, Taipei, 2015

Masanao Abe i Helmut Volter
The Movement of Clouds around Mount Fuji
Spector Books, Leipzig, 2016

Valentina Abenavoli
Anaesthesia
Akina Books, Londres, 2016

Carlos Alba
The Observation of trifles
La Fábrica, Madrid, 2016

Toni Amengual
Devotos
Autoeditat, Barcelona, 2015

Takashi Arai
Monuments
Photo Gallery International, Tòquio, 2015

Shinya Arimoto
Tokyo Circulation
Zen Foto Gallery, Tòquio, 2016

Sofía Ayarzagoitia
Every night temo ser la dinner
La Fábrica, Madrid, 2016

Lisa Barnard
Hyenas of the battlefield, Machines in the Garden
GOST, Londres, 2014

Barbara Bosworth - Margot Anne Kelley
The Meadow
Radius Books, Santa Fe, 2016

Buen Javier
Zenit
Autoeditat, 2016

David Campany
A handful of dust
MACK, Londres, 2015

Alejandro Cartagena
Santa Barbara Return Jobs Back To Us
Skinnerboox, Jesi, 2016

Pablo Casino
Barespagnol
Dalpine, Madrid, 2016

Jon Cazenave
Ama Lur
Dalpine, Madrid, 2015

Bartolomeo Celestino
Surface Phenomena
Perimeter Editions, Melbourne , 2016

Joana Choumali
“Hââbré, the Last Generation”
Fourthwall Books, Johannesburg, 2016

Edmund Clark i Crofton Black
Negative Publicity: Artefacts of Extraordinary Rendition
Aperture, Nova York, 2016

CJ Clarke
Magic Party Place
Kehrer Verlag, Heidelberg, 2016

Stephen Chalmers
Unmarked
Autoeditat, Youngstown, 2016

Alejandro Chaskielberg
Otsuchi
Editorial RM, Barcelona, 2015

Federico Clavarino
The Castle
Dalpine, Madrid, 2016

Marc Cohen
Mexico
Édition Xavier Barral, París, 2016

Motoyuki Daifu
Still Life
Newfave, Tòquio, 2016

Salvi Danés
Blackcelona
Autoeditat, Barcelona, 2015

Peter Dekens
(Un)Expected
The Eriskay Connection, Breda, 2016

Cristina de Middel
Cucurrucucú
This Book is true - Editorial RM, Barcelona, 2016

Cai Dongdong
Fountain
Jiazazhi Press, Ningbo, 2015

Diane Dufour and Matthew Witkovsky
Provoke - Between Protest and Performance
Steidl, Göttingen, 2016

JH Engstrom
Tout Va Bien
Aperture, Nova York, 2016

Francesco Faraci
Malacarne Kids Come First
Crowdbooks, Liorna, 2016

David Fathi
Wolfgang
Skinnerboox, Jesi, 2016

Horacio Fernández, Laia Abril, Ramón Pez i Ramón Reverté
Miserachs Barcelona
MACBA - Editorial RM, Barcelona, 2015

Flashboy
Point of Lovely Sun
Editora Santa Rosa, Buenos Aires , 2016

Yoshikatsu Fuji
Red String
CeibaFoto, Siena, 2016

Fernando Fujimoto
Policía
KWY Ediciones, Lima, 2016

Masahisa Fukase
Hibi
MACK, Londres, 2016

Paul Gaffney
Stray
Autoeditat, Dublin, 2016

Geert Goiris
Prophet
Roma Publications, Amsterdam, 2015

Lucía Gómez Meca
Gómez
Autoeditat, Madrid, 2016

Yann Gross
The Jungle Book: Contemporary Stories of the Amazon and
Its Fringe
Aperture - Actes Sud - Editorial RM, Nova York - Arles -
Barcelona, 2016

Roger Guaus
Jo volia ser fotògraf
Ca l’Isidret Edicions, Barcelona, 2016

Gregory Halpern
ZZYZX
MACK, Londres, 2016

Yuji Hamada
C/M/Y
FW:Books, Amsterdam, 2015

Robin Hammond
My Lagos
Èditions Bessard, Paris, 2016

Claudia Heinermann
Wolfskinder
Autoeditat, Iserlohn, 2016

Jochem Hendricks
Revolutionäres Archiv
Buchhandlung Walther König, Colònia, 2015

Roc Herms
POSTCARDS FROM HOME
Terranova, Barcelona, 2015

Takashi Homma
The Narcissistic City
MACK, Londres, 2016

Mayumi Hosokura
Transparency is the New Mystery
MACK, Londres, 2016

Katrin Koennig i Sarker Protick
Astres Noirs
Chose Commune, París, 2016

Jungjin Lee
Unnamed Road
MACK, Londres, 2015

Lilia Li-Mi-Yan
Nausea
Dienacht, Leipzig, 2015

Dana Lixemberg
Imperial Courts 1993-2015
Roma Publications, Amsterdam, 2015

Nicola Lo Calzo
Obia
Kehrer Verlag, Heinsteinwerk, 2015

Ditte Lyngkaer Pedersen
Laughter
Autoeditat, Aarhus, 2016

Sara Lena Maierhofer
“Dear Clark,”
Drittel Books, Berlin, 2016

Thomas Mailaender
Illustrated People
Archive of Modern Conflict-RVB Books, Londres-París, 2015

Marta Mantyka
Hashtag
Autoeditat, Oswiecim, 2015

Alejandro Marote
“A”
Editorial RM, Barcelona, 2015

Jan McCullogh
Home Instruction Manual
Verlag Kettler, Dortmund, 2016

Andrew Miksys
Tulips
ARÖK, Vilnius, 2016

Vittorio Mortarotti
The First Day of Good Weather
Skinnerboox, Jesi, 2015

Kazuma Obara
Silent Histories
Editorial RM, Barcelona, 2015

Ciáran Óg Arnold
I went to the worst of bars hoping to get killed. But all I could
do was to get drunk again
MACK, Londres, 2015

Hiroshi Okamoto
Recruit
Reminders Photography Stronghold, Tòquio, 2015

Pablo Ortiz Monasterio
Desaparecen?
Nazraeli Press - Editorial RM, California - Barcelona, 2016

Miren Pastor
Bidean
Autoeditat, Madrid, 2015

Christian Patterson
Bottom of the Lake
Buchhandlung Walther König, Colònia, 2015

André Penteado
Cabanagem
Editora Madalena, São Paulo, 2015

Anders Petersen
Valparaiso
André Frère Éditions -FIFV Ediciones, Roquevaire-
Valparaiso, 2016

Mafalda Rakoš
I want to disappear - Approaching Eating Disorders
Autoeditat, Viena, 2015

Juanan Requena
Al borde de todo mapa
Ediciones Anomalas, Barcelona, 2016

Massimilano Tommaso Rezza
Atem
Yardpress, Roma, 2015

Jeff L. Rosenheim
Diane Arbus – In the Beginning
Met Museum of Art, New York, 2016

Nigel Shafran
Dark Rooms
MACK, Londres, 2016

Dayanita Singh
Museum of Chance
Steidl, Göttingen, 2015

Alec Soth
Songbook
MACK, Londres, 2015

Carlos Spottorno and Guillermo Abril
La Grieta
Astiberri Ediciones, Bilbao, 2016

Maximilian Stejskal
Folklig Idrott
Editions Patrick Frey, Zürich, 2016

Kate Stone & Hannah Schneider
How We End
Autoeditat, Nova York/Los Angeles, 2016

Jock Sturges
Fanny
Steidl, Göttingen, 2014

Wong Suk-ki, Hsu Wai Lun, Matthew Kwan and So Lai Ping
A Living Space: The Homes of Pak Sha O
The Robert H.N. Ho Family Foundation, Hong Kong, 2015

Daniel Traub, Wu Yongfu and Zeng Xianfang
Little North Road: Africa in China
Kehrer Verlag, Heinsteinwerk, 2015

Shoji Ueda
SHOJI UEDA
Chose Commune, París, 2016

Misha Vallejo
Al otro lado
Editora Madalena, São Paulo, 2016

Sébastien Van Malleghem
Prisions
André Frère Éditions, Roquevaire, 2015

Yvonne Venegas
Gestus
Editorial RM, Barcelona, 2015

Javier Viver
Révélations. Iconographie de la Salpetriere. Paris 1875-1918
Editorial RM, Barcelona, 2015

Cheng Xinhao
The Naming of a River
Jiazazhi Press, Ningbo, 2016

Vasantha Yoganathan
Early Times
Chose Commune, París, 2016

Daisuke Yokota, Naohiro Utagawa, Koji Kitagawa
Spew II
Spew Editions, Tòquio, 2016

Chen Zhe
Bees & The Bearable

Jiazazhi Press, Ningbo, 2016

MEMORIAL
Julián Barón
These images account for the meeting between Julián and the archive that Yuyachkani theatre group disposes for the public at the entrance of Sin título, técnica mixta [Untitled, mixed media], a production that questions the construction of Peruvian historical memory. The archive invites us to delve into newspaper clippings, photographs, school books, artistic images and other documents before entering the room where the scenic action takes place. The entire production examines the Guerra del Pacífico (1873-1889) and the Conflicto Armado Interno (1980-2000), two wars that define Peru’s republican era and reveal the history of the country’s fractures.

