Buffet Editions - trying something new...

In case you miss the big yellow arrow, I just want to share a new link on the BUFFET.

My personal collection of books and special edition books has been depleted long ago, therefor the massive slowing down of the posts. BUT, what I have learned is that a-lot of people read the Buffet who are interested in limited edition print/book combos. I have decided, a few times a year, to produce a special edition book/print set in cooperation with a publisher and photographer. The idea is to conceive of something a bit different than the photographs in the book, and offer beautifully printed archival pigment prints at an affordable price.

The first book/print edition is from Seba Kurtis and his beautiful new book KIF, published by Here Press from London.

So, in the spirit of a pot-luck, check back to the link on the right now and then to find something new!

Karianne Bueno - Doug's Cabin

I have been trying to keep away from my computer more and more, the results can been seen in the Buffet posts becoming less frequent...

One person who would understand is Doug. Doug lives an isolated life in San Jose Bay, BC, Canada.

The Dutch photographer Karianne Bueno has begun an intensive story about Doug and his choice to live off the grid. Knowing Karianne, Doug's Cabin it will surely be a book someday, and probably a quite nice one. To help finance the trips she is offering special edition prints for a  great price.

Here are just 2 of the images, go here to see the others.

 photos, Karianne Bueno

Dear Doug, It's been quite a while now since we met,  I hope you remember.  When we arrived at your place in the forest  we had just started our longest trip ever.  The land we travelled through was spectacular,   but your home at San Jo never left my thoughts.  A drowsy bear crossed the long gravel road.  The dripping woods, the soft green mossy grass,  the tree branches blocking the way.  The campground seemed deserted. We parked  the car in an overgrown site with rotten plastic  chairs. I walked around, puzzled. There were   the weather worn remains of a large, unfinished  building. A broken car, a shed, and a cabin with  smoke coming out of the chimney. Dark trees crept  in on the open space - wall-like, suffocating.  From the steps that led up to the door of your  cabin I saw the interior reflecting the haunted outside:  an unmade bed in the corner, a wood stove, faded  postcards on the beams that supported a sooty ceiling.  The small desk at the dirty window was covered with   papers and pictures of cougars and bears.  Then you stood behind me, your hands black with  dirt, smiling. You seemed happy to have guests so  late in the season. You showed us the dark lake that  adjoined the campground, and a short cut along a  muddy path to the beach, where we found sand  dollars in the surf. How have you been? Did you  get a chance to work on the hostel again? Or have  you really given up that dream? Did you get through  the winters all right? When we left in the morning you made me promise to  send you a postcard. I bought one as soon as we  got home. It was only then that I found out I had  lost your address. The card got lost in a drawer,  but I never forgot about you or San Jo. Now it's  time to track you down. But no matter what I try,  your campground seems to have disappeared from  the map. I'm sending this letter, along with the card  and some pictures to the Holberg post office. I sure  hope to find you this way. Because the forest calls.  I long to breathe the damp air and learn to live in the wild.  Yours,

Karianne

Doug answered two weeks later by email. The few sentences  he wrote were enough for me to decide to travel to San  Josef Bay again and start a new photo project, entitled  Doug's Cabin for now. What makes someone turn away  from society like that? How does anyone survive in the  wilderness? I have always longed to escape, but would  I actually be able to do it?  You can buy the photographs below this email until the day  I leave: May 28, 2013. They were taken between 2008 and  2010 in the US and Canada, some on Doug's campground.  I selected the photographs as a sequence that recalls the  atmosphere of Doug's surroundings. The purchase of one  or more prints will sponsor the project. The first results will be shown at the Unseen Photo Fair in  Amsterdam in September this year. After a possible follow-up  trip in May 2014 I will hold a large exhibition at LhGWR in  The Hague, The Netherlands.  The inkjetprints, on Hahnemühle fine art paper, are 20x25 cm,  with a small white border. They cost €60 each, this is exluding  6% tax and shipping costs. If you are interested,  please mailkarianne@kariannebueno.nl  I hope you are willing to help me realize Doug's Cabin in this way.

Birgitta Lund - The Garden

Birgitta Lund, the danish photographer who spends her time between NY and Copenhagen just sent me her beautiful new book "The Garden". The images are made in the famous old amusement park Tivoli Gardens in the center of Copenhagen.

This is by no means a documentary work about Tivoli or its history. In fact the place itself is never really shown in its entirety, but instead we are given little details of people, from various nationalities, ethnicities and ages all drawn together to this place which seems to be somewhat set in an orient backdrop. The faces that we assume, or hope, are engaged in concentration for whatever amusement attraction is on hand, quickly become faces of despair and fear. 

