Jean-Louis Bloch-Lainé - Rue Vue
Groupe de l'Immobilière-Constructions de Paris, 1970.
Quarto (32 x 24.5 cm) Limited first edition of 600 copies. Very nice firm book printed by Draeger in Montrouge, referenced in the M. + M. Auer collection. p. 522
Rare copy signed by Jean-Louis Bloch-Lainé.
Grey printed editor paperboard, the casing is missing.


FRIDAY, JANUARY 18, 2008
802 Photobooks from the M+M Auer Collection

How many great photo books would you guess have been published so far? Between Parr/Badger, Roth 101 and Open Book there are about 500 books featured collectively, but how many more were overlooked, unknown, or met the editing axe due to subjectivity? One thousand?

A new book called 802 Photobooks from the M + M Auer Collection brings a few more obscure titles to light. Michele and Michel Auer have over 20,000 photo books in their personal library and this selection of 802 is meant to show the variety of choice available above and beyond the other books of photobooks.

When I heard of this book, my first thought was “802 books? Great…the more the merrier, time to give the ABE search engines a workout” but upon seeing a copy, I am starting to think that after 500, there is a big drop off from the look of things.

I have to say from the look of things because one of the biggest drawbacks to this book is that it provides no information about the content other than a thumbnail photograph of the cover or a spread, the physical size and publishing info. So this is a judge from the cover, do your own research approach that may have you spending money simply due to a book’s cover image.

802 Photobooks is very small at only four by six inches but the two inches worth of pages gives it a decent heft. The printing is adequate even though the images are not much bigger than 35mm contacts.

Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy looking through this as much as many of the other books on photo books but I really do not see much of a point without the educational benefit of descriptions of the content. This may be the closest you get to porn for photobook geeks.

Sahara à l'heure de la découverte.
PHOTOGRAPHIE] - DALAIN (Yvan) & FAVROD (Charles-Henri).
Edité par Lausanne, La Guilde du Livre, 1958, 1 vol. in-4 (280 x 220) cartonné sous jaquette illustrée, de 106 pp. Coins et coiffes très légèrement émoussés sinon très bel exemplaire., 1958
Edition originale tirée à 10030 exemplaires (N°5185). Edition hors commerce réservée aux membres de la Guilde du Livre. Somptueuses photographies en noir et blanc de Yvan Dalain, reproduites en héliogravure. Texte de Charles-Henri Favrod. Réf. biblio. : Desachy, Mandery, 119.

Je est un autre : the vernacular in photobooks
Posted on November 30, 2017 by matthew carson

The ICP Library presents:
Je est un autre: the vernacular in photobooks
Thursday November 30th 2017
6:00 – 8:30 pm

ICP Library: 1114 6th Avenue, New York, NY 10036
Opening Reception and Presentations of Vernacular Photo Collections
Creatively Organized by Bernard Yenelouis, Emily P. Dunne & Matthew Carson





 Je est un autre : the vernacular in photobooks – text by Bernard Yenelouis

. . . these pictures no longer simulate vertical fields, but opaque flatbed horizontals. They no more depend on a head-to-toe correspondence with human posture than a newspaper does. The flatbed picture plane makes its symbolic allusion to hard surfaces such as tabletops, studio floors, charts, bulletin boards – any receptor surface on which objects are scattered, on which data is entered, on which information may be received, printed, impressed – whether coherently or in confusion . . . the surface is no longer the analogue of a visual experience of nature but of operational processes.

. . . What I have in mind is the psychic address of the image, its special mode of imaginative confrontation, and I tend to regard the tilt of the picture plane from vertical to horizontal as expressive of the most radical shift in the subject matter of art, the shift from nature to culture.

–          Leo Steinberg, “The Flatbed Picture Plane,” Other Criteria. MIT Press, 1972

The shift “from nature to culture” that art historian Leo Steinberg describes, which was a way to unpack the then new paintings of Robert Rauschenberg, can also act as a portal to understand the interest and market for photo books.


What is vernacular photography?

As we approach the first ever auction devoted to Vernacular Photography, Daile Kaplan, director of Photographs and Photobooks offers this explanation of a growing field of collecting.

Vernacular imagery often encompasses pictures by lesser known or amateur makers, including itinerant photographers, studio practitioners and press photographers–many of whom work outside the scope of fine art practice. Evocative snapshots by hobbyists, accomplished commercial portraiture and product imagery, iconic news pictures, intimate occupational photographs (including tintypes), humorous travel or souvenir images (as well as albums), and fun family photo albums are prime examples associated with the genre.  In addition, three-dimensional decorative or functional photo objects, which have been described as “pop photographica,” make an appearance.

Our purpose is not to define the genre, but to present a range of thought-provoking pictures and objects that contribute to an ongoing and important dialogue. As a result, Swann’s inaugural sale casts a wide net.

Pioneering private and contemporary collectors have positioned this material as an exciting and expansive approach to the field of photography. Swann pays homage to the collectors, photographers and curators who are continuing a discussion that was initiated in the 1970s, when the marketplace for photography first emerged. Visionaries like Sam Wagstaff and John Szarkowski understood that photography is not a single, unilateral modality, but a hybrid form that continues to evolve and reinvent itself, reflecting cultural and popular currents. They envisioned a medium encompassing photography’s many brilliant facets, and staked their reputations on the fact that, while collecting examples of fine art photography is a serious, rewarding endeavor, the art of appreciating all kinds of imagery is what distinguishes a true connoisseur.     




The International Center of Photography Library presents an investigation of vernacular imagery in the photobook. These books utilize found photographs, snap shots, archives and collections of others. The turn of the most recent century has seen an impassioned interest in these objects both for collectors and artists. With the glut of over a century of folk photography, there is an endless source of images to collect, curate, re-appropriate and digitize. The photobook reproduces the images both so the reader can collect themselves and the artist can manipulate or alter the meaning of the image.

The Vernacular manifests itself in the photobook along a spectrum, or concocting elements from variations on: The mysterious narratives of Wisconsin Death Trip and Mariken Wessels, the born-digital collections of Chris Clary and Joachim Schmidt, presentations of a hyper specific collections of raccoon hunts or sad postcards, Luc Sante and William E. Jones mining public institutional collections. They all share the unique quality of the book: a presentation of material in an intentional sequence meant to move the viewer.

We hope you can join us tonight, and celebrate the vernacular!

Wednesday, 27 January 2016
‘EXHIBITION OF PHOTOGRAPHIC IMAGES OF GERMAN CONCENTRATION CAMPS AND DESTROYED ARNHEM'


The first post in the new Prentwerk photoblog is rather different from what I had anticipated. I was planning to do a bit on Erik Kessels and ‘found photography’, but all of a sudden a publication of a very different nature came my way. And quite a serious one it is, too. Nothing glossy, nothing artistic or nothing conceptual about it. Poorly reproduced photographs printed on cheap paper, published with one aim only: exposing the Nazi atrocities of World War Two.

I find there is something slightly uncomfortable about this change of subject, something to do with ‘art’ and ‘life’, and perhaps a vague sense of shame for concentrating on 'art', while at the same time unimaginable atrocities like these are going on in the world, even today. Photography is not only about art, is it? At any rate, it shouldn’t be. It should capture life as well, even at its most unpleasant. If it is doesn’t, what’s the use? But I’ll have to think that over, I suppose.


The publication in question is a small, flimsy catalogue published in 1945 to accompany an exhibition of photographs. In the year following the defeat of the Nazis, exhibitions of photos showing the horrors of the concentration camps were a way to show people both in Europe and the US what had been done by the Germans and their allies, and, eventually, to build support for the idea of war crimes trials. Apparently, one such exhibition was organized in the Netherlands, although the brochure states neither place nor publisher. We are merely informed that the photographs were provided by the U.S.I.S. (United States Information Service, Photographic Section, Amsterdam) and Jan Schiet, photographer, Amsterdam. Despite the title, however, there are no pictures nor text referring to Arnhem, the Dutch city on the Rhine that was the scene of the failed operation Market Garden in 1944. The Arnhem material may have appeared only in the exhibition itself. It seems likely that the photographs of the destruction of the inner city of Arnhem were all taken by Jan Schiet, an Amsterdam photographer who is mentioned in a short notice on the inside cover. But none of them are included here.


The photographs are of a particularly gruesome nature. They show us what the allied forces found when they liberated Dachau, Buchenwald and other concentration camps: corpses, starving inmates, humanity at the verge of despair. Perhaps the most intriguing is the famous and controversial photo supposedly depicting 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.

But this is a picture with a story. It is the photograph that Allied Supreme Commander General Dwight David Eisenhower ordered, in April 1945, to be posted in every German town and city to show the defeated population the ‘true meaning of Nazism’.


A huge blown-up version then went on tour in the United States for the same purpose, to impress on the American people what evil they had gone to war against. It was plastered on the front pages of newspapers across the country. Thus it became one of the most iconic images representing WW II and of what later came to be known as the ‘Holocaust’.

                                                                                                                         
It was only much later, however, that the photograph was exposed as a fake. The standing figure on the right was not there in the original picture at all. It was added later, for dramatic effect. Moreover, severe doubts were cast on the true identity of one of the other men, allegedly Elie Wiesel, celebrated author of books on the Holocaust and winner of the Nobel Peace Prize for 1986, who claimed he recognized himself in the picture. Fierce controversies arose, fired by his opponents who made it their mission to denounce Wiesel as a fraud (‘Show us your tattoo!’) and who even set up special websites to prove their point (see below).

According to my American colleague Dan Wyman, the only other antiquarian bookseller to offer this title, to whom I am indebted for some of the information presented here, OCLC lists only 4 copies of this brochure worldwide, all in the Netherlands (Sept 2015). One of them is in the library of the Jewish Historical Museum, Amsterdam.

DESCRIPTION

 - Tentoonstelling van fotografische opnamen van Duitse concentratiekampen en verwoest Arnhem -

¶ No place, no publisher, 1945. Pap, stapled, 15.5 x 12 cms, 32p, illustrations in bl/w. With 7p of text, containing 78 descriptions of photographs, and 25p of bl/w photographs. Title and text in Dutch.

- In good condition, with slight signs of use (small fold in front cover, small tear and some spotting of back cover.

For a detailed discussion and more photographs, see

http://www.eliewieseltattoo.com/gigantic-fraud-carried-out-for-wiesel-nobel-prize/
http://www.eliewieseltattoo.com/tag/new-york-times/

...A PHOTOBOOK IS AN AUTONOMOUS ART FORM, COMPARABLE WITH A PIECE OF SCULPTURE, A PLAY OR A FILM. THE PHOTOGRAPHS LOSE THEIR OWN PHOTOGRAPHIC CHARACTER AS THINGS 'IN THEMSELVES' AND BECOME PARTS, TRANSLATED INTO PRINTING INK, OF A DRAMATIC EVENT CALLED A BOOK... - DUTCH PHOTOGRAPHY CRITIC RALPH PRINS

META-LIST of 2017's
favourite photobooks
by

Viory Schellekens, photographer 

.
This meta-list features a total of 636 books that were listed as the best, the most interesting, relevant and/or favourite books by 200 different people/institutions that published their "end of the year"-lists on 121 lists as counted on 04–01-2017 at 23.00 h GTM+1.

What you see online are the 210 books that got selected by more than one person so far. Each with a book flip through or review.

.
18 selections
.

* Monsanto: A Photographic Investigation – Mathieu Asselin
(Simon Baker, Thomas Wiegand, Laia Abril, Rob Hornstra, Colin Pantall, Rudi Thoemmes, Rémi Coignet, Mark Power, Fred Cray, Irene Attinge, Barbara Stauss, Sarah Allen, Alessandra Capodacqua, The Photo Academy Magazine, Tono Arias, Viory Schellekens, Ola Søndenå, Pela del Álamo [https://vimeo.com/219341368]

.
15 selections
.

* Deep Springs – Sam Contis
(Elin Spring & Suzanne Révy, Humble Arts Foundation, Rebecca Bengal, Mark Power, Caroline O’Breen, Alona Pardo, Jennifer Pastore, Alyssa Coppelman, Sean O’Hagan, Regina Anzenberger, Viory Schellekens, Teju Cole, Pela del Álamo, Peggy Roalf, Emma Phillips)
[https://vimeo.com/209716885]

.
13 selections
.

* Welcome to Camp America: Inside Guantánamo Bay – Debi Cornwall
(Smithsonion, Elin Spring & Suzanne Révy, Gabriel H. Sanchez, Rebecca Norris Webb, Karen Haas, Jim Casper, Anne Havinga, Women Photograph, Tim Clark, Elizabeth Avedon, Teju Cole, Mark Murrmann, Jack Harries) [BJP Online: http://bit.ly/2zP1x2O]

.
12 selections
.

* Reading Raymond Carver – Mary Frey
(Jeffrey Ladd, Elin Spring & Suzanne Révy, 10x10 Photobooks, Alec Soth, Mark Power, Rebecca Bengal, Laura M. André,Bint Photobooks, Alyssa Coppelman, Blake Andrews, Emma Phillips, Jack Harries)
[http://bit.ly/2jwUQj3]

* The Last Testament – Jonas Bendiksen
(PDN editors, Gabriel H. Sanchez, Larry Fink, Martin Parr, Alona Pardo, Matt Stuart, Forrest D. Walker, The Photo Academy Magazine, David Kregenow, Matt Eich, Jack Harries) [BJP http://bit.ly/2C7kkYs]

.
11 selections
.

* Buzzing at the Sill – Peter van Agtmael
(10×10 Photobooks, Gabriel H. Sanchez, Michael Christopher Brown, Markus Schaden, Anne Bourgeois-Vignon, Sean O'Hagan, Forrest D. Walker, Internazionale, Mark Murrmann, David Solomons, James Featherstone)
[https://vimeo.com/199805623]

* The Island of the Colorblind – Sanne De Wilde
(Laia Abril, Rodrigo Orrantia, Arianna Rinaldo, Alyssa Coppelman, Verena Kaspar-Eisert, Erik Vroons, Azu Nwagbogu, Barbara Stauss, The Photo Academy Magazine, Crave, Native)
[https://vimeo.com/225809165]

* White Night – Feng Li
(Mark Power, Daniel Boetker-Smith, Martin Parr, Martin Amis, Joao Linneu, Sarah Allen, Panos Kefalos, The Photo Academy Magazine, Tono Arias, Francis Gan, Asia-Pacific Photobook Archive)
[https://vimeo.com/229865461]

.

10 selections
.

* Beyond Drifting: Imperfectly Known Animals – Mandy Barker
(Smithsonion, David Solo, 10×10 Photobooks, Laura M. André, Sara Terry, Women Photograph, Bint Photobooks, Viory Schellekens, Ola Søndenå, David Solomons)
[https://vimeo.com/216833162]

* Museum Bhavan – Dayanita Singh
(Daniel Boetker-Smith, Women Photograph, Regina Anzenberger, Tim Clark, Too Arias, Internazionale, Asia-Pacific Photobook Archive, Bildband Berlin, Alessandra Capodacqua, Native)
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Iqt6f_be3E]

* Ville de Calais – Henk Wildschut
(Eva-Maria Kunz, Thomas Wiegand, Laia Abril, Rob Hornstra, Rémi Coignet, Mark Power, Jim Goldberg, Tim Clark, Bildband Berlin, Dan Rule)
[https://player.vimeo.com/video/210300265]

.
9 selections
.

* Dublin – Krass Clement
(Thomas Wiegand, 10×10 Photobooks, Rudi Thoemmes, Martin Amis, Clément Kauter, Bint Photobooks, Francis Gan, Tono Arias, David Gibson)
[https://vimeo.com/240137406]

* Stephen Shore: Selected Works 1973-1981– Stephen Shore
(Luc Sante, Robin Titchener, Jeffrey Ladd, Larry Fink, Miwa Susuda, Forrest D. Walker, Vulture, Previiew, Teju Cole)
[https://vimeo.com/214914783]

* The First March of Gentlemen – Rafal Milach
(Gabriela Cendoya, Laia Abril, Mark Power, Laura El-Tantawy, Susan Bright, GOST team, Ramon Pez, The Calvert Journal, Evita Goze for FK) [https://vimeo.com/231261685]

* The Restoration Will – Mayumi Suzuki
(Larissa Leclair, Martin Amis, Women Photograph, Mowwgli, Tono Arias, Viory Schellekens, Asia-Pacific Photobook Archive, Francoise Callier, Ola Søndenå)
[https://vimeo.com/201292772]

.
8 selections
.

* Night Procession – Stephen Gill
(Martin Parr, Rinko Kawauchi, Martin Amis, Clément Kauter, Sean O’Hagan, Internazionale, Pela del Álamo, David Solomons)
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-zYOFzoiDPI]

* War Sand – Donald Weber
(Laia Abril, Rob Hornstra, Sara Terry, Erik Vroons, Jenny Smets, Maarten Schilt, Jim Casper, Andreas Oetker-Kast)
[https://vimeo.com/244214954]

.
7 selections
.

* 36 Views – Fyodor Telkov
(Martin Amis, Regina Anzenberger, The Calvert Journal, Katerina Zueva & Anna Shpakova for FK, David Nollet, Bildband Berlin, Ola Søndenå)
[https://vimeo.com/201116524]

* Beyond Here Is Nothing – Laura El Tantawy
(Gabriela Cendoya, Rudi Thoemmes, Women Photograph, Regina Anzenberger, Olmo Gonzalez Moriana, Tono Arias, Native)
[https://vimeo.com/216370975]

* On Abortion – Laia Abril
(Felipe Abreu, Rob Hornstra, Rémi Coignet, Mark Power, Tim Clark, Internazionale, Nathalie Herschdorfer)
[https://vimeo.com/243104473]

* Prince Street Girls – Susan Meiselas
(Ed Templeton, Deanna Templeton, Rebecca Bengal, Tono Arias, Elizabeth Avedon, Troy Holden, Emma Phillips)
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JyRpjTgsd18]

* Slant Rhymes – Alex Webb & Rebecca Norris Webb
(PDN editors, Luc Sante, Rodrigo Orrantia, Rebecca Bengal, Forrest D. Walker, Matt Stuart, James Featherstone)
[https://vimeo.com/213051890]

* Sleeping by the Mississippi – Alec Soth
(Elin Spring & Suzanne Révy, Rob Hornstra, Soraya Amrane, Vulture, Internazionale, Tono Arias, James Featherstone)
[https://vimeo.com/231663485]

.

6 selections
.

* Blind Spot – Teju Cole
(Smithsonion, Humble Arts Foundation, Rebecca Norris Webb, Andreas Oetker-Kast, The Scotsman, Yuri Long)
[http://nyti.ms/2qUh3G7]

* California – John Chiara
(Elin Spring & Suzanne Révy, Kaycee Olsen, Alyssa Coppelman, Anne Bourgeois-Vignon, Jim Casper, The Photo Academy Magazine)
[https://vimeo.com/238073995]

*East/West – Harry Gruyaert
(Forrest D. Walker, Vulture, Matt Eich,Richard Bram, Troy Holden, James Featherstone)
[Hyperallergic http://bit.ly/2kA1vpA]

• 30 / Exposure – Kazuma Obara
(10×10 Photobooks, Colin Pantall, Todd Hido, Regina Anzenberger, Francis Gan, Viory Schellekens)
[https://vimeo.com/183752537]

* Good Goddamn – Bryan Schutmaat
(Gabriela Cendoya, Robin Titchener, Laurence Vecten, Viory Schellekens, Too Arias, Yuri Long)
[https://vimeo.com/245362206]

* Halo – Rinko Kawauchi
(Elin Spring & Suzanne Révy, Sean O’Hagan, Vulture, John Veldhoen, Mowwgli, Previiew)
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8qplE9VlQOA]

* I love you, I’m leaving – Matt Eich
(Elin Spring & Suzanne Révy, Colin Pantall, Forrest Soper, Molly Roberts, Ola Søndenå, Matt Eich)
[https://vimeo.com/234841896]

* Local Objects – Tim Carpenter
(PDN editors, Ron Jude, 10x10 Photobooks, John Gossage, Chris McCall, Yuri Long)
[https://ideaweb2.ideabooks.nl/vide…/17336-carpenterlocal.mp4]

* Ravens, (re-issue with essay by Tomo Kosuga) – Masahisa Fukase
(Simon Baker, Elin Spring & Suzanne Révy, Rodrigo Orrantia, Roger Ballen, Teju Cole, Pela del Álamo)
[https://vimeo.com/216141013]

* The Hunt – Álvaro Laiz
(Laia Abril, Soraya Amrane, Regina Anzerberger, Viory Schellekens, Tono Arias, Ola Søndenå)
[https://vimeo.com/225906709]

.
5 selections
.

* A Place Both Wonderful and Strange – various photographers
(Humble Arts Foundation, Gabriela Cendoya for Clavoardiendo, Olmo Gonzalez Moriana, Tono Arias, Pela del Álamo)
[http://bit.ly/2C42BAx]

* Boardwalk Minus Forty – Mike Mandel
(Ed Templeton, and mentioned as part of TBW Books’s Subscription Series by Rebecca Bengal, Too Arias, Elizabeth Avedon, Troy Holden)
[https://vimeo.com/225667995]

* Clear of People – Michal Iwanowski
(Robin Titchener, The Calvert Journal, Viory Schellekens, Liza Premiyak for FK, Ola Søndenå)
[https://vimeo.com/214038664]

* Election Eve – William Eggleston
(Elin Spring & Suzanne Révy, Rebecca Bengal, Forrest D. Walker, Vulture, Francis Gan)
[ASX: http://bit.ly/2BeWa0x]

* Ending – Leif Sandberg
(Brad Feuerhelm, Robin Titchener, Martin Amis, Viory Schellekens, Joao Linneu) [https://vimeo.com/200907937]

* General View – Thomas Albdorf
(Brad Feuerhelm, Felipe Abreu, Erik Kessels, David Solo, Internazionale)
[https://vimeo.com/218642896]

* I loved my wife (Killing children is good for the economy) – Dieter de Lathauwer (Robin Titchener, Mark Power, Olmo Gonzalez Moriana, Too Arias, Viory Schellekens)
[https://vimeo.com/207544447]

* La gravetat del Iloc/La pesanteur du lieu – Israel Arino
(David Solo, Regina Anzenberger, Cécile Poimboeuf-Koizumi, Tono Arias, Ola Søndenå)
[https://vimeo.com/214641568]

* Money Must Be Made – Lorenzo Vitturi
(Fred Cray, Sean O’Hagan, Enrico Bossan, Peggy Roalf)
[https://vimeo.com/242239946]

* Photobook Phenomenon - Moritz Neumüller (ed.)
(Felipe Abreu, Thomas Wiegand, John Veldhoen, Bint Photobooks, Robert Ashby)
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K2zSlISl4MM]

* Pictures From Home – Larry Sultan
(Laurence Vecten, Colin Pantall, Jim Goldberg, Forrest D. Walker, Elizabeth Avedon)
[https://vimeo.com/209716378]

* Small Town Inertia – Jim Mortram
(Eva-Maria Kunz, Robin Titchener, Pete Brook, Robert Ashby, David Solomons)
[https://vimeo.com/234661902]

* The Family Imprint: A Daughter's Portrait of Love and Loss – Nancy Borowick (Sara Terry, Women Photograph, Amateur Photographer)
[http://cbsn.ws/2CyUQU1]

* The Mechanism – Marten Lange
(Brad Feuerhelm, Ron Jude, Rinko Kawauchi, Martin Amis, Olmo Gonzalez Moriana) [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C_8mfFQfTfo]

.

4 selections
.

* A Beautiful Ghetto – Devin Allen
(PDN editors, Humble Arts Foundation, Crave, Yuri Long)
[http://bit.ly/2xDGcdP]

* Bleu – Alix Marie
(Gabriela Cendoya, Alejandro Cartagena, Clémentine Marcier, Sarah Allen)
[http://selfpublishbehappy.com/2017/11/alix-marie/]

* Borne Back – Victoria Will
(Elin Spring & Suzanne Révy, Gabriel H. Sanchez, Women Photograph, Elizabeth Avedon)
[lenscratch: http://bit.ly/2C8YUdM]

* Corbeau – Anne Golaz
(Colin Pantall, Tono Arias, David Chickey, Pela del Álamo)
[https://vimeo.com/229852213]

* Endangered – Tim Flach
(PDN editors, Smithsonion, Amateur Photographer, Clémentine Marcier)
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S3tX38yjtyA]

* Head – Lee Friedlander
(Rebecca Bengal, Tono Arias, Elizabeth Avedon, Troy Holden)
[http://bit.ly/2BYFGdh]

* Human Nature – Lucas Foglia
(Elin Spring & Suzanne Révy, Karen Haas, Erik Vroons, Jenny Smets)
[https://vimeo.com/233292995]

* If You Have A Secret (re-published) – Irina Popova
(Eva-Maria Kunz, Thomas Wiegand, Nikola Mihov, David Nollet,)
[https://vimeo.com/86492131]

* In Most Tides an Island – Nicholas Muellner
(Ron Jude, Alec Soth, Adam Broomberg, Tim Clark)
[https://vimeo.com/219088544]

* Irving Penn: Centennial – Maria Morris Hambourg & Jeff L. Rosenheim (ed.)
(Luc Sante, Vulture, Clémentine Marcier, Peggy Roalf)
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uTJ56V8gDc8]

* Manhattan Transit: The Subway Photographs of Helen Levitt – Marvin Hoshino and Thomas Zander (ed.)
(Elin Spring & Suzanne Révy, Gabriel H. Sanchez, Miwa Susuda, Vulture)
[lensblog: http://nyti.ms/2C9rhYZ]

* Man Next Door – Rob Hornstra
(Laia Abril, Mark Power, Martin Amis, Clémentine Marcier)
[https://vimeo.com/243308444]

* Merrie Albion: Landscape Studies of a Small Island – Simon Roberts
(Sean O’Hagan, Tim Clark, Robert Ashby, Peggy Roalf)
[https://vimeo.com/246094999]

* Missão Francesa – André Penteado
(Felipe Abreu, Péricles Dias de Oliveira for Clavoardiendo, Daigo Oliva, Miguel Del Castillo)
[https://vimeo.com/230643002]

* On The Frontline – Susan Meiselas
(Elin Spring & Suzanne Révy, Elizabeth Avedon, Olivier Laurant, Mark Murrmann)
[https://vimeo.com/238075351]

* People In Cars - Mike Mandel
(Ed Templeton, Laurence Vecten, Martin Amis, Troy Holden)
[https://vimeo.com/217831394]

* Red Flower: The Women of Okinawa – Mao Ishikawa
(Jeffrey Ladd, Jim Goldberg, Clémentine Marcier, Native)
[https://vimeo.com/208639470]

* The Pigeon Photographer – Nicoló Degiorgis
(Rodrigo Orrantia, Regina Anzenberger, Alexa Becker, Clémentine Marcier)
[http://bit.ly/2CFJ7Ct]

* They Shall Take Up Serpents – Bill Burke’s
(Rebecca Bengal, Tono Arias, Elizabeth Avedon, Troy Holden)
[Crave: http://bit.ly/2BYFGdh]

* Transverse Path – Mike Slack
(Ron Jude, Tim Carpenter, Dan Rule)
[https://ideaweb2.ideabooks.nl/videos/17611-slack.mp4]

* Think of Scotland – Martin Parr
(Forrest D. Walker, John Veldhoen, Previiew)
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0CsP-HZjpVs]

* Tori – Yamamoto Masao
(Humble Arts Foundation, Regina Anzenberger, Viory Schellekens, Ola Søndenå)
[https://ideaweb2.ideabooks.nl/videos/17121-yamamototori.mp4]

* William Gedney: Only the Lonely, 1955-1984 – Gilles Mora (ed.)
(Luc Sante, Elin Spring & Suzanne Révy, Rebecca Bengal, Forrest D. Walker) [https://vimeo.com/233979038]

.
3 selections
.