Memorial is a series of photocopies marked by the manual manipulation of each of its documents. Traces, decompositions, creases, slippings, glazings, grain degradation, fragments, inversions, double exposure. Its title leads us directly to the process of establishing certain things -events, characters, symbols- that define our shared history. However, this series inquires about the relation between the images of war and the concrete forms taken by two very different kinds of social abstractions: national symbols and money. The former quickly lose their shape, disfiguring the limits of the mental space in which Peru has been represented throughout its history; the latter makes its entrance about halfway through the series –when Túpac Amaru clashes against the dollar–, soon to saturate the entire space of the paper.

“Money was invented so that people wouldn’t have to look each other in the eyes” (Godard, Film Socialisme), in the same way that national symbols seek to ensure the permanence of the imagined community. In both cases they function through misrecognition. That is, as a way of ensuring that, despite what we see and perceive directly, an ideal space where all contradictions are resolved takes place. The map –which here depicts the representational space where we introduce fictions, rather than the actual geographical reality– and the bills –as a daily replacement for the map that places those same fictions in our hands– teach us how to look away from the decomposition of social bonds caused by both wars. Precisely what is addressed throughout the rest of the series.

Images appear amidst the national myth and its monetary form that define what we should disregard in order to sustain the fiction of a country with no fractures. Many of the documents refer to our most recent war, pointing out that the establishment of official narratives and their imagery, where heroes and villains are defined as such, is a process that marks our present. A dispute that remains unfinished –and probably will never be solved– but that, for many, is not really happening. Despite this, both Fujimori and Abimael appear as two personifications of war, where they are confronted less as a contradiction than as a synthesis. One and the other, after all, aimed to become the face of the nation, to be printed on bills that allow us to avoid each other’s eyes. The problem Memorial faces –much like Yuyachkani’s production– is how to imagine a way out of the symbolic conundrum we find ourselves in. A way out that overcomes those social forms of misrecognition (emblems, money) and comes to terms with the contradictions that we share. Perhaps the only thing we really share.
Mijail Mitrovic

BRUCE DAVIDSON
AMERICAN PHOTOGRAPHER
This autumn the Nederlands Fotomuseum will be presenting the first retrospective in the Netherlands of the work of American photographer Bruce Davidson (b. 1933). Since the 1950s, Davidson has devoted his time and energy to photographing those for whom the ‘American Dream’ has turned out to be unattainable and who have attempted to hold their own in society.

Davidson depicts major themes as civil rights, violence, poverty, racism and immigration, all from a personal perspective. For many years, for instance, he tagged along with a street gang in Brooklyn and travelled with civil rights activities to the South to take part in The Selma March. This approach has given him first-hand experience with the subjects of his work and enabled him to poignantly show what the ‘American Dream’ has meant for them. The exhibition features almost 200 photographs, including work from his famous series The Dwarf, East 100th Street and Subway.

The exhibition is the result of collaboration with Magnum Photos and the Fundación MAPFRE. The exhibition and international tour have been made possible thanks to the support of the TERRA Foundation for American Art.

‘Met mijn camera word ik een luipaard’
Bruce Davidson
De Amerikaan Bruce Davidson (84) fotografeerde de rassenrellen in Selma en de armoede in New York. Het Nederlands Fotomuseum toont nu een overzicht van zijn werk.
Sandra Smets
20 september 2017

USA, New York City, 1962. Black Americans
Foto Bruce Davidson

Bruce Davidson, American Photographer. T/m 7 januari in het Nederlands Fotomuseum, Wilhelminakade 332, Rotterdam. Inl: nederlandsfotomuseum.nl

Het was even een benauwd moment, alweer pakweg zestig jaar geleden, maar Magnumfotograaf Bruce Davidson (1933) weet het nog: „Bobby, leider van de Brooklyn Gang, kwam naar me toe. Hij zei: ‘Ik wil je meenemen naar het dak. Dan heb je een heel mooi uitzicht over de baai.’ Ik wist: de kans is groot dat hij me meelokt om me te beroven. En me dan van het dak gooit. Maar ik wist ook: als ik niet meega, dan is deze relatie voorbij. Dus ik ging mee. En inderdaad, het uitzicht boven was prachtig.”

Hij werd niet beroofd, vertelt Davidson daags voor de opening van zijn retrospectief in het Nederlands Fotomuseum. En zijn vertrouwen werd beloond. Hij werd toegelaten tot de groep, wat hem een van zijn eerste beroemde series opleverde: beelden van de gefrustreerde witte jeugd uit de jaren vijftig, vol fotogenieke individuen. „Het waren tieners zonder hoop. De gemeenschap hielp ze niet. Er was enorm veel alcoholisme. Soms aten ze drie keer per dag havermout, meer was er niet. En toch hadden ze een heerlijke vitaliteit, dus richtte ik mijn lens daarop.”

Foto Bruce Davidson

Met Bobby is hij contact blijven houden. En ook andere gemeenschappen is hij zichtbaar gaan maken door hun vertrouwen te winnen. Soms trok hij jarenlang met mensen op. Een humanistisch fotograaf noemt het Fotomuseum Davidson. Het museum toont nu zijn bekendste series: The Dwarf over de gruizige keerzijde van het circus, The Selma March over de mensenrechtenbewegingen uit de jaren zestig en East 100th Street over armoede uit diezelfde tijd, Subway in de jaren tachtig en zijn recente abstracte series van parken, gefotografeerd met bolle lenzen en ongebruikelijke horizons.

HUMANISTISCH FOTOGRAAF

Op zijn tiende begonnen met fotograferen, heeft Bruce Davidson (Oak Park, Illinois, 1933) zich na verschillende fotografiestudies ontwikkeld tot humanistisch fotograaf. Hij zocht toegang tot gemeenschappen en subculturen die niet zelden gesloten bleven voor buitenstaanders. In 1959 werd hij volwaardig lid van Magnum. Het Museum of Modern Art in New York schonk hem al in 1963 een solotentoonstelling en toonde in 1970 zijn serie over East 100th Street. Zijn werk is gepubliceerd in verschillende tijdschriften en monografieën en is bekroond met verschillende oeuvreprijzen. Het retrospectief in Rotterdam, samengesteld door de Fundación Mapfre in Madrid, is Davidsons eerste grote tentoonstelling in Nederland.

Met tweehonderd afdrukken, chronologisch, zwart-wit, heeft het museum de expositie net zo klassiek ingericht als vorig jaar die van Henri Cartier-Bresson, bij wie Davidson nog kort in de leer was. Die invloed lijk je af te zien aan Davidsons vroege atmosferische Parijse foto’s. Zoekt ook hij, net als zijn Franse voorbeeld, naar het beslissende moment? „Ik zoek eerder het niet-beslissende moment: naar de dingen die maar gebeuren. Ik fotografeer wat ik zie, wat om me heen gebeurt, door vol te houden, de tijd te nemen. In dat opzicht waren de jaren zestig voor mij de juiste tijd om mee te maken.”

Want er gebeurde veel, zoals de rassenrellen in het diepe Zuiden. Beroemd zijn zijn foto’s van de Selma Mars in 1965, een protestmars voor gelijke rechten onder leiding van Martin Luther King. „Daar wilde ik bij zijn, een beeld scheppen van wat gaande was, en nergens meer dan een meter vandaan staan. Dus ik stond dicht op de politie, op de arrestaties. Ik liep de mars mee, zonder opdracht. Het regende. Mensen deden plastic zakken over zich heen, ook de kinderen. Daar maakte ik heel eenvoudige opnames van wat ineens een mooie serie werd. Want daardoor zag je de mars als mensen, daar leerde ik van. Het ging niet om de mars, het ging om de individuen.”

Bekijk de fotoserie De blik van een humanistische fotograaf
Ku Klux Klan

In de tentoonstelling hangen zijn beroemde foto’s van Martin Luther King bij die van de Ku Klux Klan. Klanleden waren een bijeenkomst tegen separatisme in Atlanta komen verstoren en deelden flyers voor een kruisverbranding uit – Davidson eropaf, iets te dichtbij zelfs. „‘New York’, noemden ze me, ‘verplaats je auto even’. Een New Yorks nummerbord is daar een doodvonnis, ik ben snel weggegaan. Ik hoefde niet letterlijk onderdeel te worden van de verbranding.”

Toch bleef hij op onderwerpen afstappen. Hij is op bruggen geklommen, heeft op zijn tachtigste nog achter de Hollywood-letters gebivakkeerd. „Een keer zou ik een schip fotograferen, en eenmaal bovenin een hijskraan zei ik: ‘dat was niet de afspraak, dat dat schip zou gaan bewegen’. Het schip bewoog niet. De kraan reed weg.”