Brian Palmer, the filmmaker who discusses the project with Birgitta in the book, is a documentary film maker who has worked in war zones touches on the body language of people with guns, either real or fake, eliciting a "...deadly stance - so familiar to me as a journalist with US troops in Iraq - appears to be so easily pantomimed. When the festive context of Tivoli is stirpped away, I'm confronted with how deeply embedded these violent gestures are in us and in our cultures.."

"The Garden is a contemporary photographic tale, that uses Tivoli Gardens, an old amusement park in the middle of Copenhagen Denmark as an allegory. Here people of all different nationalities and ethnicities meet in a world of fantasy. An imaginary Orient with fake palaces and minarets is the backdrop of the place. It’s a surreal world, yet it mirrors the dreams and fears of life outside the entrance." Birgitta Lund.

The book is published by Space Poetry, 64 pages, softbound with 23 color photos and a text/discussion between Birgitta and Brian Palmer.

I like this from Elisabeth Tonnard

With summer approaching, but snow still on the ground outside my window, this "One Swimming Pool" from Elisabeth Tonnard is at least a step in the right direction.

"This book is a portable swimming pool that can be put on a bookshelf. It is based on Ed Ruscha’s book Nine Swimming Pools and a Broken Glass from which one swimming pool was photographed. If the sheets are carefully removed from the book and laid down next to each other, this swimming pool can be installed at the size of a small swimming pool. The book was bound using an adhesive that allows the sheets to be taken out. Doing so will of course destroy the book in its bound form." E.Tonnard

Thomas Bonfert - Herrenreise 2012

"Herrenreise" is the second self-published 'zine/book from the Vienna based photographer Thomas Bonfert. The first one, "Diary of a Field Worker" was also a small print run of 100 and is out of stock.

Where "Diary of a Field Worker" is a more conceptual design in its mimicking of a photo-album with the images mounted with photo-corners, Herrenreise is a classical 'zine, 32 pages, stapled.

As with the Diary, this one also documents a journey, this time a bike ride of 3 friends from Breclav, CZ to Tatabanya, HU. along the Danube river.

Herrenreise 2012 from Thomas B on Vimeo.

Its the age-old synopsis, the river and the road as the metaphor of wandering and looking. Walking is a good speed for a photographer, but not if you actually want to get somewhere. To cover some distance, grab a bike, but stop alot to snoop around.

Get one directly from Thomas here.

Matej Sitar - America, My Way

This is the newest artist book from Matej Sitar. It is a beautifully produced box set of 3 individual books which trace his road trip through America. It is an exercise in seeing and editing as each book attempts to tell the story of the trip but each in it's own edit sequence. Several images, all Polaroid SX-70 are repeated through the different books, but most of the images (39 in total) appear in their own place with the captions remaining the same. It sounds a bit confusing, but imagine traveling across the states 3 times, but turning left in Wichita  your first time through, then right on your second trip, then simply rolling straight through on your third trip; you would make the same journey, more or less, on each trip, but the possibilities of who and what you will see are infinite. In other words, you can't cross the same country twice.

One highlight is the laser cut typography on the box. Its pretty much impossible to photograph, but you can actually feel it and read it surprisingly well, a nice design aspect.

Matej Sitar – America, my way

Dimensions: 200 x 200 mm, Pages: 3 x 44 pages in a case
laser engraved cardboard
Text: James A. Reeves
Limited Edition of 461 books, 2012

25 Euro

It is published under the imprint of The Angry Bat, Matej's own publishing house.

The Collectors Edition comes with 1 of the 39 original images and is thus limited to 39, obviously. 400 Euro

I  have the standard edition nr. 172 of 461 but the special edition box with the print is documented here

You can check out which images for the special edition are still available here.

Print-for-a-Book swap, 2013

To keep my library up to date with so many of the great books I didn't purchase in 2012, I am once again offering a Print-for-a-Book swap. 

It is quite simple. Send me an email if you have on of these books you would like to trade for this print from my HABOOB series. This image isn't printed or editioned anywhere else, only here for this swap. 

The books...

Jem Southam, THE RIVER WINTER
Alec Soth, BROKEN MANUAL GOT IT!
Richard Rothman, REDWOOD SAW GOT IT!
Lucas Foglia, A NATURAL ORDER
David Monteleone, RED THISTLE GOT IT!
Pietro Mattioli, TWO THOUSAND LIGHT YEARS FROM HOME  GOT IT!
Marten Lange, ANOTHER LANGUAGE GOT IT!
Michael Subotsky, RETINAL SHIFT GOT IT!
Ron Jude, OTHER NATURE  GOT IT!
Gerry Johansson, PONTIAC
Gerry Johansson, DEUTSCHLAND
J. Carrier, ELEMENTARY CALCULUS GOT IT!



The print...

At the Ostrich Festival in 2008, from the series HABOOB, 2012.
Archival Pigmant Print on Fine Art Baryt paper, 24x30 cm.
edition of 12