buffet

FOTOHOF - the new space

2012-02-22T11:34:00.004+01:00

left: Dirk Braeckman "N.P.-M.V.-05" © Dirk Braeckman - Courtesy of Zeno X Gallery Antwerpen,

right: gallery view Herman Seidl

The time is finally here. After more than a year of planning and building and moving, Fotohof is finally settled into the new space and we will be celebrating this weekend.

If you are in town, stop by Friday night, the 24th of February for the opening of Dirk Braekman in the main hall and Peter Dressler in the new library space. On a huge projection screen we will present works of current Austrian positions.

On Saturday morning I will moderate a discussion between Jeffrey Ladd and Dirk Braekman about his new book.

Hope you can join us, here are the details.

Justin Winz - Paris

2012-02-13T20:50:00.002+01:00

Justin Winz sent me his latest book of polaroids and light/chemical manipulated plates. American Surfaces is the first one I put on the blog 2 years ago, just as Polaroid went under. I didn't make it to the presentation in Paris during Paris Photo, but I think you can still get one via Schaden, at least the special edition. To get the normal version, maybe try Justin directly.

Kudász Gábor Arion - A Special Edition of Luck

2012-02-10T09:01:00.004+01:00

A bit early for St. Patrick's day, but if you are looking for a little something special for that unlucky person in your life, this new edition by Arion might be the right thing.

Arion's mother accumulated a collection of 200 four-leaf clovers, packed each one in a newspaper cut-out of the day and then left them to Arion who is now offering the clover along with the corresponding photograph.

The clovers are the heritage from my mother who could not possibly look at an inch of grass without finding a handful of four-leaf clovers.

What do you do when you have loads of lucky clovers in your wallet, pockets, diaries and calendars? Throw them away or keep them? My mother carefully pressed them between pieces torn from the daily newspaper and put them in a box, and then in another box, and another one. Of course, even a flood of four-leaf clovers could not improve her life. Only the uneven distribution of goods occurred in a less monetary form (clovers), now by giving them away as part of this special edition I try to compensate.
Arion

It is a fundraiser of sorts to get money together for a forthcoming publication of his personal work Middle.

They are only 20 Euro each, get all the info here.

Baptiste Lignel - Face à La Vie

2012-01-31T11:55:00.004+01:00

Baptiste Lignel, who's book Ce Qui Demeure I have featured before, is raising money for his next book which will support a very important cause. He has spent the last year, following a small magazine assignment, photographing in the pediatric cancer ward at the hospital in Garches. The images show the daily struggles, routines, fear and pain, punctuated by moments of laughter; "a place where life is happening."

There is a show on right now, until March 4th in the Cité des Science in Paris, where the images are accompanied by interviews.

The ultimate goal is to produce a book, the profits of which will go to support Regarde la Vie, a charity organization which works directly in the children's ward.

Follow the project on his specific site. www.facealavie.org to pre-order a book and help support the cause.

all images: Baptiste Lignel, 2010-2011

A new home

2012-01-27T18:52:00.003+01:00

Finally, after nearly 8 years, my friend Chris Fuchs (aka Fox) has built me a new website.

The BUFFET and my own work have found some harmony and the projects and books have some room to breath and hopefully multiply.

www.andrew-phelps.com

Harvey Benge - Paris Diary 2011

2012-01-25T09:36:00.004+01:00

Paris Diary 2011 - Harvey Benge, self published

Harvey Benge has just sent me number 4 in his on-going series about Paris.

Harvey is giving Charles Freger a run for his money as to who will have the most books on this blog. Harvey is a very busy man with his blog, his ongoing work, his workshops in New Zealand and his work as an editor with publishers like KEHER.

As with the others in the series, this one is 22x16 cm with 28 pages and as many color photographs. The edition is also limited to 75 copies.

They cost 30 USD, 22 Euro.

Best to get them direct from Harvey as it is nice to get a package covered in New Zealand postage stamps.

Nico Bick - P.I.

2012-01-22T20:59:00.004+01:00

Nico Bick sent me his recent limited edition (400) artist book/portfolio of his work PI (Penitentiary Institution) from one of Hollands most well known prisons. As you can imagine, prison cells are both fascinating and frightening and Nico has had access to these interiors and through his typological approach avoids the usual pathos around such places and lets them tell their own stories by the very subtle differences we can discover in the series' which at first glance seem to show the same space; which, in a sense, they do. His camera makes no differentiation between holding cells, residencies, guards quarters or communal spaces. They all become spaces built purely for function but have taken on subtleties of humanity through the years.