Foto Bruce Davidson

Hij is in Mississippi gearresteerd en werd in de jaren tachtig in de beruchte New Yorkse metro beroofd. „Ik ben thuis een tweede camera gaan halen, ik kon meteen verder.” Bij die serie is het jammer dat het museum enkel zwart-witfoto’s toont, zijn toenmalige kleurenbeeld was directer, krachtiger.

Al die beelden delen een nabijheid, vooral bij zijn foto’s van mensen in hun alledaagse leven. De armoede en ongelijkheid daarvan versterkten zijn nieuwsbeelden: het toonde aan waarom mensenrechten nodig waren. Van de Selma Mars ging hij naar East 100th Street in New York: „Die tijd gaf me een begrip van hoe mensen leven en overleven. Dus toen ik die ene straat vond die hulp nodig had, betere woonomstandigheden, wilde ik laten zien dat daar mensen leven met liefde, waardigheid, strijd. Dat alles bij elkaar wilde ik laten zien.”

Het zijn morsige beelden, van armoede en afval, maar strak ingekaderd en spannend gecomponeerd. Daardoor bevatten deze historisch niet-beslissende momenten die artistiek wel beslissende momenten, beeldende vondsten: een huilende baby onder een Christusbeeltenis, een meisje en parkietje die allebei op hun eigen manier gekooid zijn. Of, later, een rokende jongen in de grauwe metro onder een glossy tabaksposter. „Dat had een bite ja. Maar ik ga altijd ergens heen om te kijken zonder te oordelen. Ik hang stilletjes rond. Ik voer geen politieke dialoog. Al is die er impliciet wel.”

Foto Bruce Davidson
Die impliciete kleur vermoed je bij zijn nadruk op het vele gaas en gevoel van tralies in East 100th Street. Een ander soort wrevel lijkt verscholen in zijn fastfoodserie van Los Angeles, verveeld consumentisme, een vrouw in de supermarkt met een quasi-klassiek schilderij in haar winkelwagentje. En, geeft hij toe, vooral de mensenrechtenbeweging liet hem niet onbewogen: „In diezelfde tijd was ik een veelgevraagde modefotograaf, maar kon dat niet combineren met alle wreedheid. Dat heb ik ook tegen Vogue gezegd. Mensen en plekken, dat wel, maar bontjassen, nee.”

Babyfoto’s

Dus wilde hij geen mode in zijn tentoonstelling, logisch, maar waarom ontbreken ook zijn beeltenissen van beroemde filmsterren, Marilyn Monroe, Brad Pitt? „Die nemen maar ruimte in beslag. De mooiste vind ik portretten die geen echte portretten zijn. Ik fotografeer nog steeds mensen, maar mooi worden ze niet. Babyfoto’s doe ik niet, want met een camera word ik een luipaard, sla ik mijn klauwen uit. Juist akelige portretten zijn interessant, maar dat willen mensen niet. Pas nog fotografeerde ik de dochters van de rabbijn, die zien er afschuwelijk uit op mijn foto’s. Dat weet hij nog niet. Eigenlijk zou ik een bord moeten maken ‘Hier kunt u lelijke foto’s laten maken’.”

Foam presents Mirroring Life, a retrospective exhibition of the work of photographer André Kertész (1894–1985).

Kertész is famous today for his extraordinary contribution to the language of photography in the 20th century. This retrospective marshals a large number of black and white prints as well as a selection of his colour photographs and historical documents, highlighting his exceptional creative acuity to reconfigure reality through unusual compositions.

The Shadow of the Eiffel Tower, Paris, 1929 © André Kertész

The exhibition comprises of his early work made in Hungary, his homeland, to Paris, where between 1925 and 1936 he was one of the leading figures in avant-garde photography, to New York, where he lived for nearly fifty years. The exhibition pays tribute to a photographer whom Henri Cartier-Bresson regarded as one of his masters, and reveals, despite an apparent diversity of periods and situations, themes and styles, the coherence of Kertész’s poetic approach.

Steven Poster by Andy Romanoff
Steven pointing at his first acquisition as a collector, a classic Kertesz © Andy Romanoff

This exhibition is organised with Jeu de Paume, Paris, in collaboration with La Médiathèque d l’architecture et du patrimoine, ministère de la Culture et de la Communication – France and diChroma photography.

See also

Stay an Amateur Lessons learned from Andre Kertesz Street Photography

UNDER THE INFLUENCE OF ANDRÉ KERTÉSZ

Masters of PhotographyUnder the Influenceby Andrew Sweigart - Aug 26, 2014 0 1026

André Kertész

Introduction

Street Photography, at it’s absolute best, has soul. Timelessness. To catch that soul, that moment, is the goal of any photographer. The formula that makes that moment is complex. It’s a frantic computation of light, time and action. However, it’s one that I often disregard. Instead, I let the world around me dictate what’s going to be shot, doing the math for me. And sometimes, it’s about being invisible, as well. To be the observer. To go unnoticed, even if up to only the very last possible moment. What better way to get that soul? What better way to take what the world around us offers you? André Kertész mastered this, stealing bits of soul and beauty from the world while rarely interacting with the subjects in his view. He made visual poetry. And, in my opinion, was the foundation on which the advancement of great street photography was built upon.

The great Henri Cartier-Bresson was quoted as having said,

“whatever we have done, Kertész did first.”

André Kertész’s (1894-1985) work commanded that respect. Kertész began to gain recognition in the 1920’s when he moved from his native Hungary to Paris. There he found his home, nestled with other great artists of the time and even doing portrait work of Piet Mondrain and Marc Chagall, to name a few. In 1927, he had his first exhibition while he did freelance work for several magazines, all the while capturing the beauty of Paris and the people on it’s streets. He remained in Paris into the 1930’s, even producing more abstract work such as Distortions, photographs of female nude models reflected in distorted mirrors.

André Kertész masks

In 1936, with the German persecution of Jews and the threat of World War II looming, Kertész moved to New York. However, it’s said he never truly felt at home in America. His work was rejected by some magazines and MoMA. He found Americans objected to people having their photographs taken on the street. He also struggled with the language. In 1941, he was designated as an enemy alien because of WWII, and was not permitted to even photograph outdoors. In 1944, he began photographing for magazines and in 1946, he had a triumphant show at the Art Institute Of Chicago. Later, in 1964, me had a solo exhibition at MoMA. The recognition he wanted was finally coming to him. But, Kertész felt he never got the recognition he deserved.

His influence on the “bigger” names in photography, and the form, was massive, even if he didn’t realize it.

So How Did He Influence Me?

One of the most profound quotes I’ve ever heard from a photographer came from André Kertész.

“I write with light.”

Kertész wrote poetry with light. Visual poetry. Beautiful, lyrical work. His skill was taking that scene then making it a work of art. No small feat itself, but he did even more. He, perhaps better than any other photographer, gave us an opportunity to write our own poetry with his images.

A story doesn’t always have to be told with a photograph. But there is a skill and a grace that is admirable and desirable in doing so. It’s an art form within an art form. Kertész had the unique ability to make our eyes a second set of optics, writing the images into our own creative sense. To influence our minds into writing poetry to compliment his own.

When looking at his street photography work, I find myself wanting to tell more stories. To be a writer like him. Not only that, but more importantly, to make an image so beautiful and inspiring that it wants a viewer’s mind to write it’s own poetry to compliment the image. It’s a mojo that’s hard to snatch. It surely can’t be learned from books or a video tutorial. It can only be acquired from observation and practice. To swim in his images. To try and see how he may have seen. It’s an eye for me that’s not fully opened, but still sleepy.

Conclusion

Truly, it’s about being more observant. And less reactionary. As intense as street photography can be, with practice and the development of the art of observation, I believe it can be slowed down. I notice it already, even into my brief adventure. But the key, when setting out to write like Kertész did, is to truly observe. To see what the world around you is writing itself. The tools it’s giving you to write. The light, the characters, the settings. They’re all there. The resources we’re given are endless.

More work. That’s always more work to be done. But there’s more seeing to do. And to do that, I must wipe the sleep from that eye.