* Acre – Pino Musi
(Viory Schellekens, David Nollet, Ola Søndenå)
[des livres des photos: http://bit.ly/2DAFwX1]

* An Autobiography of Miss Wish – Nina Berman
(Women Photograph, Andreas Oetker-Kast, Mark Murrmann)
[https://vimeo.com/242934980]

* Bluewater Shore – Douglas Stockdale
(Douglas Stockdale & Gerhard Clausing, Elizabeth Avedon)
[https://vimeo.com/230561573]

* Bystander: A History of Street Photography – Joel Meyerowitz and Colin Westerbeck
(The Times, Amateur Photographer, Oanell Terrier for Polka)
[https://vimeo.com/74388997]

* Dandy Lion: The Black Dandy and Street Style – Shantrelle P. Lewis
(Gabriel H. Sanchez, Crave, Elizabet Avedon)
[http://bit.ly/2rK2I2W]

* Days of Smelling Like Grass – Yoshio Mizoguchi
(Ed Templeton, Maki, Solitude of Ravens)
[http://bit.ly/2AMmLzj]

* Diary of a Leap Year – Rabih Mroué
(Gabriela Cendoya, Rémi Coignet, Viory Schellekens)
[https://ideaweb2.ideabooks.nl/videos/17093-rabihmroue.mp4]

* Everyday Africa: 30 Photographers Re-Picturing a Continent – Austin Merrill and Peter DiCampo (ed.) (Anika Burgess, Elin Spring & Suzanne Révy, Barbara Stauss)
[https://vimeo.com/208795677]

* Exile – Vasantha Yogananthan
(Andreas Oetker-Kast, Philip Prodger, Native)
[https://vimeo.com/233293393]

* Fancy Pictures – Mark Neville
(Dewi Lewis, Clémentine Marcier, Peggy Roalf)
[https://vimeo.com/186398806]

* Feast for the Eyes: The Story of Food in Photography – Susan Bright
(Tim Clark, Vulture, Caroline Hunter)
[https://vimeo.com/212272603]

* Fink on Warhol – Larry Fink
(Ed Templeton, Gabriel H. Sanchez, Deanna Templeton)
[http://time.com/4747045/larry-fink-andy-warhol/]

* Internat – Carolyn Drake
(Rudi Thoemmes, Women Photograph, Rebecca Horne)
[https://vimeo.com/237373656]

* Into the Light – Yusuke Tamatani
(Laurence Vecten, Solitude of Ravens, Asia-Pacific Photobook Archive)
[https://vimeo.com/230905202]

* IOWA – Nancy Rexroth (Douglas Stockdale & Gerhard Clausing, Elin Spring & Suzanne Révy, Rebecca Bengal)
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YtJNPmpWtW0]

* La Grieta, Le Fissure, La Crepa, Der Riss – Carlos Sporttorno & Guillermo Abril
(Viory Schellekens, Jenny Smets, Clémentine Marcier)
[https://vimeo.com/192109840]

* Mfon: Women Photographers of the African Diaspora – Laylah Amatullah Barrayn, Adama Delphine Fawundu & Crystal Whaley (ed.) (Joshua Rashaad McFadden, Women Photograph, Elizabeth Avedon)
[http://bit.ly/2kR4X1G]

* Mean Streets, NYC 1970-1985 – Edward Grazda
(Ed Templeton, Luc Sante, Forrest D. Walker)
[review f-stop http://bit.ly/2xb5Ym5]

* Memorial – Julián Barón
(Carmen Dalamau for Clavoardiendo, Olmo Gonzalez Moriana, Tono Arias, Pela del Álamo)
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wx0Aan-g3No]

* Misho – Emi Anrakuji
(Solitude of Ravens, Clément Kauter, Cyril Delhomme)
[https://vimeo.com/241509905]

* Natten – Margot Wallard
(Gabriela Cendoya, Rémi Coignet, Bildband Berlin)
[https://vimeo.com/225575941]

* Nausea – Ron Jude
(Brad Feuerhelm, Alec Soth, Mark Power)
[https://vimeo.com/215201632]

* Passport – Alexander Chekmenev
(Rob Hornstra, Rafal Milach, Salvatore Vitalefor FK)
[http://ti.me/2iDOMih]

* Past Perfect Continuous – Igor Posner
(Eva-Maria Kunz, PDN editors, Bildband Berlin)
[https://vimeo.com/216835120]

* Preston Bus Station – Jamie Hawkesworth
(Laurence Vecten, Martin Amis, Nanda van den Berg)
[https://vimeo.com/244809117]

* Really Good Dog Photography – Lucy Davies
(The Times, Amateur Photographer, Peggy Roalf)
[BJP: http://bit.ly/2ytb0PA]

* Signos – Veejay Villafranca
(Robin Titchener, Viory Schellekens, Asia-Pacific Photobook Archive)
https://vimeo.com/242934713

* The American Monument (reprint) – Lee Friedlander
(Matt Each, Richard Bram, Blake Andrews)
[orig: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z9Tnxam4Xqc]

* The Disappearance of Joseph Plummer – Amani Willett
(Elin Spring & Suzanne Révy, Humble Arts Foundation, Aline Smithson)
[https://vimeo.com/235889702]

* The Family Imprint: A Daughter's Portrait of Love and Loss – Nancy Borowick (Sara Terry, Women Photograph, Amateur Photographer)
[http://cbsn.ws/2CyUQU1]

* The Iceberg – Giorgio Di Noto
(Thomas Sauvin, Tim Clark, Internazionale)
[https://vimeo.com/234792598]

* The Last Son – Jim Goldberg
(Ed Templeton, Deanna Templeton, Internazionale)
[https://vimeo.com/196430394]

* This Is Not My Book – Erik Van der Weijde
(Alec Soth, Too Arias, Emma Phillips)
[http://cphmag.com/not-my-book/]

* Time from Different Sources: Images from Ciman Village – Cheng Xinhao
(Asia-Pacific Photobook Archive, Ola Søndenå, Jack Harries)
[https://vimeo.com/221744790]

* Witness: Kashmir 1986-2016 – 9 Photographers
(Laura El-Tantawy, Yumi Goto, Teju Cole)
[Hindustan Times http://bit.ly/2zbXvni]

* You Wait – Roman Pyatkovka
(Rémi Coignet, Rafal Milach, Ania Nałęcka-Milachfor FK)
[http://bit.ly/2CiURva]

.

2 selections

* 42nd and Vanderbilt: New York Photography – Peter Funch
(Adam Broomberg, Jack Harries)
[Creative Boom: http://bit.ly/2iVGsgw]

* αστάρια (Amorces) – Michel Mazzoni
(Jon Gorospe for Clavoardiendo, Olmo Gonzalez Moriana)
[https://vimeo.com/226465248]

* After the Firebird – Ekaterina Vasilyeva
(Eva-Maria Kunz, Ola Søndenå)
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-B_yDVVgAJ4]

* All About Saul Leiter – Saul Leiter
(Todd Hido, David Gibson)
[https://vimeo.com/221406515]

* All Quiet on the Home Front – Colin Pantall
(Eva-Maria Kunz, Ola Søndenå)
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UiNBo2fyQqg]

* A Google Wife – Olga Bushkova
(Olmo Gonzalez Moriana, Clémentine Marcier)
[https://vimeo.com/232215633]

* Alternative Moons – Nadine Schlieper and Robert Pufleb
(Thomas Sauvin, Clémentine Marcier)
[https://ideaweb2.ideabooks.nl/videos/17468-alternative.mp4]

* And from the Coaltips a Tree Will Rise – La Toya Ruby Frazier
(Rebecca Bengal, Elizabeth Avedon)
[http://bit.ly/2BEoGWq]

* Arbus Friedlander Winogrand: New Documents, 1967 – Diane Arbus, Garry Winogrand & Lee Friedlander
(Laura M. André, Forrest D. Walker)
[Collector Daily: http://bit.ly/2lhRKMp]

* Astres Noirs – Katrin Koenning & Sarker Protick
(Pablo Martínez, Native)
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zn4gKW2AzXw]

* Attempting Exhaustion – Daniel Blaufuks
(Rémi Coignet, David Kregenow)
[https://vimeo.com/246269719]

* A Rock is a River – Maya Rochat
(Simon Baker, Gabriela Cendoya)
[https://vimeo.com/239971724]

* Art Can Help: New and Selected Essays – Robert Adams
(Rebecca Norris Webb, Roger Ballen)
[photo-eye blog http://bit.ly/2zbTKhG]

* As It May Be – Bieke Depoorter
(Women Photograph, Internazionale)
[https://vimeo.com/240175408]

* Billie Holiday at Sugar Hill – Grayson Dantzic
(Vulture, Elizabeth Avedon)
[http://nyti.ms/2lWprWW]

* Blanco – Awoiska van der Molen
(Colin Pantall, Ola Søndenå)
[https://vimeo.com/209716643]

* Bord de Mer – Gabriele Basilico
(Bint Photobooks, David Nollet)
[http://www.cape.ag/?p=2197]

* B to B – Brenda Moreno –
(Colin Pantall, Olmo Gonzalez Moriana)
[https://vimeo.com/204471709]

* Cabestro – Carol Caicedo
(Rubén H. Bermúdez for Clavoardiendo, Olmo Gonzalez Moriana)
[https://vimeo.com/131291451]

* Candy/A Good and Spacious Land – Jim Goldberg/Donovan Wylie
(Mike Mandel, F.D. Walker)
[New Yorker http://bit.ly/2BImwWG]

* Censored – Tiane Doan Na Champassak
(Amateur Photographer, Asia-Pacific Photobook Archive)
[http://champassak.com/project/censored-2/]

* Chai Wan Fire Station – Chan Dick
(Robin Titchener, Shashasha staff)
[http://bit.ly/2zf9Zu6]

* Christian Borchert: Schattentanz / Shadow dance – Hansgert Lambers/Jens Bove (ed.)
(Thomas Wiegand, Rudi Thoemmes)
[http://bit.ly/2jPqh52]

* Coming of Age – Petra Collins
(Gabriel H. Sanchez, Hunger TV)
[Hunger TV: http://bit.ly/2hAcBJN]

* Continental Drift – Taiyo Onorato & Nico Krebs
(Gabriela Cendoya, Dan Rule)
[GUP: http://bit.ly/2E5WlZV]

* Daily, in a nimble sea – Barry Stone
(Jeffrey Ladd, Elizabeth Avedon)
[http://media.virbcdn.com/…/75ad2358a1df5db5-book_at_bailey-…]

* Dronescapes – Yann Arthus-Bertrands
(The Scotsman, Peggy Roalf)
[Telegraph: http://bit.ly/2pGuJWY]

* Ed Forbis – Lola Paprocka and Pani Paul
(Ed Templeton, The Calvert Journal)
[Vice: http://bit.ly/2BK103L]

* Eternal Friendship - Anouck Durand
(John Veldhoen, Teju Cole)
[Collector Daily: http://bit.ly/2q3jlqg]

* Exist to resist –Matthew Smith
(Christer Ek, Robert Ashby)
[https://vimeo.com/171125397]

* Extra! Weegee – Daniel Blau
(Luc Sante, Vulture)
[feature shoot http://bit.ly/2BLjile]

* Flat Finish – Stephan Keppel
(Bint Photobooks, Dan Rule)
[https://ideaweb2.ideabooks.nl/videos/17411-stephankeppel.mp4]

* Finché tornerai terra – Valentino Barachini & Mattilde Vittoria Larrichini
(Christer Ek, Ola Søndenå)
[https://vimeo.com/224171056]

* Flow – Tymon Markowski
(Douglas Stockdale & Gerhard Clausing, The Calvert Journal)
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ynZvCBifFO0]

* Front Line Towards Enemy – Louie Palu
(Humble Arts Foundation, Aline Smithson)
[Lenscratch http://bit.ly/2ADaccQ]

* Good Luck With The Future – Dani Pujalte & Rita Puig-Serra Costa
(Felipe Abreu, Bint Photobooks)
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YelVYzRuCtA]

* Guts – Masaki Yamamoto
(Maki, Asia-Pacific Photobook Archive)
[https://vimeo.com/239972469]

* Here For The Ride – Andre D. Wagner
(Joshua Rashaad McFadden, Elizabeth Avedon)
[My Modern Met: http://bit.ly/2zE98Qy]

* Here Goes River – Aya Fujioka
(Shashasha staff, Asia-Pacific Photobook Archive)
[http://bit.ly/2DmL9HR]

* Hidden Mother – Laura Larson
(Humble Arts Foundation, Larissa Leclair, Women Photograph)
[Pixel Magazine http://bit.ly/2j0r02j]

* Hunter Grill – Alexandre Christiaens
(Eva-Maria Kunz, David Solo)
[https://vimeo.com/236904430]

* Incoming – Richard Mosse
(Robert Ashby, Peggy Roalf)
[https://vimeo.com/207268783]

* I Fought the Law – Olivia Locher
(Gabriel H. Sanchez, Women Photograph)
[http://bit.ly/2vJAwLa]

* Immo Refugee – Marco Tiberio
(Bint Photobooks, Robert Ashby)
[ASX: http://bit.ly/1OSIUgI]

* In That Land of Perfect Day – Brandon Thibodeaux
(Elin Spring & Suzanne Révy, 10×10 Photobooks)
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Px-GhQtWwc4]

* Internal Notebook – Miki Hasegawa
(Eva-Maria Kunz, Asia-Pacific Photobook Archive)
[https://vimeo.com/236706832]

* I Will Be Wolf – Bertien Van Manen
(Ron Jude, Regina Anzenberger)
[https://vimeo.com/243282043]

* Llano – Juanita Escobar
(Women Photograph, Native)
[https://vimeo.com/211247740]

* La Trajectoire du Gyrovague – Constantin Schlachter
(Clément Kauter, Olmo Gonzalez Moriana)
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3lbp6asKAhI]

* LGBT: San Francisco – Daniel Nicoletta
(Gabriel H. Sanchez, Hunger TV)
[Guardian: http://bit.ly/2CAndEZ]

* Like – Eduardo Nave
(Alvaro Matias, Tono Arias, Ola Søndenå)
[https://vimeo.com/220031002]

* Lost Coast – Curren Hatleberg
(Jeffrey Laddi, Blake Andrews)
[https://vimeo.com/190694814]

* Louis Faurer – Louis Faurer (reprint, 2016)
(Troy Holden, David Gibson)
[GUP: http://bit.ly/2jhTpQl]

* Mexico 1986-2016: Antoine D'Agata – Antoine D'Agata
(Alejandro Cartagena, Bildband Berlin)
[http://josefchladek.com/…/antoine_dagata_-_codex_mexico_198…]

* Moshé – Sandrine Lopez
(Clément Kauter, Tim Clark)
[https://www.facebook.com/BRUZZbe/videos/10155910637674559/]

* Mother – Matthew Finn
(Amateur Photographer, Ola Søndenå)
[https://vimeo.com/226153864]

* Nemimi Parco – Jesús Monterde
(Olmo Gonzalez Moriana, Tono Arias)
[https://vimeo.com/220802043]

* Nueva Galicia – Iván Nespereira
(Tono Arias, Pela del Álamo)
[https://vimeo.com/226205296]

* New Realities: Photography in the 19th Century – Mattie Boom
(Bint Photobooks, John Veldhoen)
[https://ideaweb2.ideabooks.nl/videos/17311-newrealities.mp4]

*Nokturno – Andrej Lamut
(Douglas Stockdale & Gerhard Clausing, Bint Photobooks)
[https://vimeo.com/223885048]

* Nothing personal (reprint) – Richard Avedon, James Baldwin
(Internazionale, Oanell Terrier for Polka)
[ 1th edition: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U7Ick4gNA9o]

* Obama: An Intimate Portrait – Pete Souza
(Smithsonion, Vulture)
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0tDCPaC9-D4]

* Once a Dream Did Weave a Shade – Kārlis Bergs
(The Calvert Journal, Alnis Stakle for FK)
[https://vimeo.com/220637311]

* One – various photographers (Radius)
(John Veldhoen, Marta Zarzyck)
[http://bit.ly/2zE272j]

* Out of the Blue – Virginie Rebetez
(Rob Hornstra, Bildband Berlin)
[https://vimeo.com/225104270]

* Parental Advisory – Thomas Mailaender
(Mark Power, Mowwgli)
[http://bit.ly/2BnJr9H]

* Perigee – Paul Gaffney
(Colin Pantall, Ola Søndenå)
[https://vimeo.com/238474173]

* Pictures From the Next Day – Robert Lyons
(Douglas Stockdale & Gerhard Clausing. Alec Soth)
[http://www.robertlyonsphoto.com/gallery_parsons_street]

* Portraits – Duane Michals
(Douglas Stockdale & Gerhard Clausing, Venture)
[The Photobook Journal http://bit.ly/2kA1vpA]

* Prison Photographs – Nicolò Degiorgis
(Erik Kessels, Rob Hornstra)
[Museo della memoria carceraria: http://bit.ly/2AFOIsM]

* Roadside Lights – Eiji Ohashi
(Larissa Leclair, Yuri Long)
[IPA: http://bit.ly/2ETCzSN]

* Real Nazis – Piotr Uklanski
(Erik Kessels, Emma Phillips)
[ASX: http://bit.ly/2CDPIkv]

* Recent Histories: Contemporary African Photography and Video Art from the Walther Collection – Daniela Baumann e.a. (ed.)
(Vulture, Teju Cole)
[https://aperture.org/blog/okwui-enwezor/]

* Ren Hang – Ren Hang
(Forrest Soper, Crave)
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Do2gjzJYZ58]

* Río – Andrés Medina
(Gabriela Cendoya, Ola Søndenå)
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M5ot0xjcSm8]

* Siloquies and Soliloquies on Death, Life and Other Interludes – Edgar Martins
(Tim Clark, Zelda Cheatle)
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GvaMxSi6cj0]

*Stardust – Amy Friend
(Mowwgli, Eleanor McNair)
[https://vimeo.com/97932438]

* Survivalists – Lea Habourdin
(Douglas Stockdale & Gerhard Clausing, Olmo Gonzalez Moriana)
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4hcXb4a-jEQ]

* Tales of Lipstick and Virtue – Anna Ehrenstein
(Brad Feuerhelm, Elizabeth Avedon)
[https://vimeo.com/232827788]

* Tender Mint – Lynn Alleva Lilley
(Alexa Becker, Bildband Berlin)
[https://vimeo.com/224170525]

* Terra Nostra - Mimi Mollica
(Sean O’Hagan, Richard Bram)
[https://vimeo.com/198341696]

* The Kingdom – Stéphane Lavoué
(Pascal Therme for Mowwgli, Oanell Terrier for Polka)
[https://vimeo.com/123956677]

* The Movement of Clouds Around Mt. Fuji – Helmut Völter/Masanao Abe
(Ron Jude, Bildband Berlin)
[http://www.1000wordsmag.com/helmut-volter/]

* There Are No Homosexuals in Iran – Laurence Rasti
(Teju Cole, Peggy Sue Amison)
[http://bit.ly/2z4ZYQI]

* There’s A White Horse In My Garden – Anne Schwalbe
(Robin Titchener, 10x10 Photobooks)
[http://Collector Daily bit.ly/2kbaCfH]

* The World is Not Beautiful – John Myers
(Rudi Thoemmes, Mark Power)
[http://bit.ly/2n0vqHa]

* Theater of Love – Nobuyoshi Araki
(Maki, Solitude of Ravens)
[https://vimeo.com/239973014]

* The Erratics – Darren Harvey-Regan
(David Solo, Chris Littlewood)
[https://ideaweb2.ideabooks.nl/videos/17261-erratics.mp4]

* The Japanese Photobook: 1912–1980 – Manfred Heiting (ed.)
(John Gossage, Bint Photobooks, Vulture)
[BJP http://bit.ly/2kRbZR4]

* The Milky Way – Vincent Ferrané
(Colin Pantall, Dan Rule)
[Is IT Nice That: http://bit.ly/2CBAhcr]

* The Run-On of Time – Eugene Richards
(Forrest D. Walker, Mark Murrmann)
[Lensbloghttp://nyti.ms/2CleyGB]

* The Topography of Tears – Rose-Lynn Fisher
(Amateur Photographer, Elizabeth Avedon)
[http://bit.ly/2lhnpxw]

* Tokyo is Yours - Meg Hewitt
(Asia-Pacific Photobook Archive, Pela del Álamo)
[https://vimeo.com/224452480]

* This Will Change Your Life Forever – Klaus Pichler
(Brad Feuerhelm, Regina Anzenberger)
[HAFNY: http://bit.ly/2rRDnUn)

* Towards the North – Daisuke Yokota
(Solitude of Ravens, Francis Gan)
[https://vimeo.com/223600064]

*Once Upon a Time In Almería – Mark Parascandola
(Mowwgli, Oanell Terrier for Polka)[
NewY orker: http://bit.ly/2AmJkKx]

* Parties: The Human Clay – Lee Friedlander
(Vulture, Blake Andrews)
[Provokr: http://bit.ly/2lUEYnE]

* Valparaiso – Sergio Larrain, Pablo Neruda ed.
(Bint Photobooks, David Gibson)
[https://vimeo.com/217025937]

*Voices of the Tempest – Adriana Groisman
(Anne Wilkes Tucker, Robert Ashby)
[https://vimeo.com/65220645]

* We Oui! – Fumiko Imano
(Thomas Sauvin, Asia-Pacific Photobook Archive)
[https://vimeo.com/218641049]

* We Are Still Here – Devyn Galindo
(Gabriel H. Sanchez, Women Photograph)
[https://vimeo.com/198720438]

* Why Dresden?: Photographs 1984/85 and 2015 – Seiichi Furuya
(Daniel Boetker-Smith, Asia-Pacific Photobook Archive)
[http://josefchladek.com/book/seiichi_furuya_-_why_dresden]

* Werkstatt für Photographie 1976-1986 – Florian Ebner & Thomas Weski (ed.) (Brad Feuerhelm, Jeffrey Ladd)
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=6&v=SVey2LATJXw]

* You Get Me? – Mahtab Hussain
(Simon Baker, Rodrigo Orrantia)
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WdTSmeQv370]

See also

The 15 Best Dutch PhotoBooks of 2017 de Volkskrant Photography

.
***
.