While the six towers of the Penitentiary Institution 'Over-Amstel' form an important landmark in the urban landscape of Amsterdam, the interior of these buildings are for most people unknown territory. The culture of a closed institution dictates that what happens within it may not be seen. However, Nico Bick was granted access into the most well know prison – known loacally as the 'Bijlmerbajes' – in the Netherlands. From 2006 until 2009 he meticulously photographed cells of prisoners, isolation cells, communal rooms, control rooms, etc. but also the concrete perimeter wall that circumferences the entire complex. We can view this work as an inventory, an investigation of spatial diversity, a dissection of functionality and a typology of confinement.
from the PI site.

The interesting edition is the special one. It comes with a 24x30 cm C-print, edition of 25.

The special edition costs 160 euro,-.

special edition image, Nico Bick, PI.

Best get them here.

Thanks Nico.

Beal Doka - FC Putin, in the works

2011-12-12T12:24:00.004+01:00

from: FC Putin, Bela Doka.

With all of the uproar in Moscow at the moment concerning Vladimir Putin , it might be the right time to pre-order a copy of Bela Doka's upcoming book FC Putin, a series about the youth movement in Russia standing strong and proud behind the polarizing figure. I have seen these for awhile, but now they seem even more poignant and timely.

Also if you don't have one of these...

Bela Doka, The Sundays of Life

To help support the new project, Bela is also offering specials on his last book The Sundays of Life, a beautiful limited edition self-published book, also available with a print.

check them both out here.

Cara Phillips - Singular Beauty on Kickstarter

2011-12-07T09:05:00.002+01:00

This is one you should check out and support!

Cara Phillips at Kickstarter

LozenUp, Charles Fréger - a calendar and a book from Japan

2011-12-06T08:13:00.016+01:00

Laurence Vecten, the creative mind behind the publishing house LozenUp and the One Year of Books project has just released a calendar for 2012 called One Year of Japan.

This calendar is a charity project to raise funds for Japanese Red Cross. Laurence asked 4 different photographers to submit 3 pictures each, Hiroshi Nomura black and white pictures for winter, Seiji Kumagai for Spring, Aya Muto for Summer and Yuko Amano for Autumn.

All of the benefits will go to the Japanese Red Cross.

Order one here!

Published by Lozen up Design by Madoka Rindal 9 sheets 18 x 24 cm Edition of 500 12 euros + shipping

""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""

Charles Fréger - Sheijinshiki

The latest book from the very prolific Charles Fréger is called Seijinshiki and is made together with the manga artist Little Fish. Seijinshiki(also spelled Seijin Shiki) is a coming-of-age ceremony in Japan when 20 year old girls dress in a formal kimono known for its very tactile aesthetics and materials such as fur. Charles has made portraits of these girls in front of self-made backdrops depicting classical formal Japanese paintings. The irritating odd element is the reoccurring "peace" and "victory" signs which these girls project to the camera. This little gesture, which is such an integral part of young peoples posing for the camera, becomes, like so much of the japanese culture, a bridge between very very old traditions, and contemporary pop elements.

The manga story from Little Fish depicts a narrative of 2 girls excited about their upcoming ceremony, dressing up, drinking saki and then, in the end falling asleep as a dark figure comes to strip them of the beautiful robes. A very loaded ending, symbolizing the loss of naiveté and innocence.

Hardbound with 80 pages, 16 photographs from Charles and 24 pages of manga from Little Fish.

The book is published by the japanese publishing house Akaaka. According to Charles there are only a few in europe so it might be hard to find them, but it is really beautiful so it might be worth the hunt. Maybe start, obviously, with an email to the publishers in Japan.

Manga by Little Fish

Charles Fréger

Back on line, a long summer of travel...

2011-11-22T14:35:00.004+01:00

Well I have promised myself to get back to a big pile of books which has stacked up due to me being away all summer. My goal was to start on the day it started snowing, well I have decided I can't wait forever as it seems the snow in the Alps is still a long way off.

But, in the spirit of ski commerce, the snow-canons are out in full force and I am back in Salzburg and anxious to start building the blog back up again.

But, first things first, I am off to Munich for one more trip to put up my first show with the Gallery Jo Van De Loo in Munich. We are showing a selection of an ongoing series which I started last year to mark the year of my life in which I have now spent more of my life in Europe than in the states; who would have thought...

So, if you are in Munich Thursday night please stop by and say hello.

Ugnius Gelguda - Crimescapes

2011-09-16T15:19:00.005+02:00

"Old Firework Causes Disaster"

"Flaming Last Years Grass Almost Burn Homestead"

"Snow, Frost Punish Strays"

Crimescapes is the newest book from the Vilnius based Lithuanian photographer Ugnius Gelguda.

I met Ugnius a couple of years ago when I was researching for a show I curated in