Door Kertész werd fotografie kunst
Ook als we zijn werk nooit eerder zagen, hebben we het gevoel dat de romantische foto’s van André Kertész ons heel vertrouwd zijn. De Hongaarse fotograaf stond aan de basis van een beeldtaal waarvan we ons niet kunnen voorstellen dat die er ooit níét was.
Rianne van Dijck
21 september 2017

André Kertész, Brillen en pijp van Mondriaan (Parijs, 1926)
Rmn / Donation André Kertész

Fotografie
André Kertész, Mirroring Life, t/m 10 januari in Foam Amsterdam. Info: www.foam.org

●●●●●

Sommige foto’s van de Hongaarse fotograaf André Kertész kent iedereen wel. Die met die typische ronde brilletjes van Piet Mondriaan bijvoorbeeld, met daarnaast zijn karakteristieke pijp in een kom; een portret van de beroemde Nederlandse schilder zonder dat hij daar zelf op te zien is. En die inmiddels honderd jaar oude foto van een man die daar zo prachtig met zijn gestrekte lichaam in een gestreepte zwembroek onder water zwemt – David Hockney zei ooit dat hij hier de inspiratie in vond voor zijn befaamde Californische zwembadschilderijen. Mondriaans Studio (Parijs, 1926) en Onderwaterzwemmer (Esztergom, Hongarije, 1917) zijn klassiekers van de fotografie, vele malen tentoongesteld en gepubliceerd, voor astronomische bedragen verkocht op veilingen, iconen van hun tijd.

Nieuwe clichés

Het gekke bij Kertész is echter dat óók de foto’s die je geheid nooit eerder zag toch heel vertrouwd aanvoelen. Die stoeltjes die daar zo fraai hun schaduw werpen op een Parijs trottoir; een besneeuwd park in New York; die trappen in melancholiek strijklicht waar de herfstbladeren zich op verzameld hebben. Het soort romantische en nostalgische foto’s zoals we ze wel vaker zagen – clichés, zou je ze best ook kunnen noemen. Ze maken gebruik van een beeldtaal die wij inmiddels heel goed kennen en waarvan we ons nu bijna niet meer voor kunnen voorstellen dat die ooit níét bestond. Maar dat zijn foto’s ons zo bekend voorkomen, komt niet omdat Kertész zijn ideeën ontleende aan andere fotografen, maar omdat hijzelf aan de basis ervan stond. „Een cliché moet ergens beginnen, en dit begon bij hem”, zoals Maaike Kooiman, curator van de tentoonstelling André Kertész, Mirroring Life het formuleert.

Van Boedapest naar Parijs

Kertész (Boedapest 1894 – New York 1985) was een invloedrijk fotograaf. Grote namen als Henri Cartier-Bresson, Robert Capa en landgenoot Brassaï werden door hem geïnspireerd. „Wat wij ook ooit allemaal hebben gedaan, Kertész was de eerste die het deed”, prees Cartier-Bresson hem. En ‘het’ – dat is het gebruik van schaduw, de vele weerspiegelingen in ruiten en waterplassen, de ‘trucs’ om lichamen te vervormen, het vastleggen van dat ene, bijzondere moment dat door Cartier-Bresson werd gemunt met ‘het beslissende moment’ maar waar Kertész al heel wat voorwerk voor had gedaan.

In de tentoonstelling in het Amsterdamse Foam lopen we chronologisch door zijn leven, van Boedapest naar Parijs, waar hij een van de centrale figuren is in de avant-garde kunstscene van die tijd en waar hij collega-kunstenaars als Mondriaan, Chagall, Eisenstein en Colette portretteert.

Te Europees voor New York

Kertesz’ vertrek in 1936 naar New York, waar hij bijna vijftig jaar, tot aan zijn dood in 1985 zal wonen, loopt uit op een desillusie. Werden in het legendarische Franse magazine VU tientallen reportages van hem gepubliceerd, in de Verenigde Staten wijst fotomagazine Life hem af omdat zijn werkwijze te traag zou zijn (Kertész maakt eindeloos uitsnedes uit zijn eigen werk en selecteert streng voordat hij zijn werk naar een opdrachtgever doorstuurt) en zijn foto’s te Europees, wat zoiets betekende als: te melancholisch. Het zal tot midden jaren zestig duren voordat hij zijn baan bij House and Garden vaarwel kan zeggen en zijn gedeukte reputatie weer die glans krijgt die het vandaag de dag nog steeds heeft.

Niet geheel toevallig valt zijn comeback redelijk samen met de popularisering van de fotografie die rond die tijd, zeker vanaf de jaren zeventig, steeds vaker en op meer plekken in grote musea als kunst wordt tentoongesteld en waar navenante prijskaartjes aan komen te hangen. Kertesz heeft daar aan het einde van zijn leven nog van kunnen meeprofiteren. Terecht, want het is mede door zijn artistieke werk, zijn midden-Europese melancholische blik en zijn onmiskenbare invloed op andere fotografen dat men ging inzien dat fotografie ook kunst kon zijn.

André Kertész (1894-1985)

Each year, Foam organises a Talent Call, an international search for exceptionally talented photographers under the age of 35. Foam is delighted to announce the names of the 20 young artists, whose work will feature in the upcoming Foam Magazine #48: Talent. This year – for the first time – the parallel Foam Talent exhibition will be launched at the museum in Amsterdam before travelling internationally. Comprising an exciting range of works drawn from the pages of the Talent Issue, the exhibition will open on 31 August 2017 at Foam.

THE SELECTED PHOTOGRAPHERS FOR FOAM MAGAZINE #48:
Sushant Chhabria (India), David De Beyter (France), Mark Dorf (USA), Alinka Echeverría (Mexico/UK), Weronika Gęsicka (Poland), Wang Juyan (China), Thomas Kuijpers (The Netherlands), Quentin Lacombe (France), Clément Lambelet (Switzerland), Namsa Leuba (Switzerland/Guinea), Erik Madigan Heck (USA), Alix Marie (France), Martin Errichiello & Filippo Menichetti (Italy), Wang Nan (China), Kai Oh (South Korea), Viacheslav Poliakov (Ukraine), Ben Schonberger (USA), Sadegh Souri (Iran), Harit Srikhao (Thailand) and Vasantha Yogananthan (France).

The 11th Talent Call was the largest to date, with an impressive 1790 submissions from 75 different countries. Again, the jury was delighted by the wide variety and high quality of all submissions. The Foam Talent programme is a career building platform, helping to launch aspiring image-makers into the international photography industry, giving them global acclaim and recognition.

For the editors of Foam Magazine, the annual Talent Call is an intriguing barometer of the state of contemporary photography. The submissions – as well as the final selection – function as a cross section of an ever-evolving medium, revealing a series of growing trends and tendencies. At a time of global uncertainty, it is fitting that many of the featured artists express varied socio-political concerns in their work. Questions of identity and representation, particularly at the group level, also appear to have remained important themes for a new generation of photographic talent. As well as portfolios with a powerful aesthetic signature, a striking number of long term projects are included, each one having acquired new layers and greater depth of meaning through time. Equally striking is that today’s emerging photographers are clearly embracing a wide range of media in their practice, and are rarely confined to the camera alone.

PREMIERE: FOAM TALENT EXHIBITION IN AMSTERDAM
In recent years the Foam Talent exhibition, based on the annual Talent Issue, has travelled internationally to cities such as Paris, Brussels, New York and London. This year, the work of the selected photographers will tour again, kicking off with an exhibition at Foam. The Foam Talent exhibition serves as an international platform for 20 innovative young image-makers, whilst offering Foam the opportunity to present its views on the current state of photography. On 31 August, the first Foam Talent exhibition opens at the museum in Amsterdam, running until 12 November 2017.

RELEASE DATE FOAM MAGAZINE #48
The Foam Magazine #48 Talent Issue featuring the work of these 20 emerging talent will be published at the end of August and will be officially unveiled at the opening of the Foam Talent exhibition on 31 August.

Dit is de nieuwe generatie fotografen
Jonge fotografen willen een eigen verhaal vertellen dat confronteert. Dat blijkt op de expositie Foam Talent.
Rosan Hollak
22 september 2017

Viaduct op de snelweg naar Reggio Calabria, uit de serie In Fourth Person
Foto Martin Errichiello en Filippo Menichetti

FOAM TALENT

De tentoonstelling Foam Talent is tot en met 12 november te bezoeken in fotomuseum Foam, Amsterdam. Meer info: foam.org

Fotograaf Vasantha Yogananthan is zaterdag 23 september aanwezig voor een gesprek om 14.45 uur in The Living Room tijdens fotofestival Unseen in het Westerpark in Amsterdam.

Meer info over Unseen: unseenamsterdam.com

Fascinatie voor het eigen verleden. Dat spreekt uit het werk van de 21 fotografen die fotomuseum Foam dit jaar selecteerde voor de Foam Talent tentoonstelling. De expositie – voor het eerst te zien in het Amsterdamse fotomuseum – toont werk van jonge kunstenaars uit alle delen van de wereld. Uit de 1.790 inzendingen, afkomstig uit 75 landen, werden twintig fotografie-talenten (waaronder één duo) geselecteerd.

Wie binnenkomt, stuit meteen op een opvallende fotoserie in pastelkleuren. De beelden – een portret van een Indiase jongen gehuld in een roze sluier, kleine figuren wandelend in een berglandschap – geven de indruk afkomstig te zijn uit een oud fotoboek, maar wie goed kijkt, ziet ook elementen uit de moderne wereld. Het is die verwarring waar de Franse fotograaf Vasantha Yogananthan (1985) bewust mee speelt.