LISTS OF
1. Ed Templeton, artist and photographer based in California (for Photobookstore)
2. Simon Baker, senior curator of International Art (Photography) at Tate (for Photobookstore)
3. Brad Feuerhelm, Managing Editor of American Suburb X (for Photobookstore)
4. Douglas Stockdale & Gerhard Clausing, photographers and bloggers at The PhotoBook Journal
5. Eva-Maria Kunz, co-founders and the artistic director at Ceiba Editions (for Photobookstore)
6. Gabriela Cendoya, Spanish photobook collector, living in the Basque Country (for Photobookstore)
7. Felipe Abreu, photographer, GOLD editor and MA in visual arts. (On Medium)
8+9. Photo District News editors (PDN) (part I, part II)
10. The Times
11. Smithsonion
12. Anika Burgess, journalist for Atlas Obscura, Vanity Fair, Solid Waste & Recycling (for Atlas Obscura)
13. Erik Kessels, creative director, book maker and publisher at KesselsKramer, editor of Useful Photograph. (for PhotoBookStore)
14. Luc Sante, teacher of the history of photography at Bard (for New York Times)
15. Ron Jude, U.S. photographer, photobook author, photography teacher at the University of Oregon. (for PhotoBookStore)
16. Robin Titchener, a photobook collector of thirty years (for PhotoBookStore)
17. Jeffrey Ladd, American photographer based in Germany, has exhibited all over the world. (for PhotoBookStore)
18. Thomas Wiegand, photographer and art historian specialised in photobooks.
19. Suzanne Révy, photobook blogger & Ellen Spring, blogger fine art and commercial portrait photographer.
20. David Solo, Brooklyn collector of artist and photo books, involved in photobook research and publishing. (for PhotoBookStore)
21. Laia Abril, multi-disciplinary artist working in photography, text, video and sound. (for PhotoBookStore)
22. Rodrigo Orrantia is an independent photography curator and photobook publisher. (for PhotoBookStore)
23. Laurence Vecten, freelance photo editor for French press, blogger for One Year of Books, publishing within The Gould Collection. (for PhotoBookStore)
24. 10×10 Photobooks, by Olga Yatskevich, Russet Lederman and Michael Lang, engages the global photobook community through events. (for PhotoBookStore)
25. Rob Hornstra, Dutch documentary photographer, founder of FOTODOK Utrecht, head of the photography department at the Royal Academy of Arts in The Hague.(for PhotoBookStore)
26. Colin Pantall is a writer, photographer, curator and lecturer based in Bath, England. (for PhotoBookStore)
27. Alec Soth is a photographer in Minneapolis, published over twenty-five books. Some of them are seen as all time bests. (for PhotoBookStore)
28. Humble Arts Foundation
29. Rudi Thoemmes, bookseller/publisher at RRB Photobooks, Trustee at the Martin Parr Foundation, linchpin of Photobook Bristol (for PhotoBookStore)
30. Maki, french photographer, book editor an publisher of the mini photobooks collection Média Immédiat, initiator of the “Photobooks Collectors” page on Facebook. (for PhotoBookStore)
31. Rebecca Bengal is reporting, writing narrative nonfiction, interviews, and writing about photography for the American press. She is MacDowell Colony fellow and has been artist in residence at several arts programs. List for Artsy.
32. Gabriel H. Sanchez, BuzzFeed News Photo Essay Editor, for BuzzFeed.
33. Rémi Coignet, editor in chief of The Eyes magazine, blogger at Des Livres et des photos and author of two books on the state of the photobook. (for PhotoBookStore)
34. Mark Power, photobooks lover who made eight himself. Full member of Magnum since 2007. (for PhotoBookStore)
35. Contributors to Clavoardiendo Magazine, a Spanish digital magazine dedicated to those who love photography.
36. Adam Broomberg has collaborated in books and exhibitions with Oliver Chanarin for over 20 years. They are professors of photography at the Hochschule für bildende Künste (HFBK) in Hamburg, Germany. They won major awards as the ICP Infinity Award and the Deutsche Börse Photography Prize. (For photo-eye)
37. Alec Soth again, without new entries. (for photo-eye)
38. Alejandro Cartagena, Mexican photographer who’s work has been exhibited internationally in more than 50 group and individual exhibitions. Her has created several award winning titles as self-publisher and co-editor. (for photo-eye)
39. Aline Smithson is a L.A. photographic artist, educator, and the founder and editor in chief of Lenscratch. As an artist, Aline has had over 40 solo exhibitions and has been published in several papers and magazines. (for photo-eye)
40. Christian Michael Filardo is a Filipino American photographer, curator, and composer in New Mexico. He writes critically for photo-eye and Phroom and is shipping manager at photo-eye Bookstore.(for photo-eye)
41. Daniel Boetker-Smith is an educator, writer, curator, publisher, and photographer. Daniel is the Academic Director at Photography Studies College (Melbourne). He is a contributor to various international publication and founder of the Asia-Pacific Photobook Archive. (for photo-eye)
42. Deanna Templeton, California artist, represented by Little Big Man Gallery, Los Angeles and Fifty One Fine Art Photography, Antwerp, Belgium. (for photo-eye)
43. Ed Templeton, 2nd list, no new entries (for photo-eye)
44. Forrest Soper is artist, photographe and editor of photo-eye blog in New Mexico. Former photochemical lab technician and graduated Art student. (for photo-eye)
45. Fred Cray, New Yorker with a Guggenheim Fellowship and awards from the Pollock-Krasner Foundation and Peter S. Reed Foundation. His works are in various collections. (for photo-eye)
46. Jim Goldberg, another landmark photographer of our times. He has been working with experimental storytelling for over thirty-five years, work is in numerous museums, he won a lot of awards. (for photo-eye)
47. John Gossage, still doing all the same stuff. (for photo-eye)
48. Joshua Rashaad McFadden obtained his Master of Fine Arts, published a successfull book and was seen in several publications. He combines his passion for civil and human rights with his love for the photographic arts. (for photo-eye)
49. Larissa Leclair is the founder of the Indie Photobook Library now at the Beinecke Rare Book Library at Yale University. (for photo-eye)
(for photo-eye)
50. Larry Fink, photographer and teacher of over 56 years. He has had one-man shows all over the world. He has been awarded two Guggenheim Fellowships and two National Endowment for the Arts Fellowships. (for photo-eye)
51. Laura M. André is art historician was teacher photo history at the University of New Mexico. Manager of photo-eye’s book division. (for photo-eye)
52. Laura El-Tantawy is an Egyptian photographer, writer and experimental film-maker. She was born in England, attended high school in Saudi Arabia, started university in Egypt and completed her degree in the US. Currently residing in London, Laura explores social and environmental issues pertaining to her background, working on long-form, personally-initiated projects. (for photo-eye)
53. Martin Parr is a photographer, a curator and editor. (for photo-eye)
54. Mike Mandel, photographer and photobook author. From 1973 to 1990 Mandel also developed with Larry Sultan a series of enigmatic public billboards that rupture the conventions of advertising culture. In the 1980s Mandel began to make large-scale mosaic murals derived from photographs. (for photo-eye)
55. Miwa Susuda is photobook consultant at Dashwood Books and Director of Session Press, introducing new work by contemporary Japanese and Chinese artists. (for photo-eye)
56. Rafał Milach, visual artist, photographer, author of photobooks, winner of prestigious prizes .For over 10 years, Rafał Milach has been working on transition issues in Russian-speaking countries and the CEE region. (for photo-eye)
57. Rebecca Norris Webb, originally a poet she often interweaves her text and photographs in her six books. (for photo-eye)
58. Rinko Kawauchi, Japanese photographer. She received the eminent Infinity Award in 2009 in the Arts Category by the International Center of Photography, USA. (for photo-eye)
59. Roger Ballen, born in New York and living in South Africa for over 30 years. Over the past thirty years, his distinctive style of photography has evolved into a style he describes as ballenesque. (for photo-eye)
60. Sara Terry, award-winning documentary photographer best known for her work covering post-conflict stories. She is a Guggenheim Fellow in Photography, founder and director of The Aftermath Project, publisher of 10(X) Editions. (for photo-eye)
61. Thomas Sauvin is a French collector specializing in vernacular Chinese photography. He published several photobooks. (for photo-eye)
62. Todd Hido is a San Francisco Bay Area-based artist whose photographs are a.o. in the permanent collections of the Getty, the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Guggenheim Museum, New York, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. He has over a dozen published books. (for photo-eye)
63. Yumi Goto, independent photography curator, editor, researcher consultant and publisher who focuses on the development of cultural exchanges that transcend borders. Co-founder and curator for the Reminders Photography Stronghold. (for photo-eye)
64. Martin Amis founded Photobookstore in 2006, and is rarely more than 10 feet from a pile of photobooks. His first photobook The Gamblers will be published in spring 2018. (for PhotoBookStore)
65. LensCulture, “Critically Acclaimed: 75 Experts Name the Top Photobooks of 2017.” The selections of 24 people were shared with at least two other list makers for LensCulture. They are Arianna Rinaldo, artistic director, Cortona On The Move; Alyssa Coppelman, photo editor; Verena Kaspar-Eisert, curator Kunst Haus Wien; Erik Vroons, editor-at-large GUP Magazine; Azu Nwagbogu, founder and director LagosPhoto Festival and the African Artists’ Foundation (AAF); Barbara Stauss, photo editor & curator ‎MARE – Die Zeitschrift der Meere, Martin Parr photographer Magnum Photos (2nd list, no addition); Joao Linneu, co-founder and independent designer VOID; Sarah Allen curator, Tate Modern; Panos Kefalos, photographer; Kaycee Olsen, gallery director Von Lintel Gallery; Anne Bourgeois-Vignon, global digital director Magnum Photos; Jim Casper, editor-in-chief LensCulture; Caroline O’Breen, owner and founder Galerie Caroline O’Breen; Alona Pardo, curator Barbican Art Gallery; Jennifer Pastore, photography director WSJ; Irene Attinger, head of library and bookstore Maison Européenne de la Photographie; Alessandra Capodacqua, independent curator and NYU Florence Instructor; Jenny Smets, director of photography Vrij Nederland; Maarten Schilt, publisher/director Schilt Publishing and Schilt Gallery; Karen Haas, lane curator of photographs Museum of Fine Arts Boston; Anne Havinga, senior photography curator, Museum of Fine Arts Boston; Michael Christopher Brown, photographer Magnum Photos; Markus Schaden, publisher and director The PhotoBook Museum. (Other list makers and books will be published later by LensCulture.)
66. Solitude of Ravens /SORBooks on Instagram
67.shashasha, staff of the Japanese photobook store
68. Women Photograph, an initiative that launched in 2017 to elevate the voices of female visual journalists. The database includes more than 500 independent women documentary photographers based in 87 countries.
69. Soraya Amrane, curator, publisher, owner of bookstore/photo gallery Zoème in Marseille for Mowwgli (guide ‘through the urban jungle of art).
70. Clément Kauter of Plac'art Photo, bookstore in Paris and online. (for Mowwgli )
71. (Advent Calendar of) Ericka Weidmann (independent artistic director, editor in chief (o.a L’Oeil de la Photography an Mowwgli), Hervé Le Goff (French journalist, art critic, and essayist specialized in photography, previously photography teacher ad universities), Pascal Therme (photographer, photography critic, journalst for Moggli) and editors for Mowwgli (multidisciplinary media dedicated to art and culture)
72. Sean O'Hagan writes critics about photography for the Guardian and the Observer, for which he got awarded with an award from the Royal Photographic Society. (For The Guardian)
73. Amateur Photographer, the world’s oldest consumer weekly photographic magazine, first published in October 1884.
74. For ZUM, Revista de Fotografia: Daigo Oliva, deputy editor of the Folha Image Nucleus and responsible for the blog Entretempos; Lívia Aquino, coordinator of the postgraduate degree in photography at FAAP in São Paulo; Rosely Nakagawa, curator and publisher of visual arts; Ângelo Manjabosco, assistant / IMS Contemporary Photography Collection; Miguel Del Castillo, curator of the IMS Paulista Photography Book Library; Denise Gadelha, teacher and curator of visual arts; Lívia Lima, assistant editor of ZUM magazine; Paulo Miyada, curator of the Tomie Ohtake Institute; Carlos Franco, editor of the ZUM website.
75. Regina Anzenberger, owner of the Anzenberger Gallery an Bookstore in Austria.
76. Andreas Oetker-Kast, photographer in Kiel.
77. Tim Clark, curator, writer and editor, editor-in-chief 1000 Words Magazine.
78. Olmo Gonzalez Moriana, photography, communication, cultural management and teaching a.o. for This Book Is True and Fiebre Photobook.
79. Bint Photobooks On The Internet, Dutch photobook blogger.
80. Forrest D. Walker of Shooter Files (Street Photography Blog).
81.The Photo Academy Magazine
82. The Calvert Journal
83. Vulture
84. Crave
85. The Scotsman, Schotland National Newspaper
86. Tono Arias and his Dispara Xestión Cultural, persuades to develop cultural projects around photography in Galicia. There’s a webshop and a project that aims to gather documentary photographic works and artistic events within the peninsula Realize Ibérica.
87. Internazionale has newspapers all over the world. This list comes from Italy.
88. David Kregenow, photographer, photobook author, collector and booklist critic. (ongoing)
89. John Veldhoen of The Camera Store (.com), a Canadian camera and photobook shop with a blog
90. Francis Gan, Filipino photobook collector, based in Thailand
91. Viory Schellekens, photographer, photobook lover and meta-list maker
92. Elizabeth Avedon, books, exhibitions, web design, curatorial consultant, list 1
93. Elizabeth Avedon, books, exhibitions, web design, curatorial consultant, list 2
94. Asia-Pacific Photobook Archive, a response to the European and American focus of most international discourses around photography and photobooks. It promotes, preserves and showcases photobooks from the region.
95. The Irish Times made an article per photobook (ongoing)
96. Previiew, a new and presentation space for invited international creatives in photo production.
97. LensCulture ‘Photobooks 2017—25 Personal Favorites’ additional participants: Cécile Poimboeuf-Koizumi, co-founder Chose Commune; Aron Mörel, founder Morel Books: Dewi Lewis, founder Dewi Lewis Publishing; Alexa Becker, Acquisitions Editor Kehrer Verlag Publishing; Lars Boering, managing director World Press Photo Foundation; Olivier Laurent photography editor Washington Post; Eleanor McNair, photographer; Tim Carpenter, co-counder TIS Books; Alvaro Matias, general director La Fabrica; David Chickey, publisher & creative director Radius Books; Caroline Hunter, picture editor The Guardian Weekend Magazine; Matt Shonfeld, executive director INSTITUTE; Gemma Padley, freelance photographer, writer and editor; Molly Roberts, senior photography editor National Geographic Magazine; Nikola Mihov, photographer; Marta Zarzycka, scholar Center for Women and Gender Studies and author, Gendered Tropes in War Photography: Mothers, Mourners, Soldiers.
98. Oanell Terrier for Polka, a magazine that takes time for stories. Sold in kiosks and in specialized bookshops in France and abroad.
99. FK Magazine, a web-based magazine writing on Latvian and international photography with the main interest area in contemporary photography in East and North Europe. Contributors: Katerina Zueva & Anna Shpakova, curators of Photobookfest Russia; Peter Puklus, Hungarian photographer; Salvatore Vitale, photographer and editor of Yet Magazine; Alnis Stakle, photographer and curator at Riga Photomonth; Liza Premiyak, associate editor of The Calvert Journal; Evita Goze, photographer and curator of Self Publish Riga; Ania Nałęcka-Milach, book designer in Poland; Olga Osipova, photo editor at Bird in Flight Magazine, Ukraine/Russia;
100. Clémentine Marcier, deputy head of the photo department of the French newspaper Libération (for Libération).
101. David Nollet of the photobook blog C.A.P.E.
102. Christer Ek of the photobook blog Who Needs Another Photo Blog
103. Photobook shop Bildband Berlin and its customers.
104. Teju Cole for The New York Times.
105. Lens Culture list 3: lists of curators and gallerists; Philip Prodger, head of photographs, National Portrait Gallery; Chris McCall, director Pier 24; Anne Wilkes Tucker, Curator Emerita Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; Zelda Cheatle, independent curator; Enrico Bossan, editorial director Colors Magazine, Fabrica Research Centre; Alessandra Capodacqua, independent curator and NYU Florence instructor (again, but new nomination); Fannie Escoulen, independent curator and artistic director of Prix Levallois; Alyssa Coppelman, independent curator and editor (new selection); Sarah Allen, curator Tate Modern; Karin Bareman, exhibitions & projects organizer, Autograph ABP; Chris Littlewood, director of photography Flowers Gallery; Daria Tuminas, independent curator and head of Unseen Book Market; Pete Brook, independent writer and curator; Francoise Callier, program director Angkor Photo Festival & Workshops; Cyril Delhomme, scenographer Le Bal; Rebecca Horne, independent writer, producer, artist; Katharina Mouratidi, artistic director, Society for Humanistic Photography; Arianna Rinaldo, artistic director Cortona On The Move (new selection); Peggy Sue Amison, artistic director East Wing Gallery; Nanda van den Berg, director Huis Marseille; Nathalie Herschdorfer, director Museum of Fine Arts (Le Locle, Switzerland); Francis Hodgson, professor University of Brighton and co-founder Prix Pictet;
106. Robert Ashby, photographer, writer and blogger at A Photographic Mind.
107. Ola Søndenå works at the Department of Special Collections, University of Bergen Library (Norway).
108. Mark Murrmann, photo editor of Mother Jones (for Mother Jones).
109. Pela del Álamo, director of documentary and an awards winning feature film, director of the International Short Film Festival of Santiago de Compostela - Curtocircuíto. List for Good2b, a Spanish journal about contemporary culture.
110. Hunger TV Fashion, Beauty, Music, Photography, Art & Culture, Documentary, Film
111. Matt Eich, portrait photographer and photographic essayist working on long-form projects about the American condition. Currently lecturer of Photography at The George Washington University. (for In-Public, an international group of street photographers that operates as a collective.)
112. David Solomons, exhibits as street photographer all over the world and published three books (for In-Public)
113. Richard Bram, street photographer, lecturing and exhibiting all over the world (for In-Public)
114. Troy Holden, San Fransisco street photographer. (for In-Public)
115. David Gibson, photobook collector street photographer and lecturer for street photography workshops. With an MA in Photography: History and Culture at the London College of Printing he is a writer on (street) photography. (for In-Public)
116. Blake Andrews, American street photographer and blogger based in Oregon, member of the In-Public street photography collective.
117. Peggy Roalf editor in chief of Dart “Design Arts Daily”, curator of photography and exhibitions. For AI-AP, online
118. Perimeter director Dan Rule, program coordinator and photobook buyer Emma Phillips, and The Heavy Collective founder Jack Harries. All for The Heavy Collective.
119. Yuri Long, photographer and blogger about work made with traditional photographic means in a digital landscape.
120. Native, visual storytellers from under-represented regions.
121. James Featherstone, photographer & video editor in Toronto.

.

***
.

Here you can find the book lists of all contributors: http://bit.ly/2ApEGht
Are you missing a list? Check this: http://bit.ly/2ATtMBn
Still missing a list, send me a pm. I'm adding lists until the end of January.

Hannah Villiger
Kunsthalle, Basel, Switzerland

BY RALF CHRISTOFORI
86.BMP


In Samuel Beckett's Happy Days (1961) Winnie sits buried up to her waist in a mound of sand. Her sphere of action is limited to how far she can reach with her arms, and the only way that she can see herself is in a small hand-held mirror. Recognizing only fragments of her body, she still manages to reassemble them into an imaginary whole. The photographs of Hannah Villiger work on a similar premise. A small surface of a white cloth set the stage for the Swiss artist, and a Polaroid camera took the place of the mirror. Villiger took photographs of her body from, at the most, an arm's length away. She stated, 'I am my closest partner and my most obvious subject. With my Polaroid camera I listen to my naked, bare body, the outside of it, the inside of it, traversing it.'

Born in 1951, Villiger trained in sculpture but discovered photography at the end of the 1970s. From 1981 until her death in 1997 she concentrated on taking photographs of herself. She emphatically believed in the power of the body even though, or rather because, she was already coping with the isolation caused by tuberculosis, which she had contracted at the age of 29. She believed not only in a life lived to excess, but also in the idea that photography can somehow renew the physical self.

A retrospective of Villiger's photographs is somewhat overdue, given her significance within the realms of body art. This show opened with the single pieces, then groups of works entitled 'Work' from the early 1980s, and led into the 'Sculpturals' from the 1980s and 90s. Villiger arranged single photographs into blocks that defy the logic of the original image. The result is a broken, anagrammatical body, twisted and dislocated by the photographic act. You can imagine this approach as a kind of performance, whose only viewer is the artist herself. The 15 panels of the blocks condense into a kaleidoscopic inquiry into subjectivity and sexual difference. Almost unidentifiable extremities - an embraced neck, a stimulated clitoris - were at the mercy of the artist's camera. Sigmund Freud and Marshall McLuhan described the camera as a type of prosthesis, an extension of the body's organs; it's a viewpoint that becomes abundantly clear in Villiger's work.

In the way they reveal and construct poses these photographs recall the early work of Cindy Sherman or John Coplans. If occasionally Villiger reached for little hand mirrors, like Beckett's Winnie, her intention was not so much to learn to recognize herself better, as to disrupt the act of looking, directing the camera to places where she couldn't reach, the remotest parts of her body, 'the outside of it, the inside of it, traversing it'.

Translated by Helen Slater


DECEMBER 9: PROSTHESIS

Coincidentally, today is the 1951 birthdate of Hannah Villiger. Where Milan Grygar in his performance is ‘drawing’ blind from behind, and on, photographer’s background paper with his fingertips dipped in the ink he is holding in a saucepan in his other hand, Villiger, in making her series was holding a Polaroid camera to isolate and record parts of her own body. Both are restricted in their recording of their gestures by an arms-length, and both are unable to see directly what they are doing.

Block I, 1988, collection Aargauer Kunsthaus Aaurau © The Estate of Hannah Villiger
Hannah Villiger (1988) Block I. Mounted group of Polaroids. Collection Aargauer Kunsthaus Aaurau © The Estate of Hannah Villiger

Villiger, in her workbook on September 20, 1989, described her own photography — a series of Polaroid self-portraits —  as “a little game between the I and the me.” We are familiar today with the ‘selfie’ as a common and normal activity, a game with its own identity, representation and boundaries, but in 1989 the term had not come into use and artists were inventing the terms of the self-portrait for themselves. For Villiger, it was, to put it in Freudian terms, a strategic communication of the super-ego with the ego and id.

Hannah Villiger, born in Cham, Switzerland, described herself as a sculptor. She was sixteen when her father died in 1967 and she took up study for a degree in commerce, which she put into practice in designing and selling the distinctive clothing of the kind that she always wore.

In 1970 she worked as temp in a Zurich advertising agency which led to her taking a course at the School of Applied Arts, Zurich in 1971, showing photographs of Berlin in the exhibition Zuger Maler, Plastiker und Fotografen later that year.  In her workbook in April 1972 she wrote;

Art is not a profession but rather a path to truth and self-realisation, not only for the artist but also for the observer.

Screen Shot 2017-12-10 at 11.00.07 am
Hannah Villiger (1975) Arbeit, black-and-white photograph, 38 x 56,5 cm. Standort Kunstmuseum Luzern, Besitz Kunstsammlung der Stadt Luzern
Hannah Villiger

Arbeit 1979 Black-and-white photograph on baryte paper, matt 125 x 189.5 cm Aargauer Kunsthaus Aarau : deposited by a private collection
Hannah Villiger

Until 1976 she studied and exhibited sculpture and trained in sculpture with Anton Egloff (*1933), and took residences in Rome, Canada and the USA in 1974 to practice that medium, which she exhibited at the 9me Biennale de Paris in 1975. Thereafter, her work included photography, with an October 1976 solo exhibition of objects and photographs at the Galerie Atelier Milchstrasse in Freiburg Germany. In August the next year she writes;

In the viewfinder of my camera— the feeling of ‘I’ with the object.

In 1979, while supporting herself with waitressing, she takes photographs and works with objects out of wood and plexiglass, and travels in the USA, before in December shows exclusively photography at the Galerie Jörg Stummer in Zurich. Beneath the photo of an object made from a ceiling lath she writes:

I made two objects that corresponded to my physical feeling and to my soul. When they were finished, I took pictures of them. Now the photographs please me more.

Hannah Villiger, Arbeit, 1980 Color photography on aluminium board, 100 x 100 cm Aargauer Kunsthaus, Aarau

This breakthrough continued in 1980 when she became infected, at only 29 years old, with acute tuberculosis, and was hospitalised in Switzerland and at the Basel High Altitude Clinic in Davos; ”An intense time of much emptiness” during which she made her hospital room a studio, creating small wooden objects, Polaroid photographs and workbooks and drawing directly onto the walls of the hospital room.

Swiss Cultural Center • Paris : 32-38 Rue des Francs-Bourgeois : F-75003 Paris
Installation at the November 2012 retrospective exhibition of Villiger’s photography at the Swiss Cultural Centre, 32-38 Rue des Francs-Bourgeois, Paris. Photo: Simon Letellier.
Frederic Meyer


Photo: Frederic Meyer

That year, 1980, saw her begin to concentrate almost exclusively on the medium of photography, repeatedly documenting herself, her Polaroid camera positioned only as far away as her outstretched arm would allow, to discover its parts and interiors that she could not see.

David Hockney (*1937) was not to start producing his ‘joiners’, also at first using Polaroids, until two years later, and Villiger makes no attempt at ‘joining’ hers, which remain disconnected, a dismembering of the whole.

Overexposure from the on-camera flash used at too close a range and the accompanying blurring of focus, extreme light/dark or color contrast between frames, and her use of  mirrors to double and merge body parts, all reinforce the abstraction of the assembled ‘Blocks’ (as she called them).

She avoids images that include her whole body, and though individual images are blown up to mural scale, unlike cliché male photographs of the ‘headless’, objectified nude, there is no interest in anonymity, and certainly no body-worship, voyeurism or narcissism here;

It is afternoon. Afternoons are reserved for my work. The curtains are drawn shut; a yellowish light passes through the material. A piece of white cloth is spread out on the floor. My arena. Some of the utensils lie in a state of readiness. The Polaroid camera is placed provocatively upon my table alongside my sketchbook. I cover my naked body with the robe that I wear when working. Everything has been prepared and now waits to be set in motion. The various pieces of mirrors, the fabrics, the knife, Neocolor, acrylic paint, > packs of Polaroid film; most of the time I am freezing cold at the beginning. I descend deep into myself.—Hannah Villiger, Workbook, 29.05.1989

The ‘truth and self-realisation’ that she proclaimed, at the age of 21, as the aim of art are achieved. These are devotedly honest images.

Swiss Cultural Center • Paris : 32-38 Rue des Francs-Bourgeois : F-75003 Paris2
Installation at the November 2012 retrospective exhibition of Villiger’s photography at the Swiss Cultural Centre, 32-38 Rue des Francs-Bourgeois, Paris. Photo: Simon Letellier.
Swiss Cultural Center • Paris : 32-38 Rue des Francs-Bourgeois : F-75003 Paris3

From the November 2012 retrospective exhibition of Villiger’s photography at the Swiss Cultural Centre, 32-38 Rue des Francs-Bourgeois, Paris

Block XVII, 1989 © The Estate of Hannah Villiger
Hannah Villiger (1989) Block XVII,, © The Estate of Hannah Villiger

hannah-villiger-block-xxx-1993-1994
Hannah Villiger (1993-4) Block XXX

In an interview in 1996 Villiger says:

It wasn’t my concept right from the beginning to photograph my life. I do other things, too; plastic works or drawings that I have not exhibited up to now. However I come back again and again to the Polaroids because they achieve everything that seems important to me.

Indeed, while her photographs are best known, sculptural interests prevail. Often associated, and exhibited, with 1970s and 1980s photographers of the body Urs Lüthi, Jürgen Klauke, Cindy Sherman, John Coplans, and Orlan, in contrast Villiger focuses less on the social and media depiction of the (female) body than on the essential sculptural plasticity of the body and the autonomy of the image. Furthermore, her titling of works since 1983 makes reference to sculpture, and from 1988 her arrangement of the square Polaroids in blocks infers the multiple viewpoints engaged by her original three-dimensional medium, and opens to a spatial context.

Hannah Villiger died too early in 1997 at the age of only 45, survived by her 6 year old son Yann Abdulaye and partner Mouhamadou Mansour (Joe) Kébé, but she remains one of Switzerland’s most significant women in art. She gained critical attention with exhibitions such as Neid (Kunsthalle Basel, 1985) and Skulptural (Museum für Gegenwartskunst, 1988/89), and international recognition for her contribution to the São Paolo Biennale of 1994 (together with Pipilotti Rist who currently exhibits her similarly self-exploratory Sip my Ocean at the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia).

Following her death, institutions including the Kunsthalle Basel, the Kunstmuseum Bonn, the NGBK in Berlin, and the Musée d’art modern et contemporain in Geneva devoted space to comprehensive presentations of her work.

Let’s turn once again to Freud:

Consciousness can never be anything else than conscious existence, and the existence of [the human] is their actual life-process. If in all ideology [individuals] and their circumstances appear upside-down as in a camera obscura this phenomenon arises just as much from their historical life process as the inversion of objects…

‘Banjir! Banjir!’(flood! flood!) is a cry often heard with increasing frequency in Jakarta. The city is sinking, the sea level is rising and heavy rainfall causes rivers, clogged by rubbish and silt to burst their banks. Since 2014 I have been documenting what it’s like to live in Sinking City Jakarta.These pictures are now bundled in a book.

The book is in two parts. In the first part five leading experts describe the situation in Jakarta. The second part is devoted to eight photo-reportages.

Banjir! Banjir!
Photographs by Cynthia Boll
Concept and design by Ben Krewinkel
Witteveen+Bos
ISBN: 9789490335106
195 pages


In the first week of April 2014, a Dutch delegation headed by the Minister for Infrastructure and the Environment, Melanie Schultz van Haegen, paid an official visit to Indonesia. The programme included the presentation of the National Capital Integrated Coastal Development Masterplan (NCICD). In the past two years, Witteveen+Bos has worked on this plan together with Grontmij and a number of other parties.

The masterplan presents solutions for a number of problems affecting the Indonesian capital Jakarta, including flooding, soil subsidence, an inadequate water supply system and poor water quality. The document combines the proposed solutions with an analysis of the expected economic and social benefits.

Flood protection and urban development
When a public call for tenders was issued in 2012, Witteveen+Bos sought collaboration with other parties. This resulted in a consortium that also includes Grontmij, KuiperCompagnons, Deltares, Ecorys and Triple-A. Our proposal is based on a two-phase approach: flood protection in the short term, and sustainable urban development in the long term. The Dutch government (Partners for Water) decided to award the contract to the aforementioned consortium. The project beneficiary is the Indonesian government.

Groundwater extraction
Every year, part of Jakarta is flooded. February 2014 was no exception: floods left some 300,000 residents homeless and resulted in dozens of casualties. The water flows into the city and simply cannot be drained off quickly enough. Soil subsidence due to groundwater extraction is a major cause of the flooding problems. In some places, the soil subsides by up to 17 cm per year. But subsidence is not the only cause for Jakarta’s water problems. No fewer than thirteen rivers flow from the volcanic hinterland into Jakarta Bay, and growing urbanisation upstream is exacerbating the problem.

Densely populated metropolis
In 2030, some 80 % of North Jakarta will be located below sea level. The masterplan calls for offshore flood protection measures in Jakarta Bay, the only area that still offers enough room for such measures in this densely populated metropolis. The coast needs to be reinforced as a temporary measure, and a new enclosure dam must be built in the bay. The dam can be financed through simultaneous large-scale land reclamation. Plans calls for a new waterfront shaped like the mythical Garuda bird, the national symbol of Indonesia. Realisation would require massive investment in one of the world’s largest hydraulic engineering projects.

Feasibility
The plan has been carefully assessed for its financial, technical, socio-economic and ecological feasibility. The costs of implementing the various measures are currently estimated at USD 10 to 40 billion. The accelerated construction of urban sewer systems and water treatment plants is a key aspect of the plan. This will prevent the development of a dreaded ‘black lagoon’ of sewage lapping at the city’s waterfront behind the new seawall.

Phased plan
Rapid construction of a complete enclosure dam between the eastern and western end of Jakarta Bay is logistically unfeasible. For instance, supplying enough soil would require more dredging vessels than are currently available in the entire world. The volume of soil needed to construct the western section is comparable to the volume required for the Tweede Maasvlakte land reclamation project near Rotterdam. Many factors will determine if and how this masterplan is to be implemented. Factors like the growth of the Indonesian economy, currently at an annual rate of + 5 to 6 %, or presidential elections. To tackle the problems in phases, a sound plan has been prepared.


Review: Jakarta, Mon Amour
Written by Ron Witton
source: Scott Merrilleessource: Scott Merrillees
Published:
Feb 22, 2016

I recently came across three books that trace, pictorially, the history of the development of Jakarta, from the earliest days of photography in the mid-nineteenth century through to 1980:

Cover Images

Browsing through the books brought back a kaleidoscope of memories.

It all began in early 1962 when, as a newly arrived 18-year-old, first-year student at Sydney University, I sat down in Fisher Library next to an Asian student. We got talking about what we were studying and I told him I was studying French and German. He told me his name was Albert Kwee and that he came from Indonesia. He said that although he was of Chinese descent, he did not speak Chinese as his family had lived in Indonesia for many generations and only spoke Indonesian, the national language. Curious, I asked him about the language. He wrote down a few sentences, showing me that it was written perfectly phonetically in Latin script, had a very simple, straightforward grammar in that its verbs did not conjugate and its nouns and adjectives did not decline. For someone who had struggled through high school with the grammatical idiosyncrasies of Latin, German and French, and the intimidating nature of French pronunciation, Indonesian seemed like a breath of fresh air.

Soon after, I found that Sydney University had a Department of Indonesian and Malayan Studies. I quickly enrolled, and in so doing determined the course of the rest of my life. Albert became a life-long friend, each of us being best man at our respective weddings. I ended up completing my bachelor, master and doctoral degrees in Indonesian studies, have often lectured on Indonesia, and still work as an Indonesian interpreter and translator.

Half way through my first year studies, I was so taken by Indonesian studies that I decided to buy a ticket on a Lloyd Triestino passenger liner to see the country for myself. This is how, in December 1962, I caught my first glimpse of Indonesia from the deck of a ship as it sailed into Tanjung Priok, Jakarta’s harbour. I still have the letters I wrote home to my family and upon reading them now, I am transported back. In the distance behind the city, there were mountains and on the wharf below, I could see Albert’s family holding up a sign saying ‘Kwee’ so that I could recognise them. As they drove me to their home, I was overwhelmed by the stifling heat and humidity, the kaleidoscopic impression of becaks (pedicab), cars, army lorries, buses, street vendors, people, people and people. They drove me to their suburban house on Jalan Mangga Besar Raya in Kota, the north district of the city.

Ron Witton in 1962 in the front yard of the Kwee family home on Jalan Mangga Besar Raya - Ron Witton

Jalan Mangga Besar Raya was a wonderful introduction to Indonesian urban life. There was the constant ‘tok-tok’ of bamboo sticks and ‘clang-clang’ of metal bells coming from the street as a steady stream of vendors walked, pedaled and rode past the front gate selling a multitude of products, ranging from every conceivable type of food delicacy to every household good one might possibly want. Up the street was Prinsen Park, to which families thronged to enjoy the rides, performances and recreational facilities that had existed since colonial times. At the other end of the street were the major thoroughfares of Jalan Hayam Wuruk and Jalan Gajah Mada, which were then still rather grand tree-lined boulevards.

Source - Scott Merrillees

I soon became immersed in the Jakarta of the early sixties. The Kwee family drove me around the city to see the newly built monuments to Sukarno’s vision of a modern Indonesia, Sarinah, Jakarta’s first department store (still under construction), the new Japanese-built Hotel Indonesia, and the new Russian-built Senayan sports complex for the Asian Games with the Gelora Bung Karno stadium.

En route to the south of the city to see the newly established satellite residential district of Kebayoran Baru they drove me over the new Swedish-built Semanggi (meaning ‘Cloverleaf’) Bridge:

Source - Scott Merrillees

As Scott Merrillees comments in JAKARTA: Portraits of a Capital 1950-1980, ‘In this post card we are looking across a recently completed and still very dusty Semanggi with the new Senayan stadium in the distance.’