‘Boy playing Girl’ uit de serie A Myth of Two Souls.
Foto Vasantha Yogananthan

Met zijn fotoserie A Myth of Two Souls, vertelt hij zijn eigen versie van de Ramayana, het grote epos uit India. Zijn vader, afkomstig uit Sri Lanka, vertelde hem als kind het verhaal over Rama die, samen met zijn vrouw Sita, uit zijn koninkrijk wordt verbannen. Toen Yogananthan, die in 2013 voor het eerst naar India ging, zag hoe dit epos nog altijd deel uitmaakte van het dagelijks leven in India, besloot hij de Ramayana opnieuw te vertellen, maar dan met mensen van de straat als zijn modellen. Aan de Indiase kunstenaar Jaykumar Shankar gaf hij daarna de opdracht om een aantal zwart-witafdrukken met de hand in te kleuren, een techniek uit de negentiende eeuw. Het resultaat is een sterke serie waarbij Yogananthan een oud verhaal nieuw leven inblaast én tegelijkertijd op subtiele wijze zijn eigen visie geeft op een samenleving die het eigen mythische verleden niet wil loslaten.

Bizarre fotoserie

Een subtiele blik op de eigen culturele achtergrond is ook terug te vinden in de kleurrijke, bizarre fotoserie Lviv – God’s Will van de jonge Oekraïense fotograaf Viacheslav Poliakov (1986). Hij maakte opnames door het hele land en liet daarbij zijn oog vallen op krakkemikkige of in elkaar geknutselde objecten, zoals een knullige straatlamp of een half onttakeld Sovjet-beeld. Dingen die, in zijn ogen, symbool staan voor het uiteenvallen van een voorheen strak geregisseerde samenleving.

Ook Poliakov vormde deze beelden om tot een nieuw verhaal. Met digitale technieken maakte hij de objecten los uit de context en plaatste ze tegen een gekleurde achtergrond. Zo vertelt hij, met een registrerende blik, een verhaal over een land dat langzaam uiteen lijkt te vallen en waar gebouwen en uithangborden soms letterlijk met houtjes of touwtjes bijeen worden gehouden.

En er zijn meer kunstenaars die spelen met elementen van de geschiedenis in hun fotografie. Het Italiaanse kunstenaarsduo Martin Errichiello en Filippo Menichetti reisde in de afgelopen jaren langs de A3 – de snelweg van Salerno die voorheen liep tot aan Reggio Calabria – om, met behulp van eigen foto’s en archiefmateriaal, het verhaal te vertellen van de modernisering die in de jaren zestig in Italië plaatsvond. Een ongelukkig verhaal omdat de voltooiing van een groot project, zoals de aanleg van de A3, soms eindeloos duurde en onbetrouwbare viaducten weer werden gesloopt.

Maar het meest ontroerend is nog wel het werk Fluoriet van de Chinese onderwijzer en autodidactisch fotograaf Wang Nan (1982).

Omdat het onderwijs op lagere scholen in China voornamelijk is gericht op gehoorzaamheid en prestatie, liet Nan zijn leerlingen, in een poging tot alternatieve educatie, vertellen over de gedachten en associaties die zij koesteren.

Uit de serie Fluorite.
Foto Wang Nan

Deze binnenwereld vormde hij vervolgens om tot beeld, samen met de kinderen. Op de expositie hangt bijvoorbeeld een portret van een klein meisje met daarnaast een foto van een plasje water omdat ze, zoals ze Nan had toevertrouwd, „ervan houdt om met druppels water te praten”. Een subtiele en tegelijkertijd poëtische kritiek op het Chinese overheidsbeleid.

Tegen de dagelijkse stroom foto’s

En zo zijn er nog meer fotografen die zowel hun verleden, als de sociale en politieke situatie in hun land of regio aankaarten.

Te concluderen valt dat deze generatie het niet meer alleen van de camera moet hebben. Juist niet.

Om het hoofd boven water te houden in de stroom foto’s die dagelijks via de sociale media op het internet worden uitgestort, is het voor deze fotografen een vereiste geworden om, middels de camera, maar vooral ook met behulp van andere technieken, een nieuw, en vooral eigen verhaal te vertellen dat confronteert en niet slechts registreert.

The 2017 edition of Unseen Amsterdam

Last weekend was held the sixth international photography showcase of Unseen taking place in Amsterdam (22-24 September 2017). This year, Unseen presented the first campaign image, created by the Dutch multi-media artist Melanie Bonajo (1978, Heerlen, The Netherlands). Melanie Bonajo created a series of photographic works that were the face of Unseen Amsterdam 2017. In her campaign series, Melanie Bonajo explores the relationship that future generations will have with nature. She questions whether our children will stand up against the power structures that are currently in place and will turn back to nature and the enchantment of the natural world. The series investigates whether a new time will come in which the next generation might find themselves increasingly dehumanised or whether they are secretly creating a new mystical world. Melanie Bonajo said: “Through this photo series commissioned by Unseen, I am giving a voice to the children and focussing on ethics based on a world in between worlds, the long-forgotten power of myths and fairy tale stories. The world of the child who still carries a vision or belief in magic, which was once so near to us all. Together with the children I am exploring how we can pull the mystical spells of the plants into our living rooms in order for us to connect with these irrational shadows. In this series, you can follow the elves at work.”

For this year’s edition, Unseen Amsterdam also introduced a new, dynamic and interactive element to its platform; CO-OP, a space exclusively dedicated to the work of cutting edge, artist collectives from all over the world. CO-OP took place inside the Transformatorhuis at the Westergasfabriek, which was remodelled in a lively and inspiring social hub to explore pioneering works of art and new commercial formats. The thirteen international collectives were selected by Unseen and Lars Willumeit, the curator of the first edition of CO-OP. Lars Willumeit said: “I am beyond happy about being offered the opportunity to co-conceive, co-enable and co-create CO-OP as a lively and exciting social hub, and exploring current collective artistic practices as part of this temporary meta-collective that will be launched at Unseen. CO-OP wants to foster and build forums of social encounter about contemporary image practices, as proposed by each of the thirteen participating initiatives. Additionally, we hope to contribute towards their sustainability."

Unseen is very much about new photography, which is emphasised by the numerous Unseen Premieres that are shown every year at the fair. Premieres are photographic works that have never been physically shown at any gallery, institute or fair. At its sixth edition, Unseen Amsterdam presented Premieres by Miles Aldridge (United Kingdom), Nadav Kander (Israel), Douglas Mandry (Switzerland), Ruth van Beek (Netherlands), Tom Callemin (Belgium) amongst others. This year, Unseen Amsterdam also invited over fifty galleries from all over the world to present new work at the fair.

Complementing the fair, on-site at the historic Westergasfabriek in Amsterdam, was a three-day speakers programme featuring lectures and debates at the Unseen Living Room, as well as a celebration of the printed world of photobooks at the Unseen Book Market. Other key elements of the programme included a major exhibition and of course, the ING Unseen Talent Award, an exclusive photography award created by ING and Unseen, focused on new photography talent. Five artists were selected for the ING Unseen Talent Award 2017: Tom Callemin (b. 1991, Belgium), Andrea Grützner (b. 1984, Germany), Alexandra Lethbridge (b. 1987, United Kingdom), Robin Lopvet (b. 1990, France) and Stefanie Moshammer (b. 1988, Austria). The finalists were rewarded with an extensive Talent Programme, led by the British artist Nadav Kander. Under his supervision, the selected artists created a final work related to this year’s theme Common Ground; encouraging the discovery of similarities amongst differences. The photographic work of the finalists was on display during this year’s edition at the ING Unseen Lounge. This year’s winner, Andrea Grützner, was announced on September 21, and received 10 000€ to fund a new project.

Unseen Amsterdam eindigt haar 2017 editie met een recordaantal bezoekers en succesvolle galerie presentaties
Amsterdam stond een weekend lang in het teken van internationaal fotografisch talent tijdens Unseen Amsterdam 2017, waarbij het beste van hedendaagse fotografie voor het voetlicht werd gebracht. De zesde editie van het fotografie spektakel sloot op zondag 24 september 2017 succesvol af, met ruim 24.000 bezoekers en grote aankopen door zowel particuliere verzamelaars als musea.

Emilia van Lynden, Unseen’s Artistic Director: “Unseen Amsterdam is trots dit jaar meer kunstenaars dan ooit te hebben mogen verwelkomen, kunstenaars die risico’s durven te nemen door hun nieuwste werk voor de eerste keer op de te markt brengen. Wij zijn vereerd dat zij Unseen als platform hiervoor kiezen. Het gevoel van nieuwsgierigheid naar nieuw werk en de ontwikkelingen binnen fotografie, zijn terug te zien in het enthousiasme van zowel deelnemers als het publiek. We proberen continu een breder publiek te bereiken en gedurende het jaar werken we met veel plezier aan het ontwikkelen van nieuwe initiatieven in samenwerking met iedereen die het fotografisch medium zo divers en inspirerend maakt.”