I recall that driving south to Kebayoran Baru I could still see rice fields on either side of the road. It is only now that I realise I had a very privileged experience of a world that was soon to change forever. The city has grown from around three million when I arrived in 1962 to the current largely unmanageable population of over 10 million, and continues to grow inexorably. The Kwee’s house on Jalan Mangga Besar Raya is now long gone and the suburban atmosphere I experienced there has been replaced by hotels, nightclubs, brothels and shopping malls. Becaks and many other aspects of 1962 life have disappeared from Jakarta’s streets. I was still able to see many beautiful buildings from the colonial era, such as the charming Hotel des Indes, which had already been renamed Hotel Duta.

Source - Scott Merrillees

However, the hotel, like many other such historic buildings, was soon to be demolished to make way for a mall. One no longer sees mountains to the south of Jakarta as the pollution has drastically restricted visibility. One can no longer swim on the beach at Cilincing, near Tanjung Priok:

Source - Scott Merrillees

...and the rice fields I saw en route to Kebayoran Baru are also long gone.

I made two more visits to Jakarta in the 1960s, the second in late 1964 when I landed at Kemayoran, Jakarta’s former airport in the city’s east.

Source - Scott Merrillees

Over the decades since, I have made many more visits. Each time I have seen profound changes to the city, though underneath it all there is the old Jakarta I first experienced in 1962.

The three volumes by Scott Merrillees document, with a multitude of striking photos and postcards, lucidly discussed and contextualised, the way this city has changed from its earliest days as Batavia, Holland’s grand colonial outpost, to Jakarta, the modern city of today. The images accompanying this review are but a small taste of the fascinating sights captured in his three volumes. His commentary on each of the photos and postcards often draws one’s attention to details and features that would otherwise remain unnoticed. He also often links the image to his maps and to other images so that they become in effect a mosaic reflecting the city as a whole.

I am sure that for many who have ever lived in the city, one’s first inclination is to use the excellent indexes and maps in each volume to locate familiar places, relive the experience of having been there at a particular period, and to learn how they have changed over time. For example, I quickly found images of Mangga Besar, in colonial days named Prinsenlaan, and was amazed that the busy, crowded street of my memories had in former times been a quiet, grand tree-lined road:

Source - Scott Merrillees

I could even find an image of Prinsen Park, the amusement park down the road from the Kwee family home, whose name commemorates Mangga Besar’s colonial name of Prinsenlaan:

Source - Scott Merrillees

Prinsen Park was then re-named ‘Lokasari’ before finally succumbing to Mangga Besar’s less than family-friendly atmosphere of today. As has been the fate of many a Jakarta landmark, Lokasari was demolished to make way for yet another of Jakarta’s many malls.

The books have allowed me, through its images and maps, to explore where I have lived in later years, including Jalan Raya Radio Dalam in Kebayoran Baru and Jalan Yusuf Adiwinata in Menteng. There is also the enjoyment of looking at the changes in the locations of familiar institutions, such as the Australian Embassy’s former location on Jalan Thamrin before it was moved to Kuningan. I still recall that the embassy, located on the west side of Jalan Thamrin, also had offices on the east side. Due to the heavy and, for those on foot, life-threatening traffic of Jalan Thamrin, embassy regulations required diplomats and staff, if they wanted to go from the main building to the offices across the road, to take an embassy car north on Jalan Thamrin to a roundabout located some distance and then back south so as to enter the building on the east side. To return to the embassy, required a lengthy and often time-consuming trip south to the nearest roundabout. However, it became a badge of courage for some (Australian males, of course) to defy regulations and to cross Thamrin on foot speed. Particular honours were accorded those who managed to do it without stopping en route.

On a recent visit to Cuba I met some Indonesians, now in their eighties, who had been studying in communist countries in 1965 when Indonesia’s military took over Indonesia. The Suharto government forthwith cancelled the citizenship of such students abroad under the assumption they were all communist. Some of the students gravitated to Cuba where they began new lives. One of them told me that in 2000 President Abdurrahman Wahid restored their citizenship and apologised for their enforced exile. One of the exiled students I met in Cuba said that in 2008 he returned to Jakarta for the first time since 1964. He said the Jakarta he encountered was thoroughly bewildering and he could not deal with the large, noisy and overwhelming metropolis. He said he was happy to return to Havana with its old cars, its quiet streets, its clean air and, in his words, its ‘liveability’. He said that he believed that his life in Havana had allowed him to live in a kind of Jakarta frozen in time.

I defy anyone who has ever lived or even visited Jakarta not to lose themselves in memories as they gaze at this treasure of post cards, photographs, maps and images. Indeed, it is the sort of treatment many other major cities of the world deserve.

Scott Merrillees, BATAVIA in Nineteenth Century Photographs (Archipelago Press, 2000); 282 pp: A$ 85 plus postage from scott@bataviabook.net

Scott Merrillees,Greetings from JAKARTA: Postcards of a Capital 1900-1950 (Equinox Publishing, 2012); 248 pp; A$ 50 plus postage from scott@bataviabook.net; or Rp 495,000 plus postage from www.periplus.com

Scott Merrillees, JAKARTA: Portraits of a Capital 1950-1980 (Equinox Publishing, 2015); 159 pp; A$ 50 plus postage from scott@bataviabook.net; or Rp 495,000 plus postage from www.periplus.com

Ron Witton (rwitton44@gmail.com) gained his BA and MA in Indonesian and Malayan Studies from Sydney University, and then his PhD from Cornell. He has lectured in Sociology and Asian Studies in universities in Australia and Indonesia. He still works as an Indonesian interpreter and an Indonesian and Malaysian translator.

Wat Jakarta nodig heeft, is een eigen Afsluitdijk
Waterbouw

Zonder ingrijpen kan Jakarta in 2025 gezonken zijn. Nederlandse ingenieurs, adviseurs en baggeraars schreven een plan om dat te voorkomen, en hopen nu op miljoenencontracten.

Eva Oude Elferink
9 juni 2017
Jakarta zinkt, en niet zo’n beetje ook. Toch zou vissersvrouw Tati Suryadi (38) haar uitzicht voor geen goud willen ruilen. Vanuit haar spaanplaten huis op palen kijkt ze zo uit op de baai van Jakarta. Denk de hopen aangespoelde plastic even weg, vergeet de olieachtige laag die op het zwartgrijze water drijft. Begin tegen haar dus niet over dat strookje land daar rechts in de verte, waar een houten gebouw met aanlegsteiger nu nog het enige teken van leven vormt. Of erger: de plannen die er liggen om daarachter, precies voor haar uitzicht, een enorme dijk te bouwen.

De metropool met zijn (volgens officiële tellingen) ruim 11 miljoen inwoners zakt jaarlijks gemiddeld zo’n 7,5 centimeter verder weg onder zeeniveau. Op sommige plaatsen in het noorden gaat het een stuk rapper, daar loopt het op tot ruim 20 centimeter. De boosdoener: diepe grondwateronttrekking. De stad wordt in rap tempo volgebouwd met nieuwe winkelcentra en appartementencomplexen en die hebben allemaal water nodig. Wegens de gebrekkige waterleidingvoorziening pompen zij massaal water op, honderden meters diep uit de grond. Het gewicht van al die nieuwe gebouwen drukt de boel verder naar beneden.

Niet de Javazee stijgt, Jakarta zakt weg.

Zeker vier miljoen mensen wonen nu tot vier meter onder zeeniveau. Niet alleen arme vissers, maar ook de rijken die pompeuze villa’s aan zee lieten bouwen. De muren die hen tegen al dat water moeten beschermen, zinken net zo hard mee.

Hoe gevaarlijk dat is, werd duidelijk in 2007. In februari kreeg Jakarta, met dertien zwaar vervuilde rivieren wel gewend aan doorbrekende oevers, een van de meest dodelijke overstromingen in decennia over zich heen. Een paar maanden later, in het droogseizoen, gebeurde er iets vreemds: uit het niets overstroomde de stad vanuit zee. Een half jaar later: nog een keer. „Klimaatverandering, dachten mensen”, zegt Jan Jaap Brinkman (58) van het Nederlands wateronderzoeksbureau Deltares. Tot uit de berekeningen van Brinkman, vanuit Delft opgetrommeld door de Indonesische overheid, een heel andere conclusie kwam. Niet de Javazee stijgt, Jakarta zakt weg.

Er kwam ook een alarmerende voorspelling: wordt er niets gedaan, dan verdwijnt in 2025 het noorden van Jakarta onder water. Brinkman: „Dat is het moment waarop de rivieren zo zijn weggezakt dat ze niet meer in zee kunnen uitkomen.”

Uitgedijde delegatie
Brinkman, die met zijn 1,88 meter boven zijn Indonesische collega’s uittorent, is niet meer weggegaan uit Jakarta. Hij maakt deel uit van een sindsdien flink uitgedijde Nederlandse delegatie aan ingenieurs, adviseurs, en baggeraars. Op verzoek van de Indonesische overheid en gesubsidieerd door Nederland begonnen zij tien jaar geleden met het bedenken van een plan dat Jakarta moet redden. Dat plan ligt er nu en voor Nederland hangt er veel vanaf. Niet alleen vanwege de miljoenencontracten die lonken. Dit is prestige: laat de wereld maar zien dat Nederland nog altijd de onbetwiste koning van de waterkering is.



Maar de vraag is of het project, dat de National Capital Integrated Coastal Development (NCICD) ging heten en tot 40 miljard euro kan kosten, ook echt uitgevoerd zal worden. Met name Brinkmans oplossing voor de kust een dertig kilometer lange ‘Afsluitdijk’ te bouwen, is omstreden. Dan zijn er nog de plannen voor zeventien kunstmatige eilanden, een erfenis van de regering-Soeharto, die op verzoek van president Joko Widodo in de plannen moesten worden geïntegreerd. De lijst met critici en tegenstanders is lang. Onder hen zit Anies Baswedan, de nieuw gekozen gouverneur van Jakarta.

Papieren wekelijkheid
De eerste fase van het project, het verbreden van de verstopte rivieren en versterken van de bestaande zeedijk, is al begonnen. „De no regrets-fase”, zegt Rully, binnen het Nationaal Agentschap voor Ontwikkeling en Planning (Bappenas) verantwoordelijk voor NCICD. Net als veel landgenoten heeft hij maar één naam. Ga maar kijken in de wijk Pluit, waar zandzakken nu voorkomen dat zeewater over de rand klotst. Niet dat het erg helpt. Door scheuren sijpelt water alsnog de nabijgelegen huizen binnen. De gedwongen huisuitzettingen waarmee de eerste fase gepaard ging, leidden al tot kritiek. Maar de echte weerstand komt daarna; bij de Great Sea Wall, een zeewering die van de baai van Jakarta een enorm stuwmeer maakt.

„Het werkelijke probleem wordt daarmee niet opgelost”, zegt Giacomo Galli van de Nederlandse ngo Both Ends. Samen met SOMO (Stichting Onderzoek Multinationale Ondernemingen) en TNI publiceerde Both Ends onlangs een kritisch rapport over NCICD.

Dat hoef je Brinkman niet te vertellen. Hij roept al jaren dat de grondwateronttrekking moet worden gestopt.

„Technisch is het helder wat er moet gebeuren. Er zit alleen geen beweging in. En de tijd dringt. Dit is plan B.”

Pak (meneer) Lukman, visser, vaart door de baai van Jakarta waar in de toekomst The Giant Seawall moet worden gebouwd.
Foto Cynthia Boll

De huidige watervoorziening van Jakarta bestaat, net als een functionerend rioleringsstelsel, vooral op papier als gevolg van privatisering en slecht afgesloten contracten. Volgens de Wereldgezondheidsorganisatie is tweederde van de inwoners daardoor afhankelijk van water uit de grond. En ook wie dat niet is, gebruikt liever gratis grondwater. Ahok wilde als gouverneur dat heel de metropool in 2018 toegang tot leidingwater zou hebben. Maar door een slepende rechtszaak, aangespannen door burgers tegen de twee private waterbedrijven, lijkt de kans daarop nihil.

OVER DE FOTO’S EN VIDEO
Fotografe Cynthia Boll legt sinds 2015 vast hoe Jakarta en haar inwoners omgaan met wateroverlast. De foto’s zijn gebundeld in het boek ‘Banjir! Banjir!’, waarin acht fotoseries laten zien hoe het water een plek krijgt in de stad en in de levens van mensen. Na Jakarta richt Boll zich nu op andere zinkende steden wereldwijd met haar project ‘Sinking Cities’.

Niet alleen de zeedijk stuit op protest. Dat geldt ook voor de kunstmatige eilanden die voor de kust van Jakarta moeten verrijzen; een verzameling kantoren en luxe appartementen. Het geld dat vastgoedontwikkelaars hiervoor aan Jakarta betalen, is nodig om de rest van plan B te financieren, zegt Rully van Bappenas. In 2013 werd met de bouw van de eerste vier eilanden gestart, waaronder eiland G, of ‘Pluit City’. De deal à zo’n 350 miljoen euro voor het ontwerp en de bouw ging naar de Nederlandse baggeraars Boskalis en Van Oord.

Maar rondom de eilanden is een web van controverse ontstaan door vermeende steekpenningen, gesjoemel met vergunningen en boze vissers die zich niet gehoord voelen. Sinds april vorig jaar ligt de bouw stil.

Lees ook: Verlies Ahok in Jakarta is triomf radicale moslims

Colaflesjes
Op een donderdagmiddag in maart staat Tati met een gebalde vuist in de lucht en een luidspreker voor de administratieve rechtbank in Oost-Jakarta. Met een kleine honderd man, traditionele vissers met spandoeken en bijpassende T-shirts, zijn ze hier om te horen of de rechter hen in het gelijk stelt en de vergunning voor nog drie andere eilanden intrekt. Zo hebben ze meer rechtszaken lopen. Eerder bepaalde de rechter al dat de vergunning voor eiland G ongeldig was. Daartegen ging de lokale overheid in beroep. Hetzelfde gebeurt deze middag.

Met vissen zijn Tati en haar man gestopt, vertelt ze later bij voor huis. Het had geen zin meer. Zie je die pier? Daar zat het altijd vol met mosselen. Nu níets meer. Om vissen te vangen, moest haar man steeds verder varen. Dat kostte uiteindelijk meer brandstof dan hij aan de vis verdiende. Hun ene boot hebben ze verkocht, met de andere, een houten exemplaar waar de verf vanaf bladdert, verzamelt hij nu lege vaten van containerschepen. Aan land brengen die 20.000 rupiah (1,35 euro) op. Het is weinig, zegt ze. „Maar het is tenminste iets.”

In februari is de regentijd het heftigst in Jakarta. Het straatbeeld ziet er dan zo uit:

Je hoeft geen wetenschapper te zijn om te snappen waarom het leven uit de baai van Jakarta is verdwenen. Overal dobbert plastic. Colaflesjes, koekjesverpakkingen. Tel daarbij op de zware metalen die fabrieken stroomopwaarts in de rivieren dumpen. En toen werden ook nog eens die enorme hopen zand in de baai geloosd. Maar de echte nachtmerrie van de vissers, zo’n 24.000 in totaal, is het idee van die dijk. Milieu-activisten en wetenschappers waarschuwen dat, tenzij de rivieren grondig worden schoongemaakt, de baai dan verandert in een stinkend giftig meer.

„Het zal geen blue lagoon worden, nee”, zegt Victor Coenen met een Hollands gevoel voor understatement. Namens ingenieursbureau Witteveen+Bos leidt hij het Nederlandse consortium. En nee, ook het zinken van Jakarta stopt er niet door. „Maar het alternatief is over een paar jaar een deel van de stad evacueren.” Bovendien, zegt Coenen: „Het is niet dat we graag een dijk willen bouwen, en dus maar een probleem verzinnen. Jakarta heeft een enorm probleem. Als daar niet snel iets aan wordt gedaan, is een grote constructie de enige oplossing.”

Het is niet dat we graag een dijk willen bouwen, en dus maar een probleem verzinnen. Jakarta heeft een enorm probleem.

STANDAARDEN NIET GEVOLGD
De Nederlandse overheid stak tot nu toe 11,4 miljoen euro uit het budget voor ontwikkelingshulp in de ontwerpfase van NCICD. In hun rapport schrijven Both Ends, SOMO en TNI dat de overheid daarmee de eigen standaarden voor ontwikkelingshulp niet volgt, omdat het project mogelijk tot grote milieuschade leidt en de lokale bevolking vooraf onvoldoende is geïnformeerd en inspraak heeft gekregen. NCICD kreeg ook 500.000 euro vanuit het ‘Partners voor Water’-subsidieprogramma.

In het rapport Social Justice at Bay waarschuwen Both Ends, SOMO en TNI voor het ‘giftige meer’ dat voor de kust van Jakarta ontstaat als het NCICD-project doorgaat. Ook bekritiseren zij het gebrek aan inspraak voor de ruim 24.000 vissers die hun bron van inkomsten verliezen. Maar bovenal, schrijven de opstellers, voorkomen de plannen niet dat Jakarta verder zinkt. Wil de lokale overheid die problemen aanpakken, dan lopen de geraamde kosten (nu maximaal 40 miljard euro) veel hoger op.

Leugen
Maar als de afgelopen tien jaar iets hebben laten zien, dan is het dat besluiten eindeloos vooruit geschoven kunnen worden of door nieuwe wetgeving plots achterhaald blijken. En dan kan het ook gebeuren dat iemand anders, met een andere mening, het politiek voor het zeggen krijgt. Zo was de ontwikkeling van Jakarta’s baai een van de belangrijkste thema’s tijdens de recente gouverneursverkiezingen. De zittende gouverneur Ahok verleende vergunningen voor enkele kunstmatige eilanden, zijn rivaal Anies beloofde de bouw ervan definitief stop te zetten. Anies won de verkiezingen.

In een zaal achter het Onafhankelijkheidsmuseum in Jakarta zijn de aanwezigen daar maar wat blij mee. Dezelfde gezichten als een maand eerder bij de rechtbank, dit keer zonder spandoeken. Niet nodig, de presentatie van het SOMO/Both Ends-rapport is een bijeenkomst van gelijken. Ook gouverneur Anies zou komen, maar zag daar op het laatste moment van af. Gaat hij straks echt een streep door het project trekken? Ze hopen het hier vurig. „NCICD is een grote leugen”, klinkt het. En er is maar één groep die ervan profiteert. „De Hollanders, natuurlijk.”

Meneer Sumari ruimt op, na een overstroming in de wijk Muara Baru.
Foto Cynthia Boll

Ai Weiwei installation set to shine at Amsterdam Light Festival
The Chinese artist’s piece, Thinline, which represents a theoretical border, takes pride of place among 36 installations at the city’s land- and canal-based annual light festival

An impression of Ai Weiwei’s installation “thinline” at the Amsterdam Light Festival
Rendering of Ai Weiwei’s installation Thinline at the Amsterdam Light Festival. Photographs: Amsterdam Light Festival except where stated
Will Coldwell

Tue 28 Nov 2017 06.00 GMT Last modified on Tue 28 Nov 2017 06.03 GMT

Original artworks by Ai Weiwei and Cecil Balmond will be unveiled in the Dutch capital this week, as part of the launch for this year’s Amsterdam Light Festival. From Thursday 30 November, Amsterdam’s city centre will be illuminated by 36 light installations, designed exclusively for the festival, which is now in its sixth year.

Rendering of Cecil Balmond’s Infinita installation. Photograph: Courtesy of Studio Balmond

Visitors will be able to experience the works – all based on the theme “existential” – with a walk, cycle or boat ride along the festival’s two sites: one on land, and one on the water of its picturesque canals. The water exposition, which will run until 21 January 2018, consists of 21 artworks. These include Weiwei’s installation “thinline” – a 6.5km-long line running through the city, representing a border. Cecil Balmond’s installation “infinita” will take the form of a geometric shape, resembling a cracked pyramid floating in the water, designed to provoke reflection on the essence of our existence, and whatever lies beneath the surface.

Rendering of MYTH, an installation by Ben Zamora that will be part of the festival

The land exposition, open until 7 January 2018, will take place in Marineterrein Amsterdam: a historic naval dock on Kattenburg Island, a short walk from Centraal Station. Among the 15 works on display will be a piece by artist AlexP, consisting of 576 LED lights hanging from a circular frame, while an installation by artist Reanna Niceforo and photographer Phil Sutherland will create an interactive photo booth that puts visitors in the spotlight and explores the effects of light and projection.

A boat tour of the works will run through the Oosterdok, across the Nieuwe Herengracht, Amstel and via the Herengracht back to Centraal Station.

• amsterdamlightfestival.com

Thomas Struth
Galleria dell'Accademia
Venice 1992
184.5 x 228.3 cm

On Thomas Struth's "Museum Photographs"
by Phyllis Tuchman

The conceptual aspects of Thomas Struth's photographs are not readily apparent in the much lauded mid-career survey of his work now at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago (after stops at the Dallas Museum of Art and New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art, the organizing institutions). What did Struth intend when he took pictures of deserted city streets, portraits of families from around the world, crowded churches and dense forests where it's likely that no one hears the sound of a tree falling?

The 49-year old artist, who lives in Dsseldorf where he studied with both painter Gerhard Richter and photographers Bernd and Hilla Becher, revealed his intelligent, clear-headed approach to taking pictures in a public lecture as well as a private interview he held in New York after a snowstorm last February. When, for example, he discusses the engaging situations of actual gallery-goers looking at photographs of other gallery-goers looking at paintings, he has a lot to say about his work not found in the critical literature on it.

Says Struth, "I wanted to remind my audience that when art works were made, they were not yet icons or museum pieces.""When a work of art becomes fetishized," the affable, articulate artist points out, "it dies." Struth feels the paintings in his museum photographs regain aspects of their original vitality when seen anew in the context he renders so seamlessly.

Consider Galleria dell'Accademia I, Venice, a picture of tourists in shorts, jeans and short-sleeved shirts who carry cameras, tote bags and guidebooks as they wander around a display hall dominated at one end by a painting from 1573 by Paolo Veronese that's as big as a movie screen. At six feet across and more than seven feet tall, Struth's own color print from 1992 is supersized. It's not the sort of snapshot you'd have developed by a drugstore chain or even at a local lab. Yet this native of Dsseldorf has endowed his scene with the kind of immediacy associated with memories of weekend outings. He makes you believe you are there -- or that you have been there or somewhere else like it.

Struth, though, wasn't interested in making a picture postcard-like souvenir. He chose Veronese's interpretation of the Feast in the House of Levi because he loves the way the Venetian master depicted "a party scene with a big table where people eat and drink.""It's a dinner or brunch," the photographer says. "It's so Italian; and so enjoyable." With his eye for a captivating composition, his steady finger with a shutter and his mind set for philosophical concerns, Struth used "today's visitors" to energize Veronese's masterpiece. When viewed alongside spectators at the Academia who move about -- several are blurs -- and others who lean against a blue radiator, Veronese's figures at a banquet appear to be just as lively and dynamic, perhaps even more so. Certainly, they're better dressed.

In more than two dozen photographs Struth expressed his "interest in the fate of art in museums." Are picture galleries, he asks, "like cemeteries or a living organism where people can nourish themselves about aspects of human existence?" While he didn't become a conceptual artist like many of his contemporaries -- he just wasn't all that interested in theory per se -- he treats themes that appeal to his intellect.

Using a European 13 x 18 camera, which is somewhat comparable to an American 5 x 7, Struth, in the past, would wait for hours or even days to get his shot. At the Louvre, for example, he depicted a group of people in a formation that echoes the ship wrecked survivors clustered by Theodore Gericault on The Raft of the Medusa. There's even a chord of irony as a woman with a fashionable coat and a Louis Vuitton handbag contemplates a painting of distraught men who eventually would succumb to cannibalism. Struth positioned himself at the Art Institute of Chicago in front of an angled Paris street scene by Gustave Caillebotte so that he not only managed to render onlookers in positions as random as the pedestrians depicted by the contemporary of the Impressionists, but to also add another thoroughfare to his own lexicon of avenues and boulevards. In this instance, the figures in the painting are more active than their real life counterparts.

And then there's the photograph Struth took of a crowd filling a space at the Vatican decorated by Raphael. Did any High Renaissance painter or Pope ever expect the Sistine Chapel or the rooms leading to it to become a major museum destination? Amidst all the hurly-burly in Struth's print, the religious paintings on the wall are restored to the world of contemplation, peace and reverence they represent. In a more recent work -- Struth doesn't think he'll take many more museum photographs -- the German artist renders one of his most astonishing images -- a painting by Vermeer with no one around it.

Although Struth loves the work of Piet Mondrian, he wasn't satisfied with his views of people looking at abstractions by the Dutch Modernist master. He also didn't like what he got when he worked with the bright, color fields of the American abstract expressionist Barnett Newman. He's come to realize he needs figures to respond to other figures. That's a major part of how he achieves a dialogue between two media -- painting and photography. Besides the appeal of his work, there's another challenge packed into his art. Struth wants to make people more aware of how to read a picture while also taking into consideration the intention of the photographer. To be sure, the museum series can be interpreted as variously as the works of art depicted in them.

PHYLLIS TUCHMAN publishes regularly in the Smithsonian, Town & Country and other journals.

THROWBACK: NEW VISUAL LANGUAGE IN THE FIELD OF PHOTOGRAPHY

Thomas Struth – Pantheon, Rome, 1990

Thomas Struth is one of the most critically acclaimed contemporary photographers of our time. He is renowned for his black and white photographs of cities such as Düsseldorf and New York, as well as his family portraits. The artist who lives in Dusseldorf acquired his inspiration for his series of Museum Photographs while he was residing in Naples and Rome, where he discovered that there was a connection between paintings of art and religion and how these paintings connect audiences to their spirituality. The Museum Photographs, which was showcased at the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, marshaled in a new visual language in the field of photography.


In his series, Struth photographed the art and the visitors viewing it, as well as the viewer observing other audiences. As such, with the many layers of observation, Struth’s intention was to assess the museum’s control of their audience and the criteria that each museum has for exhibiting pieces in the way that it does. The purpose behind the Museum Photographs was to remind people that the iconic subjects of his photographs were once just unfamiliar paintings done by ordinary individuals.

For instance, his Galleria dell’Accademia I, Venice piece shows regular tourists in shorts and casual clothing as they wander around an exhibition hall that is dominated by Paolo Veronese’s 1573 painting The Feast in the House of Levi. Struth’s color print is as large as Veronese’s painting, yet the scene in his photograph is reminiscent of memories of an outing on a Saturday or Sunday afternoon. He specifically selected Veronese’s interpretation of the Feast in the House of Levi as a subject because it had a feel of a regular dinner or lunch and it depicted a rather large party atmosphere where people have gathered to drink and make merry. As a result, his photograph of the feast allows today’s audiences to look upon the masterpiece with a new energy and perspective, just like the first time it was put on public display.

For the project, Struth utilized a European 13×18 camera, and he positioned himself strategically so that every photograph he took, whether inside a museum or in the crowded streets of Paris and Vienna, rendered onlookers in random areas, which gives his pictures more power.

In the end, he managed to create a dialogue between photography and paintings, where his choice of paintings echoes his earlier black and white work in Düsseldorf. He effectively manages to bridge the gap between space and time, where the figures in the painting and the figures observing the paintings are connected despite how much time has passed since the paintings were first made public or the space that exists between them.

Thomas Struth – Pergamon Museum I, Berlin, 2001

Thomas Struth – Pergamon Museum II, Berlin, 2001

Thomas Struth – Pergamon Museum III, Berlin, 2001

Thomas Struth – Pergamon Museum VI, Berlin, 2001

Thomas Struth – Stanze di Raffaello 2, Rome, 1990

Thomas Struth – Art Institute of Chicago I, Chicago, 1990

Thomas Struth - Art Institute of Chicago II, Chicago, 1990

Thomas Struth - Galleria dell'Accademia I, Venice, 1992

Thomas Struth - Kunsthistorisches Museum III Wien, 1989

Thomas Struth – Louvre 1, Paris, 1989

Thomas Struth – Louvre 4, Paris, 1989

Thomas Struth – Pergamon Museum IV, Berlin, 2001

Thomas Struth – National Gallery I, London, 1989

Thomas Struth – National Gallery II, London, 2001

Thomas Struth – Alte Pinakothek, Self Portrait, Munich, 2000

Centre Pompidou Honours Van Der Keuken
11 January 2018

16 years after his early death and four years after the widely acclaimed exhibition at EYE in Amsterdam, the Bibliothèque publique d’information (Bpi) of the Centre Pompidou in Paris is organizing the biggest Johan Van der Keuken retrospective ever held outside the Netherlands. Some feature films and available short films have never been shown before in France. Most are coming from the collection of EYE Film Museum.

The retrospective celebrates the start of a new French initiative promoting Documentary Film: the Cinémathèque du Documentaire. This initiative consists of a nationwide network of festivals, institutions, archives and even television channels, aiming to promote Documentary Film. The Bibliothèque publique d’Information of the Centre Pompidou, also home to the prestigious Cinéma du Réel film festival, has been selected as the Parisian antenna of the Cinémathèque and will organize over 400 documentary screenings this year.

The choice of Dutch documentary filmmaker Van der Keuken to launch the Cinémathèque du Documentaire is a living proof that his work is highly appreciated in France, even more so by the presence of prestigious French filmmakers and critics presenting Johan’s films: Claire Simon, Julie Bertuccelli and François Albéra. From the Netherlands, filmmaker Ramon Gieling, producer Pieter van Huystee and editor Menno Boerema will introduce the film of their choice.

The retrospective will be officially opened on the 17th of January by Van der Keuken’s widow and lifelong collaborator, Noshka van der Lely and continues until March 2018.


Oktober 1997, nr 182

To Sang Fotostudio & Leven met je ogen

Gieling filmt Van der Keuken filmt To Sang

Het moet een merkwaardig gezicht zijn geweest: de ene cameraman volgt de andere filmploeg door de straten van de Pijp. Terwijl Johan van der Keuken een Chinese fotostudio in deze Amsterdamse volksbuurt filmde, maakte Ramón Gieling in diens kielzog een documentaire over cineast Johan van der Keuken.


Twee filmploegen aan het werk in Fotostudio To Sang.

De fotostudio van To Sang is wereldberoemd in de Pijp. Al twintig jaar maakt de Chinese fotograaf glossy, felgekleurde familieportretten, meestal tegen de achtergrond van overdadig natuurschoon. Zijn zwart-witportretten zijn weinig soberder: die kleurt hij in tot sepia-getinte nostalgische prentjes.
Het is niet verwonderlijk dat cineast Johan van der Keuken gefascineerd raakte door deze innemende portretfotograaf. Als een soort filmregisseur vertelt To Sang zijn klanten precies hoe ze moeten staan of zitten. De voeten iets meer bij elkaar, het hoofd een beetje gedraaid. En als iedereen precies de goede houding heeft aangenomen - 'meisje heel mooi zo' - drukt hij af.

Op verzoek van Van der Keuken maakte To Sang voor de documentaire fotoportretten van een aantal buurtwinkeliers. Na zijn stads-epos Amsterdam global village heeft Van der Keuken met deze documentaire over de winkeliers van de Pijp daardoor eigenlijk het vergrootglas gelegd op een klein stukje van dat wereldse dorp. In een kort gesprekje krijgen we iets te weten over de achtergrond van de - veelal allochtone - middenstanders. Vervolgens volgt de cineast hun oversteek naar de studio van To Sang, waar ze voor een decor van een bruisende waterval of een sfeervol berglandschap worden gefotografeerd.

Poor man's-speelfilm
Wat de toeschouwer van deze aardige verzameling portretten dan nog niet weet, is dat Van der Keuken en zijn (geluids)vrouw Noshka van der Lely op hun beurt weer op de hielen worden gezeten door Ramón Gieling. Gieling heeft een vruchtbare vorm gekozen om een documentaire over zijn bewonderde filmmaker te maken. Hij kijkt over de schouder van de meester mee hoe Van der Keuken al bijna veertig jaar te werk gaat.

Al snel blijkt dat Van der Keuken zijn schijnbaar losjes gefilmde documentaires zorgvuldig ensceneert. Leven met je ogen rekent radicaal af met het naïeve idee dat een documentairemaker Het Leven spontaan zou betrappen. "Dus u kijkt dromerig naar buiten", instrueert Van der Keuken fotograaf To Sang. En de regisseur laat een van de buurtwinkeliers zo vaak de wandeling naar de fotostudio maken, dat hij hem niet durft te vragen om het nog een keer over te doen.

Van der Keuken omschrijft zijn project als een 'poor man's-speelfilm' en legt daarmee inderdaad de charme van Fotostudio To Sang bloot. We zien gewone mensen uit de hele wereld die in dezelfde straat wonen en daarom in deze film verzeild geraakt zijn. In een echte speelfilm zullen ze waarschijnlijk nooit terecht komen, maar net als op de foto's van To Sang ontstaat een mooie spanning tussen de spontaniteit van de gefotografeerde en de plannen van de fotograaf of filmer.

Droste-effect
Om zijn documentaire wat meer academisch gewicht te geven, liet Gieling helaas een heel regiment binnen- en buitenlandse Van der Keuken-watchers aanrukken. Aardig zijn de uitspraken van Van der Keukens echtgenote en vaste geluidsvrouw over haar aandeel in de films van haar man. Eerder in de film hadden we al gezien hoe ze Van der Keuken bij zijn middel pakt en hem voorzichtig in een bepaalde richting laat filmen. Maar de overdaad aan andere filmcritici, vrienden en collega's doet weinig goed. Soms met enkele woorden ('Meester van de kadrering!') bewieroken zij Van der Keuken, zonder dat ze veel opzienbarends over diens werk kunnen meedelen.

De definitieve Van der Keuken-documentaire is Leven met je ogen bij lange na niet geworden. Maar de twee documentaires zorgen wel voor een bijzonder Droste-effect: Ramón Gieling filmt de filmende Johan van der Keuken die de fotograferende To Sang filmt. Het tweeluik roept bovendien interessante vragen op over fictie en werkelijkheid in een documentaire. Want in hoeverre moet de kijker van Van der Keukens film er zich bewust van zijn dat in dat piepkleine fotostudiootje niet één, maar twee cameraploegen aanwezig zijn? Vervolgens ga je je afvragen hoe waarheidsgetrouw Gielings documentaire is. Hoe vaak heeft hij Van der Keuken gevraagd om op de juiste manier - als een echte regisseur - aanwijzingen te geven? En als Khalid, de brommerkoerier uit Amsterdam global village plotseling langsscheurt, is het moeilijk te geloven dat Gieling dat níet in scène heeft gezet.

Pieter Bots

To Sang Fotostudio
Nederland, 1997.
Produktie: Frank Scheffer (Allegri Produkties).
Scenario, regie, en camera: Johan van der Keuken.
Geluid: Noshka van der Lely.
Montage: Barbara Hin en Johan van der Keuken.
Kleur, 35 minuten.

Leven met je ogen
Nederland, 1997.
Produktie: Frank Scheffer (Allegri Produkties).
Scenario en regie: Ramón Gieling.
Camera: Goert Giltaij, Eugene van den Bosch en Jaap Veldhoen.
Geluid: Wouter Veldhuis.
Montage: Barbara Hin.
Kleur, 55 minuten.


Filmer Johan van der Keuken bewierookt
To Sang Fotostudio. Regie en camera: Johan van der Keuken. Leven met je ogen. Regie: Ramon Gieling. In: Rialto, Amsterdam.

Raymond van den Boogaard
8 oktober 1997

Dat je als filmer graag een portret maakt over een filmer die je bewondert, ligt in de rede. Maar helaas is Ramon Gieling in Leven met je ogen, zijn documentaire over de documentaire filmer Johan van der Keuken, ten prooi aan het misverstand dat je het voorwerp van bewondering ook nadrukkelijk moet bewieroken.

Gielings portret is te zien in één programma met een nieuwe film van Van der Keuken zelf, To Sang Fotostudio, die een soort supplement vormt op diens mega-productie Amsterdam, Global Village van vorig jaar. Wederom geldt de Nederlandse hoofdstad als een kruispunt van culturen. Van der Keuken laat een uit vele windstreken afkomstige groep middenstanders uit de Albert Cuypstraat (Chinezen, Koerden, Surinamers, Pakistanen etc.) van zichzelf een portretfoto maken bij de van oorsprong Chinese fotograaf To Sang, een aantal jaren geleden 'ontdekt' door een fotoboek van Willem van Zoetendaal. Dat levert een buitengewoon grappig inzicht in de culturele smeltkroes op - waartoe niet weinig bijdraagt dat de foto's van To Sang een moeilijk te definiëren vreemdheid bezitten.

To Sang Fotostudio is een 'kleine' Van der Keuken, al was het maar omdat er thans geen gelegenheid bestond om de in Global Village-Amsterdam gevonden werkelijkheid te relateren aan de werkelijkheid in het land van herkomst van de geportretteerden. Gielings Leven met je ogen is deels een soort 'the making of' To Sang Fotostudio en als zodanig nog wel aardig: Van der Keuken wordt door grote stress, zoniet woede bevangen als er tijdens de opnamen iets mis gaat (geluidshengel in beeld, regieaanwijzing verkeerd begrepen). Het is fascinerend om te zien hoezeer een film die de indruk wekt van een reportage, het resultaat is van veel mise-en-scène en overdoen van opnamen. Maar daar eindigen de verdiensten van Leven met je ogen. Het in alle hoeken van de wereld gevonden gezelschap loftuiters wordt niet of nauwelijks geïntroduceerd, zodat hun in weemakende blokken gemonteerde complimenten goeddeels in de lucht blijven hangen voor wie niet is ingevoerd in de filmwereld. Volmaakt onduidelijk is ook waarom sommige oudere films van Van der Keuken middels een fragment en een interview aan de orde komen, en de meeste andere niet. Als grap op een avondje onder vrienden zou Leven met je ogen aardig voldoen, maar als documentaire is hij zijn onderwerp onwaardig.


Effectieve ontmaskering van de documentaire-mythe

HANS KROON– 9 oktober 1997

'To sang, foto-studio' (35 min.) is de eerste film die Johan van der Keuken maakte na zijn uren durende 'Amsterdam Global Village'. De nieuwe film kan beschouwd worden als een verbijzondering van het thema en de vorm van dat machtige epos over multi-culturueel Amsterdam.

Van der Keuken richt zijn camera deze keer op de studio aan de Albert Cuypstraat, waar de Chinese fotograaf To Sang al twintig jaar portretten van zijn buurtgenoten maakt. Van der Keuken zou Van der Keuken niet zijn als hij niet ook de buurt waarin de beminnelijke To Sang woont en werkt in zijn nieuwe film had opgenomen.

In het begin voert hij ons langs enkele felgekleurde winkelpuien in de Albert Cuypstraat. En meteen zitten we dan midden in multi-cultureel Amsterdan. De camera scheert onder meer langs de pruikenwinkel 'Hollywood Hair', het Pakistaanse 'Saree Center', het Koerdische restaurant 'Lokanta Ceren' en de Nederlandse versshop 'Woestenburg'.

Vervolgens laat Van der Keuken de eigenaars van deze winkels naar 'To Sang, fotostudio' lopen om geportretteerd te worden. De klanten nemen plaats voor een kleurig landschap of imposante waterpartij. Met gebaren, woorden en kleine duwtjes manoeuvreert To Sang ze in de door hem gewenste houding. Soms bewerkt hij de aldus ontstane, zeer geënsceneerde en glamoureuze foto's nog verder. Zwart-witportretten, bijvoorbeeld, tovert hij met kleine penselen om tot sepia-kleurige bidprenten.

'To Sang, fotostudio' lijkt op het eerste gezicht niet meer en niet minder te zijn dan een innemende en trefzekere weergave van een facet van het leven in een Amsterdamse volksbuurt. Dat filmer en fotograaf Van der Keuken tussen de beelden door ook iets onthult over zijn eigen esthetiek, blijkt overduidelijk uit de documentaire 'Leven met je ogen' die Ramón Gieling over Van der Keuken maakte terwijl die 'To Sang, fotostudio' opnam. Van der Keuken en de hem als zijn schaduw volgende camera-vrouw Noshka van der Lely blijken de werkelijkheid precies zo te manipuleren als de Chinese fotograaf. Zo laten ze een winkelier wel vijf keer opnieuw naar de studio lopen. Ook vraagt Van der Keuken de fotograaf om eens even dromerig voor zich uit te staren. 'Leven met je ogen wemelt' van dit soort taferelen die effectief afrekenen met de mythe dat documentairemakers de werkelijkheid alleen maar registreren en niet ook ensceneren.

Helaas heeft Gieling zijn film doorsneden met een bonte stoet Van der Keuken-deskundigen die even - soms zelfs in maar één zin - iets over het belang van de filmer mogen beweren. Die in mootjes gehakte intellectuele kretologie doet ernstig afbreuk aan zijn verder zo fascinerende film.

UNWIRED JACQUELINE HASSINK
What does it feel like to live without telephone and WiFi connections – to be ‘unwired’? The exhibition Unwired confronts us with our smartphone addiction and appeals to our fundamental need for mental rest.

For Unwired, Jacqueline Hassink roamed the world in search of ‘white spots’, where there is no digital connectivity of any kind. She photographed places like the remote primeval forests on the Japanese island of Yakushima, the Svalbard Islands in the Arctic Ocean and the mountains of Iceland, but also visited a ‘digital detox’ spa in Germany, where clients are artificially shielded from the digital world. Contrasting sharply with these tranquil places, Hassink has taken portraits of people glued to their smart- phones in the metro.

Publication
The exhibition will be accompanied by a photo book, likewise entitled Unwired. Designed by Irma Boom, the volume will be issued by German publishing house Hatje Cantz. It will feature contributions from Jacqueline Hassink, Frits Gierstberg, Bregtje van der Haak, Rinzai Zen master Yudo Harada and others.

De plekken waar je echt niets hebt aan je mobieltje
Fotograaf Jacqueline Hassink reisde naar plekken op aarde waar het digitaal doodstil is. „Ik realiseerde me hoe verslaafd ik was aan mijn mobiele telefoon.”

Rianne van Dijck
19 januari 2018

Onoaida 6Unwired Landscapes30°17’59”N 130°31’49”EOnoaida trail, Yakushima, Japan. Herfst, 2 oktober 2016
Jacqueline Hassink

Moderne paradijzen. Gouden plekken. Zo noemt fotograaf Jacqueline Hassink (51) de plekken op aarde waar geen mobiel bereik is. Waar geen zendmasten staan, geen luchtballonnen, drones of satellieten zweven die toegang bieden tot de digitale wereld, waar we niet kunnen appen, facebooken of Netflix kijken. Ook Nederland heeft er een paar, op de Veluwe, in de Betuwe en langs de grens bij Drenthe en Groningen.

Hassink reisde naar een aantal ‘white spots’ nadat ze eerder, tussen 2004 en 2014, werkte aan een fotoserie over boeddhistische tempels en tuinen in Kyoto, Japan. „Dan kwam ik in een tempel waar de monniken alleen een oude fax en een vaste telefoonlijn hadden. Ze namen vaak niet eens op als er werd gebeld, want dan waren ze met andere dingen bezig. Heel bevrijdend.”

Na een bezoek aan het Japanse eiland Yakushima, waar in het hart van de oerbossen helemaal geen bereik is, ervoer ze voor het eerst sinds lange tijd weer hoe het voelt om niet verbonden te zijn: „Ik realiseerde me hoe verslaafd ik was aan mijn mobiele telefoon. Het was heel verwarrend om daar te zijn, maar ik voelde ook dat ik weer ruimte in mijn hoofd kreeg. Ik denk dat mensen die ruimte soms nodig hebben om goed te kunnen functioneren. Zeker voor je creativiteit heb je soms behoefte aan die stilte, dat niets.”

Uit de mallemolen
Jacqueline Hassink werd internationaal bekend met haar fotoprojecten over economische macht, zoals The Table of Power, Arab Domains en Car Girls. Zo’n zes maanden per jaar is ze op reis; ze woont in New York maar verblijft ook regelmatig in Amsterdam en Kyoto. Haar mobiele telefoon en internet heeft ze hard nodig om te communiceren met al die contacten over de hele wereld. „Ik voelde de laatste jaren steeds meer druk. Ik leed aan slapeloosheid, aan stress, vond het steeds moeilijker om te ontspannen. En dat had, behalve de gewone werkdrukte, zeker ook te maken met het altijd maar bereikbaar zijn.”

Unwired, de expositie die vanaf zaterdag te zien is in het Nederlands Fotomuseum in Rotterdam, is het resultaat van haar zoektocht naar een exit uit deze mallemolen. Ze fotografeerde onder andere plekken op aarde zonder digitaal bereik, zoals die in kaart werden gebracht in het multimediale project White Spots. Ze reisde ervoor naar eeuwenoude oerbossen in Japan, de Noorse eilandengroep Spitsbergen, het onherbergzame landschap van IJsland en het mysterieuze, schier ondoordringbare bamboestruikgewas in het Mount Kenya National Park in Kenia.

Hassink fotografeerde ook de kamers in Villa Stéphanie, een luxe spahotel in het Duitse Baden-Baden, dat gasten een digitale detox biedt. De vijftien kamers hebben koperen platen in de muren die alle wifi, telefoonnetwerken en zelfs elektriciteit blokkeren. Voor wie wil, biedt het hotel begeleiding in het „aangaan van een gezonde relatie met je mobiele telefoon” en een exemplaar van The Digital Diet, een zelfhulpboek om in vier stappen je digitale verslaving te doorbreken en je leven weer in balans te brengen.

Wat opvalt is dat het kleven aan je mobieltje van New York tot aan Shanghai dezelfde mimiek genereert. De ruimte tussen de telefoon en de ogen wordt als het ware een cocon, een persoonlijke ballon die weliswaar onzichtbaar is, maar daarom niet minder ondoordringbaar. Volgens Hassink heeft de komst van de smartphone ervoor gezorgd dat we onze meest intieme emoties in de openbaarheid hebben gebracht. Het lezen van een brief – denk aan het schilderij van Vermeer – hoorde thuis in de beslotenheid van het privévertrek. Nu pingen en appen en snapchatten we persoonlijke boodschappen die iedereen mee kan lezen.
Maar zo voelt het niet. In de trein in Parijs staan reizigers als sardientjes in een blikje op elkaar. Iedere keer dat de trein remt voor een station, golft de meute synchroon naar voren, en weer naar achteren. Maar het is doodstil. Iedereen luistert naar of kijkt op zijn mobiel, om daarmee een restje privacy af te dwingen van de personen die hij noodgedwongen tegen zich aan voelt.

Langisjór 2, Unwired Landscapes63°58’11”N 18°41’6”WRoad F235, Vatnajökulsþjóðgarður, Iceland. Zomer, 17 augustus 2015.
Foto Jacqueline Hassink

„Net als veel mensen vind ik het moeilijk die balans te vinden”, zegt Hassink in een telefonisch gesprek. „De mobiele telefoon is voor veel mensen een verlengde van hun arm geworden, maar ook van hun geest. Je gaat gelijk op zoek naar informatie als je even iets niet weet. Als je je verveelt kijk je een serie op Netflix. Zit je even een minuut op iemand te wachten, dan haal je meteen je smartphone uit je zak.”

Elkaar in de ogen kijken
Naast de landschappen toont ze portretten van mensen die in metro’s in onder andere Moskou, New York en Seoul op hun telefoons zitten te staren. „In deze serie iPortrait zie je hoe iedereen alleen maar gefocust is op dat apparaatje, niemand praat met elkaar of is zich zelfs maar bewust van de aanwezigheid van de ander. Of van zichzelf. Mensen zijn niet hier maar daar: fysiek zijn ze op deze ene plek, hun geest zweeft ergens anders.”

Hassink maakt zich zorgen over dat gebrek aan menselijk contact: „Een goed gesprek voeren, uren de tijd nemen om te praten over en te luisteren naar elkaars ideeën en gevoelens; het lijkt steeds moeilijker te worden. Terwijl er niets zo mooi en belangrijk is als echt contact tussen mensen, waarbij je samen in een ruimte bent en elkaar in de ogen kunt kijken.

„Ik had laatst een etentje met zeven mensen in Beijing, vooral dertigers. Als ze het gesprek niet meer interessant vonden, pakten ze gewoon hun telefoon. Op een gegeven moment zaten vier van de zeven met die telefoon in hun hand. Ongelooflijk.”

Wat doet Hassink zelf in haar zoektocht naar een uitgang uit de digitale wereld? „Ik sport veel, dat helpt. En ik probeer er bewuster mee om te gaan. Eén dag in de maand zet ik alles uit. Lastig. Voortdurend popt er een vraag in mijn hoofd op en dan wil ik het antwoord gelijk weten. Maar dat gevoel zakt weg. Dan merk ik hoeveel tijd ik ineens overhoud.”

Jacqueline Hassink: Unwired. 20 januari t/m 6 mei in het Nederlands Fotomuseum Rotterdam. Bij de expositie verschijnt een gelijknamig fotoboek, vormgegeven door Irma Boom. Uitgeverij Hatje Cantz,  58 euro. Info over het White Spots-project: white-spots.net

FAXINATIE / FAXINATION by André Thijssen
Signed copies by André Thijssen & Hans Wolf
The total correspondence comprises 4030 faxes. Counting holidays, weekends and interruptions, that’s more than two a day over the course of six years.


For more than six years, between February 1992 and April 1999, Hans Wolf and André Thijssen faxed each other almost daily. They shared and duplicated their fascination for the puzzling, curious image. The image that was always more a question mark than an exclamation mark. Day in, day out, they played with expectations, thumbing their noses at the decoders, the sifters, the clarifiers of meaning. Of their extensive fax correspondence, 4030 A4 sheets have been preserved. For this book, they selected 634 sheets from a metre and a half of folders.


The word ‘fax’ is an abbreviation of the Latin ‘facsimile’: an accurate copy. These fax correspondents are not interested in the copy, but in the new image. The fax as original, to boost the imagination.


Deze faxen mogen niet verbleken
Faxinatie Jarenlang faxten een kunstenaar en een art director elkaar ongewone beelden. Nu is hun ‘obscure onderonsje’ een boek.

Arjen Ribbens
9 januari 2018

André Thijssen en Hans Wolf: Faxinatie. Fringe Phenomena, 638 blz., €49,90 exclusief verzendkosten. Print on demand via lulu.com
●●●●●

Wie ouder is dan 35 herinnert zich misschien nog de fax. Een communicatieapparaat uit de digitale steentijd. Tot eind jaren negentig werd de fax gebruikt voor tekst- en beeldoverdracht, via een telefoonlijn, en alleen in zwart-wit. Een belletje kondigde de komst van een nieuw document aan, dat dan even later met veel getak-tak-tak regel voor regel op een velletje thermisch papier werd uitgeprint met inkt die al snel verbleekte.

Kunstenaar André Thijssen en art director Hans Wolf stuurden elkaar tussen februari 1992 en april 1999 bijna dagelijks een fax. Van die ruim vierduizend berichten hebben zij er 618 gebundeld in het boek Faxinatie.



Het is nog lang geen februari, maar toch is het de vraag of dit jaar een krankzinniger boek het licht zal zien. Thijssen en Wolf deelden een belangstelling voor ongewoon beeld. Uit kranten en tijdschriften, reclamedrukwerk, akelige medische handboeken en antiquarische vondsten als Gibt es Sex nach dem Tode? en Photograph your injuries at once haalden ze curieuze foto’s, die ze kort becommentarieerden.

Op een foto van een Eerste Wereldoorlog-militair met een geblakerd hoofd noteerde Thijssen: „…maar onder z’n oksels moet ie heel fris ruiken hoor.” Bij een krantenpagina met een geboorteannonce en 29 overlijdensadvertenties voor oud-minister Jan de Koning noteerde Wolf: „één pagina met één levende en één dooie man.” Op 14 mei 1993 retourneerde Wolf een fax van Thijssen. Over een foto van een vrouw die met lege blik likt aan een donkere en een blanke penis is door een collega een post-it geplakt met de tekst: ‘Ik ben vrij liberaal, maar moet dit nou? Lydia’

Lang dachten de mannen dat hun faxcorrespondentie een obscuur onderonsje betrof, vertellen ze in hun boek aan journalist Jack Meijers. Tot tentoonstellingsmaker Erik Kessels bij Thijssen de 31 insteekmappen doorbladerde waarin de kunstenaar kopieën van de faxen bewaarde. „Waarom publiceren jullie dat niet?”, vroeg Kessels. Toen een aantal faxen op Facebook enthousiaste reacties ontlokten, besloten Thijssen en Wolf hun oude correspondentie uit te geven. „Gedeelde faxinatie is dubbele faxinatie”, zeggen ze.

Maria Austria (Marie Oestreicher)
Marie Oestreicher was born in Carlsbad (now Karlovy Vary, Czech Republic) during the First World War in 1915, two months after the death of her father. Her brother, twenty years her senior, was a medical student and her elder sister was already at secondary school. After attending secondary school in Carlsbad, she studied photography in Vienna. Because of increasing anti-Semitism in Vienna, she went to Amsterdam following her final exams in 1937. There, her sister Lisbeth Oestreicher had established a studio for knitwear designs. They worked together under the name ‘Model en Foto Austria’ for several Dutch magazines. It was then Marie adopted the professional name Maria Austria.

In 1942 the Nazis decreed that all Jews in the Netherlands had to report to the Westerbork transit camp. Hans Bial, whom Maria had recently married, did go to Westerbork but Maria joined the underground resistance to work as a courier and to assist in forging identity papers. It was there that she met Henk Jonker, who would become her second husband. She taught Henk photography.

Directly after the 1945 liberation, they established the photo agency Particam Pictures (a contraction of Partisan Camera) at Willemsparkweg 120 in Amsterdam. There they were joined by the photographers Aart Klein and Wim Zilver Rupe. The agency’s portraits and photographs of post-war reconstruction gained widespread recognition. In 1948 Particam Pictures became the main photographic agency for the newly established Holland Festival, an annual festival of music, theatre, opera and ballet. When Aart Klein and Wim Zilver Rupe left Particam Pictures to go their own way, Maria and Henk remained the most important photographers for the festival.

From the start, Maria was highly active in promoting photography within the Gebonden Kunsten in de federatie (GKf), an organisation that represented the interests of artists. She pleaded with the Ministry of Culture to recognise photography as an art form in its own right so that subsidies would also be available to photographers.

She was very demanding of her clients, insisting that she be credited for her photographs published in newspapers and magazines and, more importantly, forbidding cropping of her images.

Gradually Maria focused on her true passions: contempory avant-garde music, theatre and dance. She documented performances at the Mickery Theater from its inception in 1965 and photographed the cultural protests of the 1960s such as the Aktie Notenkraker and Aktie Tomaat. She continued to document all aspects of the Holland Festival until the end of her career.

In 1962 her marriage with Henk Jonker ran aground and she continued Particam Pictures alone with the assistance of Jaap Pieper, Vincent Mentzel and Bob van Dantzig. She died unexpectedly at home at the beginning of January 1975 from a bout of flu that she had not taken seriously.

For the outside world she was a wel-known photographer, a champion of avant-garde theatre and music, but for the three of us she was a wonderful aunt who documented family events, gave great presents and drew us into with her enthusiasm for music, theatre and ballet.

She left an extraordinary archive of negatives and prints that had to be preserved and made accessible. In consultation with friends and family, the Stichting Fotoarchief Maria Austria-Particam was established. With the help of assistants Bob van Dantzig and Jaap Pieper, the aim was to maintain the archive so that it could still be a source for publishers and exhibitions. One of the founding statutes of the Stichting Fotoarchief Maria Austria-Particam was the establishing of the Nederlands Fotoarchief (NFA) the aim of which was to care for the archives of important photographers in the Netherlands. Maria Austria was practically the first photographer of her generation to leave behind an important photographic archive.

But things did not proceed as envisioned. The trustees of the Stichting Fotoarchief Maria Austria-Particam established the NFA with a state subsidy that was granted on the condition that the NFA be based in Rotterdam. The trustees of the Stichting Fotoarchief Maria Austria/Particam were unwilling to comply with this condition and decided to keep Maria’s and Particam’s archives in Amsterdam together with those of Hans Dukkers and Carel Blazer. To this end, they applied for a subsidy from the City of Amsterdam. Meanwhile, the NFA went to Rotterdam. The City of Amsterdam granted the subsidy in 1992 for the Stichting Maria Austria Instituut (MAI), in which the archives of the Stichting Fotoarchief Maria Austria-Particam were housed. Since then the MAI has grown to become a leading organisation for photography with fifty archives of important photographers, housed in the Amsterdam City Archives. In 2009 the archives of Maria Austria, Henk Jonker, Particam and Hans Dukkers were donated to the MAI on the condition that they remain in Amsterdam. The partnership between the MAI and the Amsterdam City Archives promises a healthy future for the photographic archives maintained by the MAI.