Unseen Amsterdam 2018 data: 21 – 23 september

Unseen Fair, 2017 © Almicheal Fraay/Unseen
Unseen Fair

Tijdens de zesde editie van Unseen Amsterdam, was de beurs een goede weerspiegeling van de altijd groeiende interesse in fotografie, met 53 galeries van over de hele wereld die het werk presenteerden van meer dan 140 kunstenaars; 95 kunstenaars toonden werken die nooit eerder zijn getoond op de markt. De deelnemende galeries genoten de interesse van nationale- en internationale verzamelaars en nieuwe kopers, geënthousiasmeerd door een overvloed aan kwaliteitswerk dat op een innovatieve en toegankelijke manier werd gepresenteerd.

Nera Lerner, Director, Danziger Gallery: “We hebben een succesvolle week gehad en veel nieuwe klanten ontmoet, waaronder particuliere verzamelaars en publieke instellingen uit heel Europa, evenals veel van de corporate sponsors van Unseen. We zijn zeer tevreden met onze ervaring bij Unseen Amsterdam.”

Mirko Mayer, Director, Mirko Mayer Gallery: “Ik heb al zes jaar op rij deelgenomen aan de Unseen Fair en dit was veruit de beste editie. Ik ben uitverkocht. Er is niks over. Ik heb alleen verkocht aan nieuwe verzamelaars: aan musea en particuliere verzamelaars uit Engeland, Nederland en Duitsland. Unseen heeft een fantastische beurs en het is de moeite waard om elk jaar te gaan: het is nog steeds uniek. Al mijn gasten die voor het eerst naar Unseen Amsterdam komen, komen jaarlijks terug omdat ze ervan zijn gaan houden.”

David Doesburg, Director, Stigter Van Doesburg: “Het was in één woord fantastisch. We hebben werken verkocht aan particuliere verzamelaars en ook aan internationale musea. We kennen bijna iedereen in de kunstwereld, maar hier hebben we veel nieuwe verzamelaars ontmoet wat zeer waardevol is.''

W.M. Hunt, Collector: “Unseen is een droom. De schaal is menselijk - je voelt je nooit overweldigd door kunst of mensen. Bezoekers voelen zich bevoorrecht geïntroduceerd te worden aan de doordachte selectie van fris talent. De ruimte is perfect en de ondersteuningsprogramma's: de Book Market, CO-OP en de Living Room maken het geheel een geweldig weekend in Amsterdam.''

Unseen CO-OP
De eerste editie van het baanbrekende element CO-OP dat toegewijd is aan kunstenaarscollectieven, heeft grote interesse verkregen van het publiek, bedrijven, institutionele verzamelaars en fotografieliefhebbers. De focus ligt op het betrekken van de kunstenaars bij hun publiek, waarbij CO-OP toont hoe de kunstsector open kan staan voor een nieuwe aanpak van kunsthandel.

Alistair Hicks, Writer, Curator, member of the Unseen Advisory Committee: “De coöperatieve geest van Unseen en het constant streven naar vernieuwing, kwam dit jaar naar voren in CO-OP waar groepen kunstenaars samenwerken om kunst te maken. Of ze nu uit Nepal, Colombia of België komen, ze demonstreerden dat kunst uit zijn oude beperkte formats aan het breken is - het is overal''

Photo Pleasure Palace
Photo Pleasure Palace, gecureerd door Erik Kessels en Thomas Mailaender, was een van de toonaangevende tentoonstellingen van Unseen Amsterdam 2017. Beide artiesten creëerden een onconventionele en aantrekkelijke fotografische kermis, waaronder attracties zoals Photo Fortune Teller, Smash Gallery, Giant Peephole, Toilet Obscura en Jump Trump.

TALENT DEVELOPMENT

Unseen heeft samengewerkt met een aantal belangrijke partners om de ontwikkeling van kunstenaars te kunnen ondersteunen en de groei en kracht van beoefenaars en de kunstmarkt aan te moedigen.

Door een reeks partner initiatieven, waaronder de ING Unseen Talent Award, de Meijburg Art Commission, The Grolsch Unseen Residency, de Outset | Unseen Exhibition Fund en de Unseen Dummy Award, stimuleert en vergemakkelijkt Unseen de opkomst van jonge kunstenaars op het wereldpodium.

Sean Farran, Unseen’s Business Director: “Unseen Amsterdam 2017 ontving kunstenaars, collectieven, galeries, instituten, uitgevers en bezoekers van over de hele wereld voor een vierdaagse viering van het allernieuwste binnen de wereld van hedendaagse fotografie. Niet alleen laat dit de kracht van de fotografie-gemeenschap zien, maar het toont ook de relevantie van fotografie in het overbrengen van boodschappen die oude grenzen overstijgen, op een conceptueel, fysiek én politiek niveau. Hoewel we in een tijd leven waarin beelden de boventoon voeren, helpt de artistieke interpretatie van onze omgeving en toestand om onszelf en anderen te begrijpen. Samen met onze belanghebbenden en in goede samenwerking met onze partners, blijft Unseen fris en innemend werk genereren op toegankelijke en informatieve manieren. Zonder de steun van deze mensen, fondsen en bedrijven zou Unseen niet het innovatieve platform voor opkomende kunstenaars zijn dat het is. Het is een eer om met hen samen te werken en samen met hen te groeien met deze editie en de vele die zullen volgen.''

Grolsch Unseen 2018 Residency
Unseen en Grolsch kondigen met trots de vijf genomineerden van de tweede editie van de Grolsch Unseen Residency aan. De Grolsch Unseen Residency kent de winnende kunstenaar een twee maand-durende residentie toe om een kunstwerk te maken dat conventionele perspectieven uitdaagt. Tijdens de 2018 residentie zal de winnende kunstenaar samenwerken met professionele fotografen en andere vooraanstaande mensen uit de lokale creatieve sector, om bepaalde opvattingen op onconventionele manieren uit te dagen.

De vijf genomineerden voor de Grolsch Unseen Residency 2018 zijn: Sofia Ayarzagoitia (1987, Mexico), Thomas Kuijpers (1985, Nederland), Jannemarein Renout (1969, Nederland Yusuf Senvincli (1980, Turkije) en Daniel Shea (1985, De Verenigde Staten).

De genomineerden zijn geselecteerd door een internationale jury bestaande uit Tristan Lund (Photography Consultant, Collection Curator The Incite Project), Shinji Otani (Photographer) en Salvatore Vitale (Photographer, Co-founder and Editor-in-Chief of YET Magazine).

Het juryrapport: ‘‘De jury van dit jaar heeft alle geselecteerde kunstenaars zorgvuldig afgewogen en bediscussieerd hoe elke kunstenaar zou kunnen profiteren van de residentie. De chemie tussen elke kunstenaar en de mogelijke locatie is uitvoerig besproken: het creatieve proces en de eigen stijl van de geselecteerde kunstenaars zijn gegrond in verschillende fotografische benaderingen.’’

ING Unseen Talent Award
Verschillende projectfondsen en een prestigieuze award, bedoeld om de carrières van opkomende kunstenaars te ondersteunen, zijn gepresenteerd tijden Unseen Amsterdam 2017. De ING Unseen Talent Award biedt een internationaal platform voor opkomend Europees fotografie talent om werk op een internationaal podium te kunnen tonen.

Andrea Grützner (1984, Duitsland) is door een internationale jury gekozen als winnaar van de ING Unseen Talent Award juryprijs. Robin Lopvet (1990, Frankrijk) is uitgeroepen tot de winnaar van de publieksprijs.

Astrid Wassenberg, Chief Curator ING Art Management: ''Het is fantastisch dat de werken van de vijf finalisten zoveel aandacht hebben gekregen. Deze erkenning stimuleert de verdere ontwikkelingen van deze jonge talenten en helpt ze aan een vliegende start.”

The Meijburg Art Commission
The Meijburg Art Commission streeft ernaar getalenteerde kunstenaars te ontdekken wiens multimedia werk op fotografie focust. Pasi Orrensalo (1969, Finland) ontving de Meijburg Art Commission 2017. Hij zal een project fonds ontvangen om een nieuw werk te creëren voor het kantoor van Meijburg & Co in Amstelveen.

Wilbert Kannekens, Chairman of the Managing Board of Meijburg & Co: “Dit jaar was de derde editie van de Meijburg & Co Art Commission. We zijn erg tevreden en trots dat zowel Unseen als de Meijburg Art Commission, jaarlijks verder ontwikkelen en groeien. Onze samenwerking met Unseen is erg waardevol, het biedt ons en onze gasten een bredere kijk op kunst en fotografie. Het voorgestelde werk van de winnaar van dit jaar, Pasi Orrensalo, is een waardevolle toevoeging aan onze kunstcollectie. We kijken ernaar uit om met hem samen te werken en we kunnen niet wachten om zijn werk in ons kantoor te kunnen tonen.''