Biography of Maria Austria (Marie Oestreicher) 1915-1975

1915Marie Karoline Oestreicher is born in Carlsbad (now Karlovy Vary, Czech Republic)
1932-1937studies at the Höhere Grafische Bundes Lehr und Versuchsanstalt in Vienna
1937partnership with her sister Lisbeth under the name ‘Model en Foto Austria’
1942marries Hans Bial
1943joins the resistance under the assumed name Elizabeth Huijnen
1945founds ‘Particam Pictures’ with Henk Jonker and others
1950marries Henk Jonker
1956Aart Klein and Wim Zilver Rupe leave ‘Particam Pictures’
1963divorces Henk Jonker
1963-1975continues working under the name Maria Austria-Particam
1975dies at home in Amsterdam
1976establishment of Stichting Fotoarchief Maria Austria-Particam
1992establishment of the Maria Austria Instituut (MAI), Amsterdam
2009the archives of Maria Austria-Particam and Hans Dukkers are donated to the MAI

Gebonden met leeslint
ISBN 9789072603890
ca. 768 pagina's
in kleur
Maria Austria wordt in Karlsbad (Bohemen) als Marie Karoline Oestreicher geboren. Zij is fotografe met een Weens fotovakdiploma en woont en werkt tussen 1937 en haar plotselinge dood in 1975 in Amsterdam. Zij is in kringen van fotografen en theater- en muziekliefhebbers vooral bekend vanwege haar theater- en podiumkunstfotografie.

Drie jaren uitgebreid en diepgravend onderzoek in het MAI (Maria Austria Instituut) en in het Stadsarchief Amsterdam levert een verrassend boek op waarin het veelzijdige en omvangrijke oeuvre van deze fotografe voor het eerst bij elkaar wordt gebracht.
Tijdens haar leven waren Austria’s foto’s zeer gewild. Ze verschijnen regelmatig in dag- en weekbladen, tijdschriften, programmaboeken en jaaroverzichten. In tegenstelling tot haar vakbroeders heeft zij echter geen fotoboeken met eigen werk nagelaten. De enige brochure waarin zij een prominente plek inneemt, is Foto’ 48, de catalogus bij de gelijknamige tentoonstelling in het Stedelijk Museum. In deze brochure staan onder andere foto’s van Sem Presser, Henk Jonker, Aart Klein, Ad Windig, Carel Blazer, Emmy Andriesse, Cas Oorthuys en Eva Besnyö opgenomen.

Na haar dood zijn haar foto’s nog in twee thematische fotoboeken gepubliceerd, namelijk Maria Austria (1976) met daarin vooral ‘de mooiste foto’s’, en Holland zonder haast (2001) met daarin de documentaire fotografie.

Het derde boek dat 25 januari 2018 verschijnt, is het eerste breed opgezette overzichtswerk van haar fotografie. In het boek staan een groot aantal historische fotoreportages die tot nu toe weinig of niet bekend waren, zoals: Het Achterhuis, Terugkerende joden uit Westerbork, De watersnoodramp, Ilaniah: het joodse kinderkamp, Nijmegen in verval, Josephine Baker en twee Isräel-reportages.

Tegelijk met het boek is er in het Joods Historisch Museum een uitgebreide expositie over haar werk te zien. De opening is 26 januari 2018. De tentoonstelling duurt tot 3 september 2018.


Holland zonder haast 4 , 2001
Maria Austria (1915-1975)
1e druk uitgegeven door Voetnoot in 2001
90 zwart/wit foto's op 90 pagina's
22 cm x 24 cm

LUCAS FOGLIA | Human Nature
ISBN: 978-1-59005-464-2
Hardcover, 9.5 x 12.5 inches, 92 pages, 58 four-color plates.

"A lyrical meditation on the complex dynamic between humans and the natural world at what may prove to be a critical time for both."— Sean O'Hagan, The Guardian

Foglia grew up on a small farm bordering a wild forest, thirty miles east of New York City. In 2012, Hurricane Sandy flooded his family’s fields and blew down the oldest trees in the woods. On the news, scientists linked the storm to climate change caused by human activity. Foglia realized that if humans are changing the weather, then there is no place on earth unaltered by people.

The average American spends 93% of their life indoors. With this in mind, Foglia photographed government programs that connect people to nature, neuroscientists measuring how time in wild places benefits us, and climate scientists measuring how human activity is changing the air. Many of the scientists included in the book are now facing budget cuts and censorship by the Trump administration.

Human Nature begins in cities and moves through forests, farms, deserts, ice fields, and oceans, towards wilderness. Funny, sad, or sensual, the photographs illuminate the human need to connect to the wildness in ourselves.

Foglia’s photographs are held in major collections in Europe and in the United States, including Art Collection Deutsche Börse, Denver Art Museum, Fotografiemuseum Amsterdam, International Center of Photography, Museum of Contemporary Photography, Museum of Fine Arts Houston, Victoria and Albert Museum, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Pier 24, Portland Art Museum, and San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.


Foam presents the work of American photographer Lucas Foglia in the exhibition Human Nature.

Lucas Foglia (b. 1983, US) deftly navigates the strange conceptual territory, where wild nature is both a quenching oasis and a shimmering mirage. His photographs show people gazing at nature, touching it, submerging themselves in it, studying it, nursing it, killing it, profiting off it, and, often just barely, surviving upon it. Foglia is a storyteller in the tradition of the great American photographers who show social commitment without losing sight of the aesthetics. His series Human Nature brings together stories about nature, people, government, and the science of our relationship to wilderness.

Esme Swimming from the series Human Nature © Lucas Foglia

Lucas Foglia grew up on a small family farm surrounded by forest, just outside New York City. The starting point for his latest project Human Nature is Hurricane Sandy. In 2012, this hurricane flooded his family’s fields and blew down the oldest trees in the woods. On the news, scientists linked the storm to climate change caused by human activity. Foglia realised that if humans are changing the weather, then there is no place on earth unaltered by people.

Human Nature begins in cities and moves through forests, farms, deserts, ice fields, and oceans, towards wilderness. At a time when the average American spends 93% of their life indoors, Foglia photographed government programmes that connect people to nature, neuroscientists measuring how spending time in the wild benefits us; and climate scientists measuring how human activity is changing the air.

ABOUT LUCAS FOGLIA
Foglia graduated with a MFA in Photography from Yale University and with a BA in Art Semiotics from Brown University. His work has been widely exhibited in the United States and in Europe. His prints are in collections including the Art Collection of the Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation, Foam, International Center of Photography, Victoria and Albert Museum and San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. Foglia was chosen as one of the Foam Talents for Foam Magazine in 2014. He lives and works in San Francisco. His earlier books, A Natural Order (Nazraeli Press, 2012) and Frontcountry (Nazraeli Press, 2014) were published to international critical acclaim. Foglia is represented by Frederick & Freiser Gallery, New York, and Michael Hoppen Contemporary, London.

Human Nature by Lucas Foglia review – into the wild
Man’s impact on the planet is revealed in Foglia’s dramatic portraits of people interacting with the natural world

Sean O'Hagan
Sean O'Hagan

Tue 10 Oct 2017 08.00 BST Last modified on Sat 2 Dec 2017 16.52 GMT

Lava flowing into the sea on the coast of Hawaii.

“I grew up on a small farm, 30 miles east of New York City,” writes Lucas Foglia in his short introduction to Human Nature. “Growing our food and bartering, my family felt shielded from the strip malls and suburbs around us... In 2012, Hurricane Sandy flooded out fields and blew down the oldest trees in the woods. On the news, scientists linked the storm to climate change caused by human activity. I realised that if humans are changing the weather, then there is no place on Earth unaltered by people.”

In this context, Foglia’s choice of title is an interesting one. Is he suggesting that human nature is essentially destructive? Or that nature itself is now shaped by human agency, whether it’s the melting polar icecaps or America’s last remaining protected wildernesses? His book provides few clear answers, but lots of clues. As in his two previous publications, A Natural Order (2012) and Frontcountry (2014), Foglia’s portraits occupy that tricky, slightly heightened hinterland between documentary and staging. (He studied at Yale, where one of his tutors was Gregory Crewdson, the master of grand-scale cinematic fabrication.)

Human Nature opens with an image of a naked man swinging between trees above a stream in Lost Coast, California, a place in which several communities live in seclusion on mountainous coastal terrain accessible only by hiking paths. Is this latterday Tarzan attempting to release his primitive inner self on an Iron John-style retreat? Again, Foglia is not telling, but his book is punctuated by individuals interacting with the landscape in often surprising ways. Another young man, clad only in Speedos, gazes out from the manicured foliage that surrounds his hotel infinity pool. Around him, the skyscrapers of downtown Singapore loom large. The juxtaposition of urban architecture and faux-nature is now a constant aspect of contemporary city planning, as evinced by the next image of two landscape gardeners tending a branch of McDonald’s in Singapore – the first one to have a “green” roof sprouting grass. Perhaps one day cows will graze on it.

Whether in the scientifically created rainforest environments of eco theme parks, such as the Eden Project in Cornwall, or the vast “urban greenways” that are now a feature of the South Korean capital, Seoul, nature is increasingly reinvented for our benefit. Foglia ranges far and wide to collect evidence of this ongoing human-nature interface: a scientist taking samples from a geyser in the world’s largest geothermal field in California; a young volunteer sleeping on a rocky outcrop next to a glacier as part of a research project undertaken by the Juneau Icefield research programme in Alaska. There are several startling images in the book, but none more so than a volcano spouting a flow of lava from a cliff face into the sea on the coast of Hawaii, while a boatful of tourists passes by below. Here, and elsewhere, an almost National Geographic approach to the wonders of the natural world is undercut by a conceptual artist’s eye for the absurd.

Into the ice: humans get closer to nature – in pictures

This is the kind of hybrid terrain that Foglia has made his own and his often large-scale digital images are even more dramatic – and even more unreal – when viewed as prints in a gallery. (A selection of his work is on show at the Michael Hoppen Gallery in London until 21 October.) The final image shows a naked young couple, Goda and Lev, making love in a field of plants and wild flowers, seemingly oblivious to Foglia’s presence. Apparently, their sexual abandonment is genuine, which, paradoxically, adds another layer of unreality to a photograph that already seems as if it has been carefully choreographed by an art director.

The image was made in Hawaii, where eco scientists have identified some of the cleanest air on the planet. This Edenic location, with its own Adam and Eve, is a symbolic place to end what is a lyrical meditation on the complex dynamic between humans and the natural world at what may prove to be a critical time for both.

titleRandy
photographerRobin de Puy
textRobin de Puy
design-SYB-
publisherHannibal Publishing
ISBN9789492677327
year2018
binding hardcover
size20 x 15 cm
pages120
languageEnglish

Robin de Puy: Randy
In 2015, portrait photographer Robin de Puy (1986) travelled across America on a motorcycle for her book If This is True… Her 8,000-mile road trip had almost come to an end as she rode her motorbike through Ely, Nevada on 7 July 2015. That night she discovered Randy. He rode past – fast – but in the split second she saw him she knew: she had to find out who this boy was.

About that first encounter she wrote: Randy, a fragile-looking boy, striking face, big ears – a puppy, a golden retriever waiting for the ball to be thrown, (too) naive. ‘Can I photograph you?’ I asked him. The question was met with a shrug and a look both anxious and curious, a look that seemed to say so much and so little, then he wholeheartedly said ‘yes’.

De Puy took his portrait, left town a few days later, and that was it – at least, so it seemed at the time. Back home in Amsterdam, Randy popped into her mind from time to time – it was impossible to meet this boy and leave it at that single image. She visited him again at the end of 2016, and then again in February 2017, and once more in May 2017. She turns him inside out, looks at him, stares at him and he lets her. ‘Never before have I met someone who gives me so much space to watch, to observe him.’

Q&A: Robin de Puy on photographing Randy
Written by Diane Smyth

From the series Randy © Robin de Puy, courtesy The Ravestijn Gallery

Inspired by the chance sighting of a young teen in Nevada, Robin de Puy returned to take "hundreds" of portraits of him - work now on show in Maastricht, and published by Hannibal

Born in 1986, Robin de Puy grew up in her parents’ family hotel in the small village of Oude-Tonge, South Holland. She graduated from the Fotoacademie Rotterdam in 2009, and won the Photo Academy Award the same year. In 2013, she received the Dutch Photographic Portrait Prize for a shot of fellow photographer An-Sofie Kesteleyn; in 2015 she took a 10,000km road trip across the US on a Harley Davidson, making images that she published as the book If This Is True, I’ll Never Have to Leave Home Again in 2016, and exhibited in the Fotomuseum The Hague. de Puy is now based in Amsterdam and New York City, and working for titles such as New York, Bloomberg Business Week, ELLE, L’Officiel, and De Volkskrant. She predominantly shoots portraits.

Her new series, Randy, started on her 2015 roadtrip when she spotted the teen in Ely, Nevada. He rode past her and she asked if she could take his photograph; back home in The Netherlands, she found he stuck in her mind, and returned to see him at the end of 2016, in February 2017, and in May 2017, making “hundreds”of portraits. An exhibition of this work, which includes photographs and videos, is on show at the Bonnefantenmuseum in Maastricht from 26 January-13 May; Hannibal also recently published the series as a photobook.

Robin & Randy © Robin de Puy, courtesy The Ravestijn Gallery

BJP: How did you get into photography in the first place?

Robin de Puy: I have dealt with anxiety all my life. In addition, I also feel tremendous curiosity about the ‘rest of the world’. Those two did not seem to go together until I started photographing. Taking a picture literally requires you to shift your focus to the other person. The desire to portray someone, to capture ‘something’, to be able to share it with anyone who wants to watch – that will almost always be bigger than any anxiety.

BJP: What was it that drew you to portrait photography?

RdP: My enormous fascination for some, and at the same time the search for recognition.

BJP: What makes a good portrait photograph?

RdP: I think a good portrait says a lot more about the photographer than about the person portrayed. The subject / person you choose to photograph, the place where you position someone, the moment you capture, the selection, the editing, the use of light – all of these are choices of the photographer. I think we are all (unconsciously) searching for recognition, for something we know, something about ourselves – I think that is having ‘your own style’ within the medium; the reflection of the photographer can be seen in the work.

From the series Randy © Robin de Puy, courtesy The Ravestijn Gallery

BJP: How does shooting personal work differ to your commissioned work?

RdP: The biggest difference is that in my commercial work there is a certain expectation of the client that sometimes does not completely match up with what I’m looking for in a portrait. Of course it is a challenge to stay as close as possible to your personal work, but sooner or later you have to compromise (the choice of the model, the emotion you are looking for, the location, etc).

BJP: Is it very different to take a portrait of someone famous?

RdP: The challenge for me is to create an image that – hopefully – shows something we have not seen from that person before. It is a different way of working. People not used to being in the spotlight often attach great importance to the moment the photo is taken and are not very concerned with the end result. Prominent or famous people are very concerned with how they come across and thus with the end result, and that can sometimes be limiting in the creative process.

BJP: It seems that you’re focusing more and more on black-and-white photography, is that right? If so, why?

RdP: Yes that’s right. I’m always searching for simplicity in the image. I assume a form, structure and emotion. I take away everything distracting. Colour often distracts and does not always add something.

BJP: When did you learn to ride a Harley? How cool!

RdP: I got my motorcycle licence at the age of 21. I used to ride a black and pink racer – quite camp! It was nice to start with, but eventually I got bored of it. When I decided to ride 12,000 km through America I really wanted to do it on the bike and yeah …. a Harley is the best fit for America, because almost every city has a Harley dealer.

BJP: What was it that struck you about Randy? I read that he didn’t communicate with anyone for eight years – it’s striking that you spotted such an unusual person just by seeing him.

RdP: It is almost always a gut feeling. I can’t explain why some people fascinate me so much. What I have learned is that they are often people that I feel comfortable with  because – here it is again – I recognise something in them. I think that is something that is human in itself: looking for safety, for recognition. If the trust is mutual you make beautiful images. Someone can and may feel insecure, angry or sad. As long as they are not trying to hide that, and feel the freedom to express it, you can create something beautiful. I hope I can offer that space during the shoots.

From the series Randy © Robin de Puy, courtesy The Ravestijn Gallery

BJP: Did you have to get permission from Randy’s family to photograph him?

RdP: Of course – when I photographed Randy for the first time he was 15 years old. That first photo is also in my first book. Before I photograph someone – young or old – I want him or her to realise that many others will also see them. At a certain moment the photograph may start to live its own life. Many people do not realise that at the time the photo is taken.

BJP: How did your relationship with Randy and his family develop?

RdP: Both Randy and his family gave virtually no limit. For me as a photographer, that means that responsibility lies with me. Where do I draw the line? What do I show and what not? That they trusted me in this way is a great gift, and actually the only way to be able do a project like this. I asked Randy’s mother why she allowed me to get so close; her answer was ‘because he deserves it’. It is a form of love.

BJP: Is it unusual to be able to photograph a young person for so long?

RdP: Yes, when you think about it like that it is obviously a bit crazy. Yet I think that this fascination with my subject is necessary to make this work. In this case it is Randy, but my previous project, for example, was about my old uncle in Denmark. The fascination for a particular person is not focused on age, race, gender. People that do not fit in very well – on the outside or the inside – and the individuality that comes along with that is often an important part for me. Not fitting in can sometimes be elusively beautiful.

The world can be so loud. So many opinions, a lot of judgment. I – and I think many with me – have quite a need for Randy. Randy has been dancing my mind for the past three years and it was therefore impossible not to share it with whoever wants to watch – the simplicity, playfulness, sobriety, but also sensitivity, individuality; all sides of Randy that I admire immensely, and which I attempt to show in the exhibition and my new book.

From the series Randy © Robin de Puy, courtesy The Ravestijn Gallery

BJP: How many photographs did you take of him?

RdP: Hundreds.

BJP: Could you describe a typical session with him?

RdP: Early on Randy really got into it. Every morning he would send me a message to ask me what the plan was for that day, and if I was already on my way. I was in Nevada with my boyfriend/cameraman Maarten (we also shot videos of Randy) and sometimes we spent one day in Ely and the next on the road. Listening to music, swimming, playing videogames, visiting Randy at school. We were often ‘just’ spending time with him and occasionally we shot or filmed something.

BJP: Was it just a case of hanging out?

RdP: Yes!

BJP: The idea of the great American road trip is quite well established – but it’s usually undertaken by men. Do you think being a woman made any difference?

RdP: I think a woman photographs differently from a man. In addition a woman travelling by herself on a motorcycle through America stands out more than a man would. Many people asked if it was scary to do this on my own, as a woman. The opposite was true – everyone wanted to teach me things, help me, listen to me, cooperate with me. Trust was often established very quickly; being a woman certainly helped with that. I felt safe during the the whole trip. Actually, travelling alone means you are much more focused on your surroundings, you become very perceptive. If something does not feel okay, you can always just leave.

There were a few situations that people consider to be unsafe. For example, I was at a motel where I wanted to take a self-portrait. I was standing in front of a group of workers half naked, they also had to take off their shirts. Physically they were stronger, yet I was in charge. I was very focused, but I also kept them focused. The camera and the way you are communicating gives a lot of power over the situation and enforces a certain respect. The men were so surprised by my idea they all cooperated well, and also corrected each other when someone made a comment.

That did not mean I was not afraid – I thought it was rather scary but I also shared that with them. They were also scared at a certain moment. They were whispering to each other and I wanted to know what they were saying because well…I was about to stand in front of them half naked, I would prefer no whispering. Then they were stuttering that they were afraid that I would steal from them. That made me laugh out loud, which in turn made them laugh. I wrote a little piece about this, titled White Boy: http://www.robindepuy.nl/words

From the series Randy © Robin de Puy, courtesy The Ravestijn Gallery

BJP: Do you think that, as a woman, you were able to get some images that would be harder to take as a man?

RdP: I do think that being a woman was important in my relationship with Randy. I was (and am) a kind of mother/big sister figure to him. Maarten was also there and he too formed a close bond with him, but I think that Randy is more inclined to feel safe with a woman. Perhaps I had a small headstart being a woman.

BJP: Are you still in touch with Randy?

RdP: Yes, we speak several times a week. He has seen the exhibition and book – albeit via our phonecalls – and he mostly thinks it is very COOL. It is also nice to be able to show him every time something happens with the work, and how people respond to it.

RdP: Do you see your work with him continuing in future?

RdP: Perhaps. Maybe not. I don’t know. His graduation is in June, and I’m going to see him then. Randy sees me as family, and also assumes that I will come back soon. “If you’re in the area, will you stop by?” He has no idea of the concept of ‘the world’ and how far we live from eachother. I have told him several times that I have to take two flights in order to get near to him, but he doesn’t really get it. I would like to photograph Randy in 20 years and then make a part two.

BJP: Are there photographers whose work you admire? If so who, and why?

RdP: There are many photographers I admire. Of course there are the well-known, such as Richard Avedon, Mary Ellen Mark, Vivian Maier. But sometimes a single image by an unknown photographer can also affect me enormously. Sometimes I do not find the whole oeuvre very interesting, but only a certain image. Or sometimes the work does not appeal to me very much, but the story behind it does. In short: there is much to admire.

Randy is on show at the Bonnefantenmuseum, Maastricht, The Netherlands from 26 January-13 May www.bonnefanten.nl Randy by Robin de Puy is published by Hannibal, priced €39.95 www.uitgeverijkannibaal.be http://www.robindepuy.nl/

From the series Randy © Robin de Puy, courtesy The Ravestijn Gallery

From the series Randy © Robin de Puy, courtesy The Ravestijn Gallery

From the series Randy © Robin de Puy, courtesy The Ravestijn Gallery

From the series Randy © Robin de Puy, courtesy The Ravestijn Gallery

Geen medelijden, want hij is niet zielig
Fotografie Robin de Puy raakte in de VS gefascineerd door tiener Randy. Hun bijzondere band is voelbaar op de foto’s die ze van hem maakte.

Amanda Kuyper
2 februari 2018

Randy, 2016
Foto’s Robin de Puy / courtesy The Ravenstijn Gallery 

Randy staat op een spoorweg, zijn armen onhandig gekruist in de lucht. Randy ligt voorovergebogen op een paard zonder zadel, met zijn neus in de manen. Dan weer ligt zijn hoofd op de rand van het zwembad. Hij staart, zijn ogen trekken scheel. Randy droomt. Wacht. Knuffelt zijn hond. Lurkt aan zijn frisdrank. Vriendjes trekken aan zijn oren.

Randy is overal. In de fraaie installatie van fotograaf Robin de Puy in het Bonnefantenmuseum in Maastricht hangen muurgrote foto’s in zwart-wit. Kleine, hoge, lange afbeeldingen op een lange wand. En er zijn projecties: Randy fietst in de dorre Nevada-woestijn. Eet met zijn familie op de bank terwijl ze televisie kijken.

Randy sings to his own tune. Wat een wonderlijk, ontwapenend mannetje. Zijn kwetsbaarheid ontroert. Een jongen is het, een tiener, zijn leeftijd blijft onduidelijk maar je ziet hem ouder worden. Die ogen, denk ik maar steeds. Hij heeft onpeilbare blikken van verwondering: bekijkend wat de fotograaf nu weer van hem wil. Schichtig. Lodderig passief. Hij heeft dikke lippen. Die brede mond hangt altijd wat open. Een clowneske grijns. Tanden in ongelijke rijen. Een lange stevige neus. Korte haren, lange nek, hangende schouders. Het magere bovenlijf is vaak ontbloot. Misschien is dat extra vaak voor de foto.

Is hij communicatief gestoord? Zwakbegaafd? Misschien. Randy is zonder meer anders. Een buitenbeentje. Randy straalt vertrouwen uit. Rust. Al zal het misschien wel druk zijn in zijn hoofd.

Confronterend
Hij woont in het desolate casinoplaatsje Ely in Nevada nabij kopermijnen. Ik zocht het even op. Een paar duizend inwoners. Het kan er koud zijn. Of verschrikkelijk heet. Vertrek via US Highway 50 en er is niets meer. Woestijn omgeeft „the loneliest road in America”.

Waarom wil iemand daar zijn, vraag je je af. Portretfotograaf Robin de Puy maakte een motorreis van tien weken door de VS en fotografeerde mensen die haar troffen. Anders waren. Ongezien blijven. Een confronterende trip waarin ze op zichzelf was aangewezen en heel wat angst had te overwinnen maar waar ze zich gaandeweg, met haar camera, sterker dan ooit voelde. Haar eerdere expositie en boek If this is true waren er al verslagen van.



Foto’s Robin de Puy / courtesy The Ravenstijn Gallery

In haar laatste reisweek bleef ze een aantal dagen hangen in Ely. Daar kwam op een avond Randy voorbij op zijn crossfietsje. Het was een kort moment, maar De Puy liep hem achterna. Wie was hij? Zij zag een fragiel uitziend jongetje. Een opvallend gezicht, grote oren – een puppy, een golden retriever wachtend tot de bal gegooid wordt. (Te) goed van vertrouwen, leek haar wel. Ze vroeg of ze een foto mocht maken. Hij vond het goed.

Terug in Amsterdam bleef hij in haar gedachten. Ze kon het niet laten bij dat ene beeld en in 2016 en 2017 keerde ze terug om heel veel foto’s te maken. Ze volgde Randy overal. Bestudeerde hem op zijn oeverloze, landerige dagen als hij niet op de lokale school was. Als hij ging vissen. Zwemmen. At met zijn moeder en stiefvader, broertje, vele half- en pleegbroertjes.

Hoe langer je de foto’s bekijkt, hoe meer de bijzondere band tussen jongen en fotograaf voelbaar wordt. De Puy bewondert hem zeer, zoveel is duidelijk. Ze heeft geen medelijden want hij is niet zielig. Ze zijn vrienden. En alles wat ze van hem schiet, voelt vertrouwd.

Wat zal er van hem worden?
In het Bonnefantenmuseum zit ik in een laag kamertje op een bed met een gebloemde sprei. Of eigenlijk is het het bed in het motel waarop Randy ligt voor een fotoshoot. Het voelt intiem er te zijn. Een video toont hoe de jongen aanwijzingen van De Puy krijgt. Hand opzij. Op je rug. Kijk hier eens. Zacht dwingend. Alles openhoudend. Gedwee volgt de jongen, hij rekent erop dat het goed komt.

De uitleg over haar aanpak is deze expositie summier, maar haar fascinatie draagt ze beeld voor beeld over. Zie hem staan. Elke dag is er een. En vandaag is hij vrolijk. Al valt ineens een peinzende blik in de serie ook op. Wat zal er van Randy worden?, vraag je je af. Wat kan er.

Robin de Puy bij Jinek.


In het programma Jinek vertelde De Puy hoe ze zijn moeder om toestemming vroeg voor de fotoseries, voor een boek, een tentoonstelling. Zijn moeder zei meteen ja. Iets te snel, voor De Puys gevoel. Of ze wel besefte wat het allemaal inhield, vroeg ze haar. Duizenden mensen zouden Randy zien. En kreeg toen te horen dat hij dat verdiende. De wereld moest hem zien.

Robin de Puy: Randy. T/m 13 mei in Bonnefantenmuseum Maastricht. Inl.: www.bonnefanten.nl

SOL LEWITT: From Monteluco to Spoleto, December 1976
Eindhoven, Van Abbemuseum; SOL LEWITT
Published by 1984, 1984
Eindhoven, Van Abbemuseum. SOL LEWITT: From Monteluco to Spoleto, December 1976. 36 pages, including 360 color plates. 4to, wraps. 1984. 9 nature photographs by Sol Lewitt on each page arranged in a grid, including the front and back cover. 360 images that feature rocks, walls, structures, dirt roads, man holes, benches, and other forms.

See also

Autobiography The Artist as Collector Sol LeWitt Conceptual Artist Book Photography

SOL LEWITT: PHOTOGRAPHIC WORKS 1968 – 2004
24 Feb 2011 – 30 Apr 2011
There are many elements involved in a work of art. The most important are the most obvious.—Sol Lewitt, from Sentences on Conceptual Art (1969)

Fraenkel Gallery is pleased to present the exhibition Sol LeWitt: Photographic Works 1968–2004. Comprised of approximately twenty objects, and made possible with the cooperation of the LeWitt Estate, this is the first gallery exhibition to focus solely on the artist’s investigations with photography.

Sol LeWitt (1928–2007) is widely recognized as one of the most influential artists of the last half-century. Though perhaps best known for his wall drawings and “structures” (the term he preferred to “sculpture”), LeWitt also made an important, highly original body of work in photography that spanned the course of his career.

Central to LeWitt’s approach to photography was the concept that the artist need not always make the photographs himself. His “cut-outs” from the 1970s, for example, began with commercially made aerial photographs of cities important to the artist, especially New York and Florence. In Part of Manhattan with Central Park, Rockefeller Center and Lincoln Center Removed (1978), LeWitt excised with a mat knife three Manhattan landmarks, resulting in a jarring photographic object that prompts the viewer to reconsider the materiality of an urban landscape.

The earliest work in the exhibition, Buried Cube Containing an Object of Importance But Little Value (1968), presents a grid of nine black & white photographs of the artist’s friends apparently digging a grave and burying a small wooden box. The photographs themselves—the physical representation of a conceptual act performed more than 35 years ago—have become the work of art.