Outset | Unseen Exhibition Fund
The Outset | Unseen Exhibition Fund is een samenwerking tussen Unseen en Outset Netherlands en biedt een nieuw institutioneel platform aan opkomend talent. Theo Simpson (1986, UK) is als winnaar geselecteerd en krijgt een solo tentoonstelling in Foam Fotografiemuseum Amsterdam in het begin van 2018. Hij is tot winnaar verkozen door de 2017 Outset | Unseen Exhibition Fund commissie, bestaande uit Frederica Chiochetti (critical writer en Founding Director of Photocaptionist, Londen), Caroline von Courten (Ph.D. candidate in Photography Theory, Amsterdam) en Francesco Zanot (Chief Curator at CAMERA, Turijn).

The Unseen Dummy Award
The Unseen Dummy Award is een samenwerking tussen Unseen, Lecturis en Wilco Art Books gericht op het tonen van het werk van uitzonderlijke kunstenaars en designers van over de hele wereld. De award biedt een kans een van de ingezonden fotoboek dummies uit te geven. Malgorzata Stankiewic heeft de Unseen Dummy Award 2017 gewonnen; haar boek, Cry of an Echo, zal worden gepubliceerd door Lecturis en wordt gepresenteerd tijdens Unseen Amsterdam 2018.

Ria van Dijk – The Woman Who Shoots Herself Shooting
By Sumitra on February 8th, 2012 Category: Art, Pics

It’s not unusual to have photographs of yourself taken every year. But in the case of Ria van Dijk it is, because she’s in the exact same pose in each of the pictures – shooting a target. The 92-year-old from Tilburg, Holland has been going to funfair shooting galleries every year since 1936, and has won the prize every single time – a photograph of herself shooting.

Shooting galleries at fairs are set up in such a way that when the target is hit, it triggers the shutter of a camera. The result is a photograph in which the viewer is in the position of the target. The picture is the prize that participants win for their efforts. Even before she participated in the shooting gallery, Ria had plenty of practice at home, as a child. Along with her brother, she used to shoot at a target with air guns in the garden of her home. She says they would do this just for fun. So when she went to the fair at age 16, her friends encouraged her to give the shooting game a try. She won the picture on the first shot, and went on to win another one. Ria went back to the fair a year later to win another picture and that was when it all began.

2006

The very first shot of the summer of 1936 shows Ria in short hair and a long overcoat, surrounded by her friends. Her collection now consists of 69 photographs. The only years she missed were those of the war, when all fairs were cancelled. Throughout the pictures, only one thing remains consistent – Ria’s pose when she’s aiming for the target. Otherwise, the people around her, hairstyles and clothing, and her own ageing, are a testament to the changing times.

1936

Ria’s unique photographs have now been compiled into a book called the Almost Every Picture series; it is the 7th book in the series. Published by advertising agency KesselsKramer, the books depict one subject through a body of photographs. Several of the photographs in the book have already been published in Dutch newspapers, and Ria is a local celebrity of sorts. Interestingly, she says she doesn’t really spend too much money on her hobby. “I shoot until I get a photo. But I don’t spend more than about 10 Euros.” If she’s not able to make the shot, she will return the next day to try again.

1938

Ria is completely undeterred by her age, and does not plan to stop her picture series anytime soon. “I can’t wait for this year now,” are her precise words.

1949

1954

1958

1969

1973

2009

The In Almost Every Picture series can be purchased online at KesselKramer Publishing

Ria van Dijk gaat al 81 jaar naar de kermis voor een schietfoto

Ria van Dijk (97) laat sinds 1936 elk jaar een foto maken als ze raak schiet in de schiettent op de Tilburgse kermis. Deze foto’s zijn te zien geweest in musea en op festivals. „Ja god zeg, die foto’s ken ik van buiten.”
Rosan Hollak
25 september 2017

Foto Peter de Krom

OVER RIA VAN DIJK

Ria van Dijk werd in 1920 geboren in Tilburg. Tussen 1950 en 1975 had ze haar eigen drogisterij. Ze adverteerde met de leuze: ‘Halverwege het ziekenhuis en de stad, ligt Drogisterij Ria van Dijk. Wist je dat?’

Vanaf haar 16de ging Van Dijk ieder jaar schieten op de kermis in Tilburg. In 2008 werden hiervan 63 foto’s gebundeld door KesselsKramer Publishing. Een heruitgave, met meer recente foto’s, verscheen in 2016.

‘Wat er zo leuk is aan schieten? Dat je er helemaal in zit! En dan wil je die foto hebben!”

Ria van Dijk (97) zit in haar appartement op de negende verdieping van zorgcentrum Het Laar in Tilburg. Ze toont een schietschijf en een bokaal van de Brabantse schietsportvereniging De Rommert. „Kijk, dit was mijn eerste schot”, zegt ze, met donkere, twinkelende ogen en wijst op de buitenring. „Het tweede schot zat al in de 10. En hier, nog twee in de roos.”

Vorige week werd Van Dijk door De Rommert uitgenodigd om te komen schieten. Dat is geen vreemd verzoek want in Tilburg en omstreken staat Van Dijk al decennia lang bekend als ‘de schietvrouwe’. „Daarstraks nog stond ik in de lift, kwam er iemand van de technische dienst binnen. Die zegt dan: is het veilig bij u?”

Van Dijk, die in 1920 in Tilburg werd geboren als jongste van drie kinderen, hield altijd al van schieten. Haar oudere broer had een luchtbuks waar ze als klein meisje al mee in de weer was in de achtertuin. „Dat was met van die pluimpjes. Ik vond het leuk.” Toen ze op haar zestiende op de kermis de schiettent ontdekte, was ze helemaal verkocht. „Toen is het gebeurd. Het lukte niet meteen, maar ineens schoot ik raak en gingen er allemaal lampjes aan. En dan krijg je die foto. Dat was iets geweldigs.”

Het was 1936 en, wat Van Dijk toen nog niet kon voorzien, was dat die eerste foto de basis zou vormen van een traditie die haar uiteindelijk zelfs roem in het buitenland zou verschaffen. Vanaf dat jaar ging ze namelijk jaarlijks naar de kermis en schoot ze net zolang door tot ze weer een foto van zichzelf te pakken had. Thuis borg ze de printjes op in een laatje en bouwde zo een unieke, verborgen collectie op.

Stedelijk Museum kocht de collectie

Daar kwam in 2006 verandering in. Joep Eijkens, voormalig journalist bij het Brabants Dagblad, ging op bezoek bij Van Dijk nadat hij dat jaar een aantal van haar foto’s had gezien op de Tilburgse kermisexpositie ‘Een eeuw vermaak in beeld’. Getroffen door de uitzonderlijke fotocollectie – te zien is hoe Ria in de loop der jaren ouder wordt en hoe de wereld om haar heen verandert – vroeg hij aan Van Dijk of hij de serie mocht laten zien aan fotografie-verzamelaar Erik Kessels van communicatiebureau KesselsKramer. Kessels, die al langer boekjes samenstelde met hergebruikte foto’s, was geïnteresseerd en bundelde 63 beelden uit de verzameling tot een boekje. Het werd een succes. Diverse kranten brachten de fotoserie onder de aandacht en in 2009 werden Ria’s schietfoto’s geëxposeerd door fotograaf Hans Aarsman tijdens de expositie Off The Record bij Art Amsterdam. In datzelfde jaar kocht het Stedelijk Museum zelfs de fotocollectie aan. Onbegrijpelijk, vindt Ria nog steeds, maar het geld dat ze ervoor kreeg, heeft ze goed besteed. „Ik kreeg geloof ik een paar duizend euro, hoeveel weet ik niet meer precies. Om het te vieren heb ik een bus gehuurd en ben met dertig vrienden naar het orgelmuseum gegaan. Daarna door naar De Schutskuil, mijn favoriete forellenrestaurant in Oirschot. Daar werden we ontvangen met een goedkoop glas bubbels en hebben we gegeten. Ja, we hebben de stemming er goed in gekregen.”

En nog was de aandacht niet voorbij. In 2010 vertrok Van Dijk met Kessels en Eijkens twee dagen naar het fotofestival in Arles waar haar schietfoto’s werden geëxposeerd. Hoe was het om haar collectie terug te zien op zo’n gerenommeerd festival? „Ja god zeg, die foto’s ken ik van buiten, dat hoeft niet hoor. Maar de ontvangst daar was iets geweldig. Allemaal mensen die je willen spreken, en een heleboel fotografen. Ongelofelijk. Toch heb ik liever dat ze me kennen van het schieten, dan dat ze zeggen: ‘Nou, die daar moet je in de gaten houden’.”

Ieder jaar als ze nu naar de kermis gaat – ze zegt het tot haar honderdste te willen volhouden – zijn er wel een paar journalisten die ‘haar schietmoment’ vastleggen. Koppen als ‘Luchtbuks Ria, al tachtig jaar koningin van de schiettent’ en ‘Hoogbejaarde Ria schiet weer raak’ verschijnen dan boven de berichten. Ze geniet van de aandacht, toch hecht ze meer waarde aan het werkende bestaan dat ze in Tilburg opbouwde. „Ik heb vijfentwintig jaar een drogisterij gehad”, vertelt Van Dijk. Ze was dertig toen ze haar eigen zaak opende. „Van een kennis had ik gehoord dat er een pand te koop was aan de Bosscheweg, vlakbij oom Gus, die had in dezelfde straat een sigarenzaak. Ik legde het plan voor aan pa, die begreep wel dat ik zelfstandig wilde zijn.”

Allemaal mensen die je willen spreken, en een heleboel fotografen. Ongelofelijk

In 1950 opende ze de deuren en het duurde niet lang of ze was een begrip in de stad. „Ik had fijne meisjes in dienst en zorgde ervoor dat alle klanten me kenden.” Tegenwoordig is dat wel anders, benadrukt ze. „Als je nu in de winkel komt, kennen ze je niet. Het is allemaal van dat jonge personeel en het interesseert ze niet wat je te vertellen hebt. Bij mij was dat heel anders.” Achterin de winkel had ze nog een kamer, vertelt ze, en die plek fungeerde soms als ‘biechtstoel’. „Wat ik daar deed was sociaal werk. Maar ik vond dat normaal. Mijn moeder zat vroeger bij Weldadigheidsvereniging St. Elisabeth, daar deed ze liefdewerk voor de armen. Bij ons thuis wisten we: je bent er voor de ander.”

Toen ze de drogisterij net had, woonde Ria nog in de Goirkestraat. Maar in 1956, na het overlijden van haar moeder, verhuisde ze met haar vader naar een flat in een ander deel van de stad. „Ik ben tot aan zijn dood bij hem blijven wonen.” Ze wijst naar het schilderij aan de muur dat ze rond die periode van haar vader liet maken. Vanaf het doek blikt hij met identiek twinkelende ogen de kamer in, een brandende sigaar tussen zijn vingers. „Hij rookte er maar één per dag, zei hij. Maar er lag altijd een sigaar aan de rand van zijn bed. Hij stond ermee op en ging ermee naar bed. Ja. Het was een fijne man. Hij nam ’s avonds ook altijd een neut. Net als ik trouwens.”

Haar vader stierf in 1968 op 81-jarige leeftijd. Ze vertelt dat haar moeder in 1952 overleed. „Ze had suikerziekte, net als mijn broer en zus. Die ziekte tast je karakter aan. Mijn moeder was aan het einde van haar leven niet meer zo vrolijk, ze was een ander mens geworden.”

Haar broer en zus zijn inmiddels al jaren geleden overleden, maar als ze nu terugdenkt aan vroeger heeft ze een ‘mooi thuis’ gehad. „Er werd altijd veel muziek gemaakt. Mijn zus kon goed pianospelen, mijn broer was een geweldig violist. Het was altijd feest.” Ze herinnert zich ook de optredens van haar ouders op bruiloften en partijen. „Ik zie ze nog staan. Mijn moeder was een medium en mijn vader stond naast haar met een vuur in zijn handen. Hij zei dan: ‘O medium, o zeg mij, wat is uw gedachte? Wat zien thans uw heldere ogen? Dan begon mijn moeder van alles te vertellen over de mensen op het feest. Ja, ze hadden een leuk huwelijk.”

Nooit getrouwd

Zelf is Van Dijk, in tegenstelling tot haar broer en zus, nooit getrouwd. „Nee, ik heb geen kennis gehad, maar ik blijk wel heel verliefd te zijn geweest op een vriend van mijn broer. Na jaren zag ik die een keer terug in de kerk. Ik zong daar in het koor, samen met zijn zus, en hij liep daar rond. Die avond kreeg ik in bed een huilbui. Toen wist ik het pas: ik was verliefd op die man geweest. Maar ja, hij was al getrouwd, had ook kinderen, dus dat is niks geworden.” Verder heeft ze, zoals ze het zelf noemt, ‘weinig aantrekkingskracht gehad’. „Ik heb één nadeel: een harde stem. Toch heb ik het altijd goed kunnen vinden met mannen. Toen ik begon met de drogisterij kwamen ze wel op me af. Dan kwam er zo’n vertegenwoordiger koffie drinken. Die wou dan iets meer. Maar ik zei: ‘Nee dat hoeft niet.’ Ik had er gewoon geen zin in. Het waren geen harde werkers maar van die types die dachten: nou, bij Ria kom ik wel rond.”

Foto Peter de Krom

In 1975 stopte Van Dijk met de zaak. De concurrentie van ketens zoals Etos en Kruidvat werd te groot. Ze stortte zich in het verenigingsleven en werkte nog acht jaar bij de gemeente. „Maar op mijn 63ste heb ik gezegd: ik houd het voor gezien.” Nog steeds heeft ze een katholieke praatclub waar ze maandelijks naartoe gaat. Ze kijkt ernaar uit want nu ze zo oud wordt, is contact nog belangrijker geworden. „Dat je telkens mensen om je heen verliest, dat is vreselijk. Er blijft niemand meer over die je van vroeger kent, dat vind ik heel erg.”

Vanaf haar appartement op de negende verdieping gaat ze nog wel met de lift naar beneden om te eten of een praatje te maken. „Maar het contact met de buurtbewoners is niet meer hetzelfde als met de vrienden die ik hier voorheen had. Degenen die hier nu binnenkomen, zijn al negentig of niet meer helemaal honderd procent. Maar ik heb nog steeds een hele heldere geest. Dat is eigenlijk best vermoeiend.” Ja, ze mag dan ieder jaar gaan schieten op de kermis en op zo’n moment even in de spotlights staan, maar dat alleen zijn is niet leuk. „Daarom zeg ik ook: als je nog oude ooms of tantes hebt, zoek ze op. Dat vind ik heel belangrijk.”

My Library is my Museum Photobook Phenomenon VicenC Villatoro Photography

The Three Communists Kassel Documenta 14 2017 Hans Eijkelboom Conceptual Photography

Views & Reviews London Martin Parr Gian Butturini Photography

Views & Reviews Barcelona En Blanc I Negre Xavier Miserachs Photography

Views & Reviews Beautiful Simple and maybe Profound Preganziol Artist's Book Guido Guidi Photography

Ahrend Holland: Bird's-eye View of a Concern Graphic Design Jan Versnel Company Photography

Ahrend Design Collection PDN Photo Annual 2011 Rene van der Hulst Company Photography

PARIS Fritz Henle EYES ON PARIS PARIS IN PHOTOBOOKS FROM 1890 TO THE PRESENT Photography

Fascinations and Failures Photobook Phenomenon Erik Kessels Photography

Dutch Dreamgirls Sex Jef Rademakers Erik Kessels / Paul Kooiker Terribly awesome photobooks

Bridge Babies Dorothy W. Wilson Terribly Awesome Photo Books Erik Kessels Paul Kooiker Photography

The English Sunrise Brian Rice Tony Evans Fascinations and Failures Photobook Phenomenon Erik Kessels Photography

Fascinations and Failures Photobook Phenomenon Erik Kessels Photography

The Collector's Vision Martin Parr's Best Photobooks Photobook Phenomenon

Kampf in Holland Winterhilfswerk-Heftchen (Winter Relief Fund Booklets) Propaganda PARR/BADGER III Heinrich Hoffmann Photography

The Birth of Sweet Life Ed van der Elsken 1959 travelling from IJmuiden to Dakar Photography

Views & Reviews London Martin Parr Gian Butturini Photography

Views & Reviews Why Photobooks are Important Gerry Badger Photography

the Table of Power Jacqueline Hassink Iconography of Work Mirelle Thijsen's Choice of Company Photobooks Photography

Hans Eijkelboom potraits and cameras 1949-2009 Photography

The photobook according to Martin Parr Photography

Views & Reviews Homecoming not unarmed Home Lars Tunbjork Photography

From Pictorialism to Provoke The Japanese Photobook, 1912–1990 Photography

Five Aspects of Japanese Photobooks Ryuichi Kaneko Photobook Phenomenon

Propaganda vs Protest Books Gerry Badger Photobook Phenomenon

Contemporary Practices Irene de Mendoza Moritz Neumuller Photobook Phenomenon Photography

With my Camera I become a Leopard American Photographer Bruce Davidson Photography

Photography became Art by André Kertész (1894–1985) Mirroring Life Foam Amsterdam

Stay an Amateur Lessons learned from Andre Kertesz Street Photography

This is the New Generation of Photographers FOAM TALENT EXHIBITION IN AMSTERDAM 2017

The 2017 edition of Unseen Amsterdam Photography

Views & Reviews Ria van Dijk The Woman Who Shoots Herself Shooting In almost every picture Erik Kessels Photography