Eadweard Muybridge’s 19th-century photographic studies of human and animal locomotion were a catalyst for LeWitt’s investigation of serial systems. The debt is evident in Brick Wall (1977), comprised of 30 black and white photographs of, as the title suggests, a brick wall. The assumption made by the viewer is that the wall has been photographed at regular intervals during the day from dawn to dusk; although, the gradual light changes seem artificial and perhaps more reminiscent of a predetermined tonal progression. Other multi-part works in the exhibition include Clouds (1978), a grid of 54 mounted color photographs, and Grid of Grids (1976), 64 mounted photographs of grates, drains, tiles, skylights, and other grids that can be found in the course of a day.

The final work in the exhibition is A Sphere Lit From the Top, Four Sides, and All Their Combinations (2004). The title prescribes the process (LeWitt did not take the photographs himself) for making twenty-eight photographs of a sphere. The resulting photographs are arranged in a grid four high and seven wide, beginning with the featureless sphere starkly lit from the top, and ending with the sphere brightly lit from every direction. Each photograph documents a specific state of illumination while becoming part of an abstract narrative as the artist’s plan is executed.

Sol LeWitt’s work can be found in the collections of most serious museums of modern and contemporary art. His career was the subject of a major traveling retrospective organized by the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art in 2000.

Sol Lewitt en het seriële landschap


Omslag Van Monteluco naar Spoleto 
voor- en achterkant

Sol Lewitt koestert sinds de jaren zestig net als vele andere conceptuele kunstenaars het ideaal van een niet-hiërarchische samenleving met een kunst die uitvoerbaar, bereikbaar en betaalbaar is. Zijn kunstenaarsboeken - waaronder veel fotoboeken - beschouwt hij als voor ieder betaalbare, informatieve demonstraties van zijn concepten.

Rationale waarneming is in zijn visie objectiverend. Vormverwantschap is in zijn werk de uitdrukking van een logisch verband waarin een relatie bestaat tussen de werking van constanten en variabelen; intrisieke waarden van een vormverandering. In het werk van Lewitt zijn de vier absolute richtingen (horizontaal, verticaal, en de twee diagonale richtingen) en de herhaling van de lijn essentieel.

Ook in zijn foto´s valt duidelijk te zien dat die, net als de rest van zijn oeuvre, op een conceptuele en seriële manier zijn ontstaan. Lewitt is altijd al sterk geïnspireerd geweest door Eadweard Muybridge´s fotografische studies van de menselijke en dierlijke beweging. Al in 1964 maakt hij Muybridge I en II; driedimensionale objecten waarin een serie foto's verwerkt is, waarop een naakte vrouw steeds vanaf een andere afstand bezien wordt. Ook veel van Lewitts andere fotowerk kenmerkt zich door een dergelijk serialisme. Een goed voorbeeld hiervan is het uit 1978 afkomstige Clouds dat bestaat uit 54 foto's van verschillende prachtige wolkenhemels. In Autobiography (Multiples 1980) toont Lewitt foto's van steeds terugkerende objecten uit zijn dagelijks leven. Hij vertelt, anders dan de de titel zou doen vermoeden, niet zijn leven door alle objecten in zijn atelier te fotograferen, maar beheerst hij de chaos van zijn omgeving door methodische inventarisatie. Het is een verslag noch verhaal; het gaat hem erom aan te tonen dat door middel van het boek seriële wordt toegepast op de wanorde van zijn atelier. 

Als Lewitt rond 1976 de abstracte combinaties van lijnen en kleuren uit zijn eerste werken achter zich laat, wil hij in zijn boeken de geometrie die in de concrete werkelijkheid verscholen ligt zichtbaar maken volgens een uniformele formule, afgeleid van de uit zijn sculpturen gehouwen kubussen: vierkante foto's, drie bij drie gerangschikt in drie rijen onder elkaar (soms twee bij twee in twee rijen) op een vierkante pagina. Een voorbeeld is Photogrids (Paul David Press en Rizzoli 1978). Hierin verzamelt hij allerlei soorten traliewerken: getraliede vensters, rioolroosters en afrasteringen. In het kunstenaarsboek Van Monteluco naar Spoleto (Eindoven/Weesp Van Abbemuseum/Openbaar Kunstbezit,1984) zijn rasters van foto's opgenomen van het landschap die Lewitt gedurende zijn wandelingen daar heeft gemaakt. De foto´s zijn allemaal in december 1976 genomen tussen de gelijknamige steden in Umbrië. Elk van de veertig pagina's - inclusief de voor- en achterkant - heeft roosters van negen vierkantjes. Dat resulteert in een ordening van 360 ​​beelden. Deze kunnen worden gelezen als een afzonderlijke vastlegging van een serialisme van kleuren, texturen, luchten, stenen, muren en andere vormen. Een samenspel van beelden waar wij voortdurend horizontale-, verticale- en diagonale lijnen in herkennen. Het gebruik van kleur verrijkt de contrasten en de overeenkomsten tussen de beelden. Ondanks het representatieve element dat inherent is aan de fotografie, maakt Lewitt ook gebruik van de mogelijkheden van het boek zijn beelden goed te organiseren om de serialiteit van de systemen die kenmerkend zijn in zijn non-figuratief werk weer te geven.


Fragmenten uit: Van Monteluco naar Spoleto

TitelVolker Döhne: Gesichtspunkte
BijdragersMartin Bochynek, Volker Döhne
UitgeverPlitt-Verlag, 1992
Lengte86 pagina's

DÜSSELDORF PHOTOGRAPHY
HOW A SCHOOL CHANGED THE WAY WE SEE

A photograph of Becher student Jörg Sasse; | © Jörg Sasse, VG Bildkunst, Bonn/courtesy Schirmer/Mosel

In Düsseldorf, the photographer Bernd Becher and his wife Hilla Becher trained artists who went down in art history as the Düsseldorf School of Photography.

Anyone talking about German photography nowadays is likely to think first of the often large-format images produced by exponents of the Düsseldorf School of Photography, which these days enjoys worldwide renown as a hallmark of high artistic standards and a comprehensive rethinking of artistic photography. The name Düsseldorf School of Photography, however, which is used largely synonymously with Becher class or Becher school, is a somewhat problematic label describing what originally was a documentary tradition of photography that has changed radically since the 1970s. For precisely this reason, Düsseldorf School of Photography is no longer an appropriate term to designate a specific style.

FIRST CHAIR IN PHOTOGRAPHY IN GERMANY
Formally speaking, the name refers to 87 photographers who between 1976 and 1998 studied under the internationally renowned photographer Bernd Becher at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf, the city’s art academy. Becher’s appointment as a professor there in 1976 also marked the establishment of the first chair in artistic photography at a German academy of art. His first six students were Tata Ronkholz, who abandoned her artistic work a number of years later, Volker Döhne, Candida Höfer, Axel Hütte, Thomas Struth and Thomas Ruff. Andreas Gursky switched from Essen to Düsseldorf in 1981.

Although photography was still not considered to be art in the European context until well into the 1970s, it was doubtless clear to the first students right from the outset that they no longer really had to battle for recognition as artists. They were able to fill a void which Bernd and his wife Hilla Becher – likewise a well-regarded photographer – had created for them together with other artists. Nonetheless, it still took more than ten years for the young photographers to gain international acknowledgment through leading exhibitions and the art market. The considerable fascination around the world with the Düsseldorf School of Photography is due above all to the impression that its exponents use new and modern techniques to “paint”. It was not only the form that approximated painting: portraits and landscapes also returned to the works of the Düsseldorf artists – the only difference being that they were composed not with a brush but with a mouse.

A SINGLE LABEL FOR ALL PHOTOGRAPHERS
Giving a uniform label to the students of the Düsseldorf School of Photography reveals a remarkable parallel between the history of the term and the history of the art market. Leaving aside those photography artists who were successful on all levels, the Düsseldorf School of Photography label was also used particularly by art dealers to profitably advertise less successful graduates of the Becher class. The reference to the teacher and thus to the documentary tradition of the visual language that had become historically established in New Objectivity was used as a promise of excellent quality and potential appreciation in value. The term has taken on a historical element in the meantime: photography – not only in Düsseldorf – has developed a tremendous artistic diversity to which no single label can be applied any longer.

But what were the formal characteristics of the most prominent representatives of the Düsseldorf School of Photography? Though renouncing the systematic approach followed by their teachers, the first generation of Becher students does at least reveal a certain affinity to them in the sense that they would select a particular motif which would feature in a collection of black-and-white prints. Influenced by American photography, students in the 1980s then developed series of colour photographs. Another formal step was the introduction of large-format photography, used for the first time in 1986 by Axel Hütte and Thomas Ruff. The new prints were created in connection with the laboratory of Düsseldorf advertising firm Grieger. Thomas Struth and Andreas Gursky used this new form of photography soon after. The next step concerned framing: using the patented “Diasec” technique, the photograph was directly bonded to the acrylic glass, without any space in-between.

AT THE BOUNDARIES OF PHOTOGRAPHY
One radical change to the conventional understanding of photography was introduced in 1987 and likewise originated in Düsseldorf. For the first time, Thomas Ruff used digital techniques to alter the photographic image. His motifs are characterized by extreme diversity – Ruff works not only with newspaper cutouts but also with abstract motifs, pornographic images and also portraits. In somewhat more moderate fashion by comparison, Andreas Gursky also explores the boundaries of the medium with his images, which he has edited digitally since 1991: he creates monumental individual images of landscapes or huge indoor spaces which are produced in comparatively small quantities; just one reason why they appear to follow the artistic tradition of “masterpiece” painting.

Ruff and Gursky have become established on the art market with phenomenal success, with the result that art critics use the ironic label Struffskys to describe the ubiquitous presence they have achieved together with Thomas Struth, especially on the American market.

The developments in American photography are also important to the Becher-students: Ed Ruscha, whose photos show everyday subjects, is one of their role models. In 1966 he creates Every Building on the Sunset Strip. With a simple handheld camera Ruscha photographs every building on the Los Angeles boulevard of that name; he presents his pictures in a fanfold or an artist’s book. This quickly reveals the serial principle behind the work. Volker Döhne’s approach in Reconstruction II is similar. He, too, documents the commercial architecture, largely determining the surrounding.

Ice cream parlour, garage, drug store, stationers, dwelling house, shoe shop – nicely aligned. Volker Döhne focuses on the urban space dominated by nondescript post war architecture and empty sites. Other than his American colleague Ed Ruscha, Döhne always positions his camera head-on in the same angle. Surprisingly this emphasises the buildings’ volume. Like his teachers Bernd and Hilla Becher he emphasises the three-dimensional, sculptural aspect of buildings and pursues a concept that he determined before he began to photograph.

The Bechers assemble identical, yet different photographs to a static tableau. Döhne on the other hand, required the viewer to move along the strip and proceed down the row of photographs. Above all the viewer must add together the photos of the Krefelder Straße by himself: the work forms as a result of the viewer’s active viewing and perception.

2017-04-26: Krefelder Fotograf bei Becher-Ausstellung

Das Städel Museum in Frankfurt am Main zeigt ab 27. April die Ausstellung „Fotografien werden Bilder. Die Becher-Klasse" und den mit ihr verbundenen Paradigmenwechsel im Medium der Fotografie. Anhand von rund 200 Fotografien der international renommierten oder wiederzuentdeckenden Künstler Volker Döhne, Andreas Gursky, Candida Höfer, Axel Hütte, Tata Ronkholz, Thomas Ruff, Jörg Sasse, Thomas Struth und Petra Wunderlich geht die Ausstellung der Frage nach, welchen Einfluss Bernd und Hilla Becher auf ihre Studenten an der Düsseldorfer Kunstakademie ausübten. Die Ausstellung versammelt teils großformatige Hauptwerke, aber auch Frühwerke dieser bedeutenden Künstler.

Als maßgeblicher Impuls für die veränderte Wahrnehmung des Mediums der Fotografie kann die Begründung des Lehrstuhls für künstlerische Fotografie 1976 an der Düsseldorfer Kunstakademie gesehen werden. Diesen hatte Bernd Becher in enger Zusammenarbeit mit seiner Frau Hilla Becher bis 1996 inne. Der Fotograf und Gestalter der Kunstmuseen Krefeld, Volker Döhne, gehört zu ihrer ersten Klasse.

Volker Döhne in seiner Ausstellung im Kunstverein Krefeld. Foto: Stadt Krefeld, Presse und Kommunikation

Der 1953 in Remscheid geborene Döhne studierte von 1975 bis 1980 an der Kunstakademie Düsseldorf. Er arbeitet seit 1980 an den Kunstmuseen Krefeld. Eine lange Folge von Kunst-Fotografien, Plakaten und über 150 Kataloge tragen seine gestaltende Handschrift. Seine Werkgruppen stehen konzeptuell wie motivisch den Typologien Bernd und Hilla Bechers sehr nahe: Er entwickelte Serien wie Kleineisenindustrie (1977/78) oder Kleine Eisenbahnbrücken und Unterführungen im Bergischen und Märkischen Land (1979). Mit seiner Reihe Bunt (1979) experimentierte Döhne dem Titel entsprechend mit Farbe und emanzipierte sich von seinen Lehrern. Er stellte unter anderem seine Arbeiten im Kaiser-Wilhelm-Museum in Krefeld (1992), in der Galerie Yves Gevaert in Brüssel (1995) sowie in Gruppenausstellungen in der Art Galaxy Galerie in New York (1982) und im NRW-Forum in Düsseldorf (2010/2011) aus. Der Kunstverein Krefeld widmete ihm 2015 die Ausstellung „Blickrichtung". Zuletzt waren Arbeiten von ihm in der Photographischen Sammlung/SK Stiftung Kultur in Köln ausgestellt.

Volker Döhne (*1953) Ohne Titel (Bunt), 1979 (2014) Farbabzug nach Diapositiv, 37 x 47 cm Privatsammlung © Volker Döhne, Krefeld 2017

Die Frankfurter Ausstellung „Fotografien werden Bilder" konzentriert sich auf die Studenten der frühen Jahre der Becher-Klasse, die 1976 mit Höfer, Döhne, Hütte und Struth beginnen und mit dem Abschluss des Studiums von Gursky und Sasse, 1987/1988 enden. Gerade die deutlich zutage tretende Heterogenität der ersten Becher-Klasse mit ihren vielfältigen Ansätzen, die sich auf den heutigen Bildbegriff ausgewirkt haben, verdeutlicht im Rückblick, wie erfolgreich die Lehre Bernd und Hilla Bechers war. Die von Dr. Martin Engler, Sammlungsleiter Gegenwartskunst am Städel Museum, und Dr. Jana Baumann, Städel Museum, kuratierte Ausstellung im Museum am Schaumainkai 63 in Frankfurt am Main endet am 13. August. Der Katalog zur Ausstellung ist im Hirmer Verlag (256 Seiten und circa 178 Abbildungen) erschienen. Die deutsche Ausgabe kostet 34,90 Euro (Museumsausgabe).

Becher-Schüler dokumentiert Sanierung der Krefelder Bauhaus-Villen

Der Becher-Schüler und Fotograf der Kunstmuseen Krefeld, Volker Döhne, wird ab dem Frühjahr die Sanierung der beiden Bauhaus-Villen an der Wilhelmshofallee begleiten. Diese künstlerische Dokumentation bildet den Auftakt zur neuen Reihe „Sammlungssatelliten" der Kunstmuseen. In den folgenden Monaten wird Döhne die restauratorischen Eingriffe in Haus Lange und Haus Esters bis zum Abschluss der Arbeiten im Herbst verfolgen und festhalten.

Die Bauhaus-Villa Haus Lange in Krefeld. Foto: Kunstmuseen Krefeld, Volker Döhne

Er wirft für den „Sammlungssatelliten" einen künstlerischen Blick auf die Häuser und wird diese eher privaten Gebäude in einen öffentlichen Raum übertragen. Seine Fotografien werden mit wechselnden Motiven im öffentlichen Raum stadtweit plakatiert. Das Projekt wird in Kooperation mit dem Krefelder Stadtmarketing anlässlich des Bauhausjahrs 2019 umgesetzt. Künstlerische Leiterin der Reihe ist Museumsleiterin Katia Baudin. Partner der „Sammlungssatelliten" ist die Stiftung Kunst, Kultur und Soziales der Sparda-Bank West.

Die Bauhaus-Villa Haus Esters in Krefeld. Foto: Kunstmuseen Krefeld, Volker Döhne

Völker Döhne arbeitet seit 1980 als Fotograf und Gestalter an den Kunstmuseen Krefeld. Eine lange Folge von Kunst-Fotografien, Plakaten und über 150 Kataloge tragen seine gestaltende Handschrift. Der 1953 in Remscheid geborene Döhne studierte von 1975 bis 1980 an der Kunstakademie Düsseldorf. Ende der 1970er-Jahre zählte er zu den Schülern der ersten Fotoklasse von Bernd Becher an der Kunstakademie. Dort studierte Döhne bereits seit 1975 zuerst Buchkunst und Gestaltung, später wechselte er dann zu Becher und Tünn Konerding. Er stellte unter anderem seine Arbeiten im Kaiser-Wilhelm-Museum in Krefeld (1992), in der Galerie Yves Gevaert in Brüssel (1995) sowie in Gruppenausstellungen in der Art Galaxy Galerie in New York (1982) und im NRW-Forum in Düsseldorf (2010/2011) aus. Im Herbst 2018 ist eine Ausstellung im Kaiser-Wilhelm-Museum in Krefeld geplant. Zuletzt veröffentlichte er im Greven-Verlag den Band „Köln am Dom".


Volker Döhne (b. 1953) 'Krefeld, Ostwall corner Rheinstraße, (Reconstruction II)' 1990 (1992)

Volker Döhne (b. 1953)
Krefeld, Ostwall corner Rheinstraße, (Reconstruction II)
1990 (1992)
Silver gelatin print on baryte paper
47 × 37 cm
Private collection


Volker Döhne (b. 1953) 'Krefeld, Rheinstraße 82 (Reconstruction II)' 1990 (1992)

Volker Döhne (b. 1953)
Krefeld, Rheinstraße 82 (Reconstruction II)
1990 (1992)
Silver gelatin print on baryte paper
47 × 37 cm
Private collection


Volker Döhne (b. 1953) 'Krefeld, Rheinstraße 84 (Reconstruction II)' 1990 (1992)

Volker Döhne (b. 1953)
Krefeld, Rheinstraße 84 (Reconstruction II)
1990 (1992)
Silver gelatin print on baryte paper
47 × 37 cm
Private collection


Volker Döhne (b. 1953) 'Krefeld, Rheinstraße 86 (Reconstruction II)' 1990 (1992)

Volker Döhne (b. 1953)
Krefeld, Rheinstraße 86 (Reconstruction II)
1990 (1992)
Silver gelatin print on baryte paper
47 × 37 cm
Private collection


Volker Döhne (b. 1953) 'Krefeld, Rheinstraße 88 (Reconstruction II)' 1990 (1992)

Volker Döhne (b. 1953)
Krefeld, Rheinstraße 88 (Reconstruction II)
1990 (1992)
Silver gelatin print on baryte paper
47 × 37 cm
Private collection

For the fifth show in this series of The Collection Illuminated by ... exhibitions, the Nederlands Fotomuseum has invited photographer Charlotte Dumas to act as guest-curator and make a personal selection of works from the museum’s rich and varied collection. Dumas selected fifteen images that she finds inspirational or important. Like her own work, the selection reflects Dumas’ empathy with animals and children. Water is also a leitmotif. The exhibition will include work by photographers of the calibre of Martien Coppens, Ed van der Elsken, Cas Oorthuys and Richard Tepe. With personal comments accompanying each photograph, this intimate presentation casts new light on the collection while at the same time offering the public a clear idea of Dumas’ own motivations as a photographer.

Our geographical signature
‘In Japan,’ Dumas explains, ‘I had my first direct experience of an earthquake. I found it quite literally shocking and immediately wondered how Japanese people manage to live with the idea that it can happen again at any moment. And then I thought of our own country. Dutch homes are largely below sea level and in a way we also live with a constant threat, but I don’t feel as if it’s constantly on our minds.’ This thought was the starting point for Dumas’s selection of fifteen photographs from the collection of the Nederlands Fotomuseum.

Biography
Although Charlotte Dumas (b. 1977, Vlaardingen) concentrates on animals in her photographic portraiture, her work is really just as much about the people who keep them. Inspired by the “traditional ingredients” (as she puts it) of 17th-century Dutch painting, Dumas makes subtle and harmonious use of the compositions, light and poses of Old Master portraits. Her work is invariably serial in nature and the subjects of her photographs include police and military horses, wolves in the wild, tigers in captivity, canine strays, and service dogs. By immortalising these animals serially, Dumas gives them – as it were - a human face. Dumas trained in Amsterdam, at the Gerrit Rietveld Academie (1996-2000) and the Rijksakademie van beeldende kunsten (2000-2001). Since 2012 she has made films as well as photographs. Her work has been exhibited at De Pont (Tilburg), Galerie Paul Andriesse (Amsterdam), FOAM (Amsterdam) and the Julie Saul Gallery (New York).


Charlotte Dumas kiest uit collectie Nederlands Fotomuseum: dieren, kinderen en water
Geplaatst in Kunst op Komst en getagged met Charlotte Dumas, Nederlands Fotomuseum op 15 januari 2018 door Françoise Ledeboer.

Watersnood, Zierikzee (1953), copyright Martien Coppens/Nederlands Fotomuseum

*Als gastcurator voor de vijfde editie van ‘De collectie belicht door…’ in het Nederlands Fotomuseum in Rotterdam – te zien van 20 januari tot en met 9 december – koos Charlotte Dumas vijftien foto’s waaruit - verwant met haar eigen werk - empathie voor dieren en kinderen spreekt. Rode draad werd het thema water.

Op de Japanse eilanden Hokkaido, Yonaguni, Miyako en Misaki fotografeerde ze een paar jaar geleden paarden van acht rassen, bedreigd omdat ze hun economische nut grotendeels hebben verloren. Dumas in de aankondiging van de expositie: ‘In Japan werd ik voor het eerst geconfronteerd met een aardbeving. Ik vond het letterlijk een schokkende ervaring en vroeg mij direct af hoe Japanners leven met het idee dat dit elk moment kan gebeuren. En toen dacht ik aan ons eigen land. Wij wonen grotendeels onder de zeespiegel en leven op een bepaalde manier ook met een constante dreiging, maar heb niet het idee dat wij hier bewust mee rondlopen.’

Daan van der Elsken op Pravda, Edam (ca. 1970), copyright Ed van der Elksen/Nederlands Fotomuseum

Dumas koos foto’s van badende paarden in rivieren van Gregor Krause en Cas Oorthuys omdat ze daar een gevoel van geborgenheid bij kreeg: ‘Het wassen van een ander wezen straalt tederheid uit. Die foto’s laten de verzachtende eigenschappen van water zien, die werken bemoedigend en helend.' In haar selectie ook foto’s van Martien Coppens, in 1953 zeer actief tijdens de Watersnoodramp. Hij maakte onder andere een serie van koeien en paarden die vanuit een boot op de kade werden getakeld. Eén paard viel tijdens deze reddingsactie, maar krabbelde gelukkig weer overeind. Dumas: ‘Dit aangrijpende beeld is beklemmend en krachtig tegelijk. Nog steeds voel je de opluchting als het paard uiteindelijk op de kant staat.’

De fotografe besteedde het afgelopen jaar veel tijd aan het observeren, fotograferen en filmen van paarden die bij een Japans eiland in zee zwemmen: ‘Door het werk van Krause en Oorthuys te zien, kregen mijn eigen inspanningen een onverwachte context, waardoor ik weer eens besef hoe belangrijk het is om naar het werk van anderen te kijken.’

‘De collectie belicht door…’ omvat in totaal werk van tien fotografen, onder hen ook Ed van der Elsken en Richard Tepe. Charlotte Dumas introduceert de presentatie in het museum in een video-interview, bij elke foto is haar persoonlijke motivatie te lezen.

Voor meer informatie: http://www.nederlandsfotomuseum.nl


Paard bij een wasplaats, Bali, Indonesië, copyright Alphons Hustinx/Nederlands Fotomuseum

Wednesday, November 6, 2013
Tokyo-X-Vario: View Japan Through a Leica

Image taken with Ricoh GR-D IV. 1/42 sec F/1.9 @ ISO 400

It's always been a romantic concept of mine to wander the streets of Tokyo with a Leica. I know I'm not alone as there are a few 'foreigners' in Tokyo who have become quite well known in the photography blogosphere as Leica photographers. I've been back to Japan many times, and I've taken a variety of cameras over the years: Argus, Minolta, Fujifilm, Ricoh, Pentax, Canon, Panasonic; but never with a Leica.

But why a Leica? I don't know why really. Is it perhaps because both the Leica brand and the Japanese culture seem to both be entrenched in tradition, but at the same time adapt to the present without forgetting their past? Is it the red dot? Is it because of that movie with Clint Eastwood? Who knows...


Either way, this dream of mine was solidified years ago when I found a rare 1939 book entitiled "Japan Through a Leica" by Ihee Kimura. He bridged his specific tool (the Leica) with a specific project (life in 'modern' Japan of the 1930's), and went one step further by giving stats on every image shot, including developing times and specs!! He was the original camera-photo-nerd hipster!! Anyways, this was too much for me to handle.

So I've decided to do my own 'Leica in Japan' project called Tokyo-X-Vario. Yes it sort of rhymes, but more than that, it well describes what I'll be doing for a month: wandering the streets of Tokyo with a Leica X-Vario camera. I'll be posting pics on Instagram, Twitter and this blog throughout the month, and I'll finish off with a review of the camera itself once I get back to Canada.


Moreover, I'm really looking forward to starting this new project. I hope to take some great pictures with the X-Vario, but equally I want to meet new people, especially Leica-fans! Mijonju? Japan Camera Hunter? Shoot Tokyo? Here comes Bigheadtaco with a digital Leica!! I'll be in Tokyo and ready to shoot this coming Saturday, so look for my first post a couple of days after that. In between I'll be regularly posting to my Instram and tweeting.

I thank Eric Kerwin of Leica Canada for making this project possible by loaning me the X-Vario for a month. My previous review highlights the fact that the X-Vario is a great street camera, but I'll have time to use it for other things as well. Let's see what this Leica can do in the land of the rising sun!! Happy shooting!!

'Kafu Nagai' (1954) by Ihee Kimura. | TOKYO METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF PHOTOGRAPHY
ART
East, West split by the lens
BY MARIUS GOMBRICH
JAN 15, 2010

When the Leica was introduced in 1925, a new era in photography began. The compact camera, by being much lighter and more versatile than previous models, gave photographers unprecedented freedom in choosing the subject, angle and moment for their snaps.

The minimization of physical constraints embodied in the Leica also meant that photography became much more a question of the character of the person wielding the camera. This is the premise of the exhibition “Ihee Kimura & Henri Cartier-Bresson: Eastern Eye & Western Eye” at the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography, which, by choosing one photographer each from the East and the West, also suggests that photography styles may express different cultural views.

This aside, with around 150 photos, the first impression the exhibition gives is of the overwhelming genius of Henri Cartier-Bresson, the French photographer who helped found the Magnum cooperative photo agency and is widely regarded as the father of modern photojournalism.

Cartier-Bresson’s ability to pick fascinating compositions out of the fast-moving flow of everyday reality is astounding. A photo simply titled “Alicante, Spain” (1933) shows three unglamorous women apparently engaged in some kind of roadside beauty treatment, although exactly what they are doing is hard to fathom, except to say that one of them is holding a butter knife. The way the arms of the three figures interlock gives the picture a sense of elegance, unity, and balance reminiscent of Antonio Canova’s neoclassical statue “The Three Graces” — and all this in the blink of an eye!

“Photography is not like painting,” Cartier-Bresson explained to the Washington Post in 1957. “There is a creative fraction of a second when you are taking a picture. Your eye must see a composition or an expression that life itself offers you, and you must know with intuition when to click the camera. That is the moment the photographer is creative. Oop! The Moment! Once you miss it, it is gone forever.”


“L’Aquila Abruzzo, Italy” (1951) shows the cobbled streets of an Italian town shot from an elevated position. Here, the exact moment of the shutter is less important but Cartier-Bresson’s sense of composition is unmistakable. The railings, curbs and steps divide the picture into balanced segments, across which the various figures — children, women with trays of bread, a cluster of men in the distance, etc. — are distributed in an aesthetically pleasing manner. It is almost as if the scene had been put together with the same degree of contrivance that a painter employs.

Set against mesmerizing works like these, the photography of Ihee Kimura may at first sight seem decidedly second string. In “Subway Entrance, Paris” (1955), he even resorts to the old photographer’s trick of catching people off their guard as they descend stairs. But, on the other hand, the compositional strength of Cartier-Bresson could sometimes be seen as a weakness, appearing, at times, too precise and affected. The dominance of the geometric element in “L’Aquila Abruzzo, Italy,” for example, strikes a slightly chilling note in what is otherwise a warm, relaxed scene.

According to Akiko Kushiro, one of the curators of the museum, this picture demonstrates the difference between the Western eye and the Eastern one. The Western tendency to aspire to aesthetic unity, so evident in “L’Aquila Abruzzo, Italy,” is largely absent in Kimura’s work.

“I think that the difference is that Kimura saw people more,” Kushiro explains, pointing out a 1954 photo of a well-dressed couple in Rome. In what is perhaps the most photogenic city in the world, the background is surprisingly under-utilized.

“I think that maybe he sometimes didn’t even notice the background,” Kushiro comments.

Kimura comes across as a shyer photographer than the brazen Cartier-Bresson; one who is less likely to confront and regiment his subjects. But, at the same time, he seems more genuinely sympathetic. His pictures of Japanese village life in the 1950s have an especial warmth.

This stands in marked contrast to the biting wit and flashes of cynicism in Cartier-Bresson’s work. “Hyde Park, London” (1937) shows an old lady stretched out on a park bench. Her walking stick leaning diagonally against the bench serves to comically echo and emphasize the old woman’s stiff posture. While this makes the photo interesting in the same way as a good caricature, it also drains it of empathy.

In terms of chutzpah and aesthetic sense, Kimura can’t measure up, but his work scores better on the emotional scale. His photo of the playwright, essayist, and diarist Kafu Nagai from 1954 is a good example.

Nagai was a writer who found his inspiration in chance encounters and wrote about the denizens of the city’s lively entertainment districts. Kimura’s photograph of him lacks compositional brilliance and the nattily-dressed writer is not wittingly caricatured. But, perhaps because of this, Kimura manages to capture a true sense of the observant writer, who seems to be afloat in the crowd but also keenly aware of his surroundings — ironically, much more so than the photographer taking his picture!

“Ihee Kimura and Henri Cartier-Bresson: Eastern Eye, Western Eye” runs till Feb. 7 at the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Art; open 10 a.m.-6 p.m. (till 8 p.m. on Thur. and Fri., closed Mon.); admission ¥700. For more information, visit www.syabi.com


Ihei Kimura[1] (木村 伊兵衛 Kimura Ihei, 12 December 1901 – 31 May 1974) was one of the most celebrated Japanese photographers of the twentieth century, particularly known for his portrayal of Tokyo and Akita Prefecture.

Born on 12 December 1901 in Shitaya-ku (now Taitō-ku), Tokyo, Kimura started taking photographs when very young but his interest intensified when he was around 20 and living in Tainan, Taiwan, where he was working for a sugar wholesaler. He opened a photographic studio in Nippori, Tokyo in 1924. In 1930, he joined the advertising section of the soap and cosmetics company Kaō, concentrating on informal photographs made with his Leica camera. In 1933, he joined Yōnosuke Natori and others in forming the group Nippon Kōbō ("Japan workshop"), which emphasized "realism" in photography using 35mm cameras; but this rapidly broke up and Kimura formed an alternative group, Chūō Kōbō ("central workshop") with Nobuo Ina and others.

During the war, Kimura worked in Manchuria and for the publisher Tōhō-sha.

In 1950, Kimura was elected chairman of the newly formed Japan Professional Photographers Society (JPS); together with Ken Domon he did much to encourage a documentary spirit in amateur photography.

In the mid-fifties, Kimura made several trips to Europe, providing photographs for the camera magazines. His work was included by Edward Steichen in the world-touring 1955 MoMA exhibition The Family of Man. Pari,[2] a collection of his color photographs of Paris, would only be published in 1974, but the use of color was ahead of its time.[3]

On his return to Japan, Kimura concentrated on photographing rural life in Akita. He also worked on portraits, particularly of writers.

Kimura died at his home in Nippori on 31 May 1974; the Kimura Ihei Award for new photographers was promptly set up in his honor. He remains popular in Japan: samples of his photographs still (2009) regularly appear in the magazine Asahi Camera.

His work was exhibited at the Rencontres d'Arles festival in 2004.

Notes
Or Ihee Kimura. In roman script, his name more often appears as Ihei Kimura (or Kimura Ihei) than as Ihee Kimura (or Kimura Ihee).
I.e. "Paris"; full title Kimura Ihee shashinshū: Pari.
Parr and Badger, p. 297.
Bibliography
Books of Kimura's photographs
A Historical Sketch of Japanese Customs and Costumes. Tokyo: Society for International Cultural Relations (Kokusai Bunka Shinkōkai), 1936.
Japanese School Life through the Camera. Tokyo: Society for International Cultural Relations (Kokusai Bunka Shinkōkai), 1937.
(As "Ihee Kimura".) Japan through a Leica. Tokyo: Sanseido, 1938. One hundred photographs of Japan. Facsimile edition: Tokyo: Kokushokan, 2006. ISBN 4-336-04488-0. (NB The box that contains this expensive reprint is considerably larger than the book within it.)
Four Japanese Painters. JPS Picture Books. JPS, 1940. In English.
(in Japanese) Kōki nisenroppyaku-nen gōshuku geinōsai (皇紀二千六百年奉祝藝能際). Kokusai Hōdō Kōgei, 1941.
(in Japanese) Ōdō rakudo (王道樂土). Tokyo: Ars, 1943. Photographs of Manchuria.
Rokudaime Onoe Kikugorō butai shashinshū (六代目尾上菊五郎舞臺寫眞集, Photograph collection of the sixth Onoe Kikugorō on the stage). Kyoto: Wakei Shoten, 1949. On the kabuki actor Onoe Kikugorō VI (1885–1949).
(in Japanese) Kimura Ihee kessaku shashinshū (木村伊兵衛傑作写真集) / Select Pictures by Ihei Kimura. Tokyo: Asahi Shinbunsha, 1954. A book of generous format (30×21 cm) that presents 132 photographs, most taking the entire page but a few in half-, quarter- or double-page format. They represent all facets of Kimura's work. The reproduction quality is of course no match for that in the posthumous collections, and what is interesting about this book is the material that the latter drop, for example three photographs from a (demure) striptease performance. Short captions in English as well as Japanese, longer explanations as well as texts by Kimura and Nobuo Ina in Japanese only.
(in Japanese) Kimura Ihee gaiyū shashinshū: Dai ikkai (木村伊兵衛外遊写真集：第一回). Tokyo: Asahi Shinbunsha, 1955.
(in Japanese) Kimura Ihee gaiyū shashinshū: Dai nikai: Yōroppa no inshō (木村伊兵衛外遊写真集：第二回：ヨーロッパの印象) / Impression of Europe. Tokyo: Asahi Shinbunsha, 1956.
Zōsenjo no inshō (造船所の印象) / At a Shipyard. Sekai Shashin Sakka (世界写真作家). Tokyo: Heibonsha, 1958.
Kimura Ihee sakuhinshū (木村伊兵衛作品集), Collected photographs of Ihei Kimura). Gendai Nihon shashin zenshū (現代日本写真全集), vol. 1. Tokyo: Sōgensha, 1959.
Ōkawa Hashizō butai shashinshū (大川橋蔵舞台写真集, Photograph collection of Hashizō Ōkawa on the stage). Wakei Shoten, 1962. On the kabuki actor Hashizō Ōkawa (1929–84).
(in Japanese) Zenshinza butai shashinshū (前進座舞台写真集, Photograph collection of Zenshinza on stage). Tokyo: Kenkōsha, 1966. Black and white and also some color photographs of the Zenshinza kabuki troupe on stage and off, on the occasion of the 35th anniversary of its founding.
(in Japanese) Kimura Ihee no me (木村伊兵衛の眼, The eye of Ihei Kimura). Special issue of Asahi Camera, December 1970. A representative collection of Kimura's works, all black and white.
(in Japanese) Kimura Ihee shashinshū: Chūgoku no tabi (木村伊兵衛写真集：中国の旅, Ihei Kimura photograph collection: Travels in China). Tokyo: Asahi Shinbunsha, 1974.
Kimura Ihee shashinshū: Pari (木村伊兵衛写真集：パリ, Ihei Kimura photograph collection: Paris). Tokyo: Norasha, 1974. Most of the photographs are spread across facing pages (and thus split down the middle).
(in Japanese) Akita (秋田). Nikon Salon Books 4. Tokyo: Nikkor Club, 1978. Photographs of Akita.
Rokudaime Kikugorō: Kimura Ihee shashinshū (六代目菊五郎：木村伊兵衛写真集) / Sixth Generation Kikugoro. Sonorama Shashin Sensho 17. Tokyo: Asahi Sonorama, 1979. OCLC 835651026. On the kabuki actor Onoe Kikugorō VI (1885–1949). Substantially based on the book of 1949, but an altered selection of photographs. With a short summary in English.
(in Japanese) Watanabe Yoshio (渡辺義雄), et al., eds. Kimura Ihee shashin zenshū: Shōwa jidai (木村伊兵衛写真全集：昭和時代, Ihei Kimura photograph collection: The Shōwa period). Tokyo: Sekaibunkasha, 1979. Three large (37 cm tall), expensive hardback volumes.
1. Portraits and the stage.
2. Street scenes and the countryside.
3. Europe and China.
(in Japanese) Machikado (街角, Street corners). Nikon Salon Books 7. Tokyo: Nikkor Club, 1981. Black and white photographs, mostly of Japan, but also of Europe and China, selected by a team headed by Jun Miki. There are scenes in the countryside (even fields), by the sea, and so forth. When new, this book was available to the members of the Nikkor Club; it was not sold to the public.
(in Japanese) Watanabe Yoshio (渡辺義雄), et al., eds. Kimura Ihee shashin zenshū: Shōwa jidai (木村伊兵衛写真全集：昭和時代, Ihei Kimura photograph collection: The Shōwa period). Tokyo: Chikuma, 1984. Four large (31 cm tall), hardback volumes, still (2006) in print.
1. Photographs from 1925 to 1945. ISBN 4-480-61301-3.
2. Photographs from 1945 to 1953. ISBN 4-480-61302-1.
3. Photographs from 1953 to 1974. ISBN 4-480-61303-X.
4. Photographs of Akita Prefecture. ISBN 4-480-61304-8.
(in Japanese) Tanuma Takeyoshi (田沼武能), ed. Kimura Ihee no Shōwa (木村伊兵衛の昭和, The Shōwa period of Ihei Kimura). Chikuma Library 39. Tokyo: Chikuma, 1990. ISBN 4-480-05139-2. An inexpensive compact (shinsho) survey still (2006) in print.
Tanuma Takeyoshi (田沼武能), ed. Kimura Ihee: Shōwa no onna-tachi (木村伊兵衛 昭和の女たち, Ihei Kimura: The women of Shōwa). Chikuma Library 55. Tokyo: Chikuma, 1991. ISBN 4-480-05155-4.
Kimura Ihee no sekai (木村伊兵衛の世界) / Photographs: Kimura Ihee. Tokyo: Tōkyōto Bunka Shinkōkai, 1992. Catalogue of an exhibition.
Kimura Ihee sakuhinten: Tokyo, 1945–1968 (木村伊兵衛作品展：「東京」1945～1968年, Ihei Kimura exhibition: Tokyo, 1945–68). Tokyo: JCII Photo Salon, 1992.
(in Japanese) Rokudaime Onoe Kikugorō: Zenseiki no meijingei (六代目尾上菊五郎：全盛期の名人芸, Sixth generation Onoe Kikugorō). Tokyo: Nihon Eizō (distributed by Bungei Shunjū), 1993. ISBN 4-89036-847-7. On the kabuki actor Onoe Kikugorō VI (1885–1949).
Kimura Ihee to Akita ten (木村伊兵衛と秋田展, Exhibition of Ihei Kimura and Akita). Akita: Akita Senshu Museum of Art, 1994.
(in Japanese) Tanuma Takeyoshi (田沼武能), ed. Kimura Ihee: Shōwa o utsusu (木村伊兵衛 昭和を写す, Ihei Kimura: Photographing the Shōwa period). Tokyo: Chikuma (Chikuma Bunko), 1995. An inexpensive four-volume pocket-format (bunkobon) survey still (2006) in print, based on the same publisher's four-volume set of 1984.
1. Senzen to sengo (戦前と戦後, Before and after the war). ISBN 4-480-03051-4. Okinawa, 1935; Manchuria, 1940; life in Tokyo and elsewhere in Honshū, mostly 1932–41; the aftermath of the war, 1945–7; Japan, 1949–72.
2. Yomigaeru toshi (よみがえる都市, The city restored). ISBN 4-480-03052-2. Tokyo 1946–73.
3. Jinbutsu to butai (人物と舞台, People and the stage). ISBN 4-480-03053-0. Portraits, people at work, the traditional Japanese stage.
4. Akita no minzoku (秋田の民俗, Folkways of Akita). ISBN 4-480-03054-9. Life in Akita Prefecture.
(in Japanese) Kimura Ihee (木村伊兵衛, Ihei Kimura). Nihon no Shashinka 8. Tokyo: Iwanami Shoten, 1998. ISBN 4-00-008348-1. A concise survey within this set devoted to the Japanese pantheon.
(in Japanese) Teihon: Kimura Ihee (定本木村伊兵衛, Ihei Kimura: The definitive edition). Tokyo: Asahi Shinbunsha, 2002. ISBN 4-02-258676-1. A large (29 cm tall), carefully produced and rather expensive collection, which has captions in English as well as Japanese, but no other English.
Boku to Raika: Kimura Ihee kessakusen + essei (僕とライカ：木村伊兵衛傑作選＋エッセイ, Leica and me: A collection of masterpieces by Ihei Kimura, and essays). Tokyo: Asahi Shinbunsha, 2003. ISBN 4-02-257832-7.
Kimura Ihee (木村伊兵衛) / Ihei Kimura. Kyoto: Katsuhikan and the Kyoto Museum of Contemporary Art, 2002. A compact survey of Kimura's work in Japan. Elegantly produced, but the reproduction quality is disappointing. Short captions as well as some other text in English, remaining text in Japanese only.
Kimura Ihee-ten (木村伊兵衛展) / Ihei Kimura: The Man with the Camera. Tokyo: National Museum of Modern Art, 2004. The compact survey in this well-produced exhibition catalog includes such lesser known works as the Kaō advertisements. Captions and much of the text in English as well as Japanese.
Tanuma Takeyoshi (田沼武能), et al. Kimura Ihee no Pari (木村伊兵衛のパリ) / Kimura Ihei in Paris: Photographs 1954–1955. Tokyo: Asahi Shinbun-sha, 2006. ISBN 4-02-250209-6. A large collection of color photographs, many of which previously appeared in Kimura Ihee shashinshū: Pari (1974). In Japanese and English.
Other books with works by Kimura
Kogata kamera shashinjutsu (小型カメラ写真術). Seibundō Shinkōsha, 1936. Reprint. Kurashikku Kamera Sensho 25. Tokyo: Asahi Sonorama, 2002. ISBN 4-257-12035-5.
Kogata kamera no utsushikata, tsukaikata (小型カメラの寫し方・使ひ方 [in modern script (小型カメラの写しかた・使いかた]). Tokyo: Genkōsha, 1937.
(Joint work) Girls of Japan. JPS Picture Books. JPS, 1939. In English.
(Joint work) (in Indonesian) Pendidikan di sekolah kebangsaan. Kokusai Bunka Shinkōkai, 1942.
(Joint work) (in Indonesian) Peroesahaan mesin basar. Kokusai Bunka Shinkōkai, 1942.
(with Shunkichi Kikuchi) Tōkyō sen-kyūhyaku-yonjūgonen, aki (東京一九四五年・秋) / Tokyo: Fall of 1945. Tokyo: Bunka-sha, 1946. The photographers are not credited. A stapled booklet of sepia photographs of life in Tokyo immediately after the end of the war. (The word aki in the title makes it clear that fall here means autumn, not defeat.) Text and captions in both Japanese and English.
(in Japanese) Jūgosei Ichimura Uzaemon butai shashinshū (十五世市村羽左衛門舞臺寫眞集, Photograph collection of the fifteenth-generation Ichimura Uzaemon on the stage). Edited by 関逸雄. Kyoto: Wakei Shoten, 1951. On the kabuki actor. On the kabuki actor Ichimura Uzaemon (1874–1945). Ninety-six pages of photographs, of which pp. 21–68 are credited to Kimura (the remainder are uncredited).
(in Japanese) (With Nakagawa Kazuo) Shashin no utsushikata (写真の撮し方, How to take photographs). Tokyo: Kaname Shobō, 1953.
(With Nobuo Ina, edited by Yōnosuke Natori) Shashin no jōshiki. (写真の常識, Knowledge of the photograph). Tokyo: Keiyūsha, 1955.
Kimura Ihee dokuhon (木村伊兵衛読本). Special issue of Photo Art, August 1956.
(As editor) Jinbutsu shashin (人物写真). Asahi Camera Kōza (アサヒカメラ講座). Tokyo: Asahi Shinbunsha, 1956.
(Edited by Kimura Ihei and Nakajima Kenzō) Bungakusha no mita gendai no Chūgoku shashinshū (文学者のみた現代の中国写真集, Photograph collection of today's China as seen by writers). Tokyo: Mainichi Shinbunsha, 1960.
Kimura Ihee no sekai (木村伊兵衛の世界, The world of Ihei Kimura). Special issue of Asahi Camera, August 1974.
(in Japanese) Sengo shashin / Saisei to tenkai (戦後写真・再生と展開) / Twelve Photographers in Japan, 1945–55. Yamaguchi Kenritsu Bijutsukan, 1990. Despite the alternative title in English, almost exclusively in Japanese (although each of the twelve has a potted chronology in English). Twenty of Kimura's photographs of Akita appear on pp. 36–46.
Taidan: Shashin kono gojūnen (対談：写真この五十年, Conversations: The last fifty years of photography). By the editors of Asahi Camera. Tokyo: Asahi Shinbunsha, 1974. A collection of transcriptions of Kimura's discussions with various photographers and others concerned with photography.
Kimura Ihee (木村伊兵衛) / Special Issue: Ihei Kimura. Nikkor Club, no. 70, Autumn 1974.
(in Japanese) Kimura Ihee o yomu (木村伊兵衛を読む, Reading Ihei Kimura). Asahi Camera special edition. Tokyo: Asahi Shinbunsha, 1979. In Japanese only, but very substantial and contains a handy reference to Kimura's very numerous contributions to the magazine. (A special production by the Asahi Camera, prominently dated December 1979 and looking at first like that month's issue: but there was also a separate, regular issue for the month.)
Association to Establish the Japan Peace Museum, ed. Ginza to sensō (銀座と戦争) / Ginza and the War. Tokyo: Atelier for Peace, 1986. ISBN 4-938365-04-9 Kimura is one of ten photographers — the others are Ken Domon, Shigeo Hayashi, Tadahiko Hayashi, Kōyō Ishikawa, Kōyō Kageyama, Shunkichi Kikuchi, Kōji Morooka, Minoru Ōki, and Maki Sekiguchi — who provide 340 photographs for this well-illustrated and large photographic history of Ginza from 1937 to 1947. Captions and text in both Japanese and English.
(Joint work) Bunshi no shōzō hyakujūnin (文士の肖像一一〇人, Portraits of 110 literati). Tokyo: Asahi Shinbunsha, 1990. ISBN 4-02-258466-1. Kimura is one of five photographers — the others are Shōtarō Akiyama, Ken Domon, Hiroshi Hamaya, and Tadahiko Hayashi.
(in Japanese) Mishima Yasushi (三島靖). Kimura Ihee to Domon Ken: Shashin to sono shōgai (木村伊兵衛と土門拳：写真とその生涯, Ihei Kimura and Ken Domon: Photography and biography). Tokyo: Heibonsha, 1995. ISBN 4-582-23107-1. Reprint. Heibonsha Library. Tokyo: Heibonsha, 2004. ISBN 4-582-76488-6.
(in Japanese) Kimura Ihee no renzu: Sunappushotto wa kō tore! ( 木村伊兵衛の眼：スナップショットはこう撮れ！, The lens of Ihei Kimura: Here's how to take snapshots!). Taiyō (太陽) / The Sun, July 1999. Republished as a book in 2007.
Dokyumentarī no jidai: Natori Yōnosuke, Kimura Ihee, Domon Ken, Miki Jun no shashin kara (ドキュメンタリーの時代：名取洋之助・木村伊兵衛・土門 拳・三木淳の写真から) / The Documentary Age: Photographs by Natori Younosuke, Kimura Ihei, Domon Ken, and Miki Jun. Tokyo: Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography, 2001. An exhibition catalogue. The book reproduces 28 of Kimura's photographs of Akita. Captions in both Japanese and English, other text in Japanese only.
Hiraki, Osamu, and Keiichi Takeuchi. Japan, a Self-Portrait: Photographs 1945–1964. Paris: Flammarion, 2004. ISBN 2-08-030463-1 Kimura is one of eleven photographers whose works appear in this large book (the others are Ken Domon, Hiroshi Hamaya, Tadahiko Hayashi, Eikoh Hosoe, Yasuhiro Ishimoto, Kikuji Kawada, Shigeichi Nagano, Ikkō Narahara, Takeyoshi Tanuma, and Shōmei Tōmatsu).
Kindai shashin no umi no oya: Kimura Ihee to Domon Ken (近代写真の生みの親：木村伊兵衛と土門拳) / Kimura Ihei and Domon Ken. Tokyo: Asahi Shinbunsha and Mainichi Shinbunsha, 2004. Catalogue of an exhibition.
(in Japanese) Kimura Ihee no renzu: Sunappushotto wa kō tore! (木村伊兵衛の眼：スナップショットはこう撮れ！, The lens of Ihei Kimura: Here's how to take snapshots!). Tokyo: Heibonsha, 2007. ISBN 978-4-582-63428-0. Reworked from the July 1999 issue of Taiyō: an economical, compact collection of photographs by (and of) Kimura, essays about him by prominent photographers (such as Kineo Kuwabara, Yutaka Takanashi and Nobuyoshi Araki), and such extras as an illustrated bibliography.
References
(in Japanese) "Kimura Ihei". Nihon shashinka jiten (日本写真家事典) / 328 Outstanding Japanese Photographers. Kyoto: Tankōsha, 2000. ISBN 4-473-01750-8.
Parr, Martin, and Gerry Badger. The Photobook: A History. Vol. 1. London: Phaidon, 2004. ISBN 0-7148-4285-0.
(in Japanese) Shashinka wa nani o mita ka: 1945–1960 (写真家はなにを見たか1945～1960, What did photographers see: 1945–1960). Tokyo: Konica Plaza, 1991. Pp. 84–91.
(in Japanese) Shashinka wa nani o hyōgen shita ka: 1960–1980 (写真家はなにを表現したか1960～1980, What were photographers expressing: 1960–1980). Tokyo: Konica Plaza, 1992. P. 97.
External links
Brief biography at PhotoGuide Japan

Tom Wood
All Zones Off Peak
Photographs: TOM WOOD
Publisher: Dewi Lewis Publishing
96 pages
Year: 1998
Comments: Hardcover with dust jacket, 248 mm x 298 mm.Ref Parr & Badger p308 the photobook Vol 2.

Fantastic concentration... an epic of the everyday – Mark Haworth Booth

I can not think of a more engaging body of contemporary work – Chris Killip

As good a set of photographs as one sees every five or ten years – if you're lucky – Lee Friedlander

Long out of print All Zones Off Peak is an extraordinary book. Wood spent over fifteen years and shot over 3,000 rolls of film photographing Liverpool and its people from a bus. Visually stunning and dramatically revealing it is a body of work of immense power.


Photographer Study – Tom Wood, All Zones off Peak

All images used in this post are copyrighted to the individual photographer stated and are only being used for educational purposes.

All Zones off Peak (Wood, T. (1998). All Zones off Peak. 1st Edition. England. Dewi Lewis Publishing.)  is a body of work by Photographer Tom Wood  and was recommended by my Tutor quite a while ago. After much searching and waiting, I finally managed to reserve a copy to view at the Bodleian Library in Oxford.

The book is a result of a 15 year bus journey across Liverpool, where Wood photographs the world beyond the window as well as fellow travellers on the bus and waiting outside.

The first half of the  book is all in black and white, mostly taken in the reign of  Thatcher’s Government. The subjects appear to mirror the timeless effect of black and white in their everyday grey gestures and postures. Each picture is carefully thought out and composed. Some focus on the passing landscape outside and people going about their everyday life oblivious to the camera. In others he has concentrated on fellow passengers and in some cases has used a combination of the two. One image in particular titled Kensington 1988 was taken on the top deck of a bus. Wood has focused on a shop out of the window but in the top left corner of the frame are the hands of a male passenger reading a book and holding a cigarette. The bus is obviously stationery and he has also captured the bus stop sign with another sign directly above of an arrow pointing “To the Circus”. It is the tiny details like this that make his images so interesting and with each view another detail is revealed to the viewer in the never-ending layers of the story in his pictures.

In each picture it is quite clear that the  photographer is a passenger on the bus. Wood captures reflections in the glass, mirrors and parts of the window frame within the photo frame. His ability to capture the sometimes grey expressions of his subjects somehow suggests that the toil of their bus journey mirrors their everyday struggles in their life journey.

1983 (Netherton). Copyright Tom Wood

The second half of the book is in colour and appear more abstract with the use of reflections within reflections but equally still drawing the viewer in and creating a fascinating story.

In the accompanying text Mark Holborn quoted:

“The journey is the oldest narrative device”

It therefore seems quite appropriate that the last picture in the book is one of the photographer standing on the street and photographing the passengers on the bus. It appears that he has alighted at this final destination and is waiting for the bus to move off. Ironically many of the passengers appear to be looking at / watching him as opposed to the other way round.

London Road, City Centre, 1994. Copyright Tom Wood

Bibliography

Wood, T. (1998). All Zones off Peak. 1st Edition. England. Dewi Lewis Publishing.


SATURDAY, 12 JUNE 2010
All Zones Off Peak
This image is taken from Tom Wood’s All Zones Off Peak, a series of photographs taken from bus windows in Liverpool between 1979 and 1997 - years that exactly coincide with an unbroken period of Conservative government. At first glance they read like studies of the disenfranchised of the Northern inner cities. Wood’s bus journeys visually connect the regenerated areas of the city with more neglected, peripheral spaces: the declining high streets, areas of wasteland, cleared slums and abandoned houses of the inner-ring suburbs. But what is really interesting about Wood’s project is the slow-burning, cumulative effect of the series as a whole, a small selection taken from over 3000 rolls of film and 100,000 photographs. These photographs are not about capturing specific moments but the endlessly repeated routines and minimal, wordless communities produced by bus journeys.

Wood used a Leica camera with a quiet shutter and shot from the chest or stomach, allowing him to take photographs unobtrusively, in the manner of Walker Evans’s secretly-taken New York subway portraits. Rather than catching his subjects unawares, though, Wood reveals them in that semi-introspective, blank-faced mode we adopt in routine public spaces. All these unnamed people, absent-mindedly following their fixed timetables and prescribed routes – all inhabiting what Georges Perec called “the infra-ordinary,” the sphere of existence that lies beneath notice or comment, and within which “we sleep through our lives in a dreamless sleep”.

Mundane quote for the day: ‘Objects and words also have hollow places in which a past sleeps, as in the everyday acts of walking, eating, going to bed, in which ancient revolutions slumber.’ - Michel de Certeau

Tom Wood: All Zones Off Peak
July 1999

Stanley Road, Bootle, 1989

Tom Wood was born in Mayo in 1951, grew up in Cowley in Oxford, and then studied painting at Leicester Polytechnic. He moved to Mereyside in 1978 and has taught photography part-time there and as a visiting lecturer while pursuing long-term photographic objects. He has written many books and his work is represented in major public collections including MOMA New York ; International Centre for Photography, New York; and the Victoria & Albert Museum, London.

Tom Wood’s All Zones Off Peak is the culmination of a fifteen year photographic odyssey around Liverpool. From the simple starting point of photographing from a bus, he has created a Joycean vision of the city – a complex, lived-in, living reality.

Jim Vausham

Tom Wood shot more than three thousand rolls of film in realizing this ambitious and compelling project. From the earliest silver prints, to the recently completed large-scale color images, it is a remarkable achievement that explores new ground in photography. With a beauty that catches you unawares, the work delivers an extraordinary  picture of the ordinary.

Tom Wood’s art lies in his commitment to the multi-layered lives of people he depicts. Never sneering at them, or appropriating them for some political cause, Wood’s work nevertheless holds a political message. The social realities he portrays are underpinned by the thoughts and dreams of his protagonists; at every instant, the ‘real world’ is open to transformation.

Wood’s only loyalty is to the living city he photographs, the way its people populate and inhabit it, and most of all the ways in which, in every way and everyday ,we move in constant relation to others, known and unknown, living and dead, who also walked these streets and breathed this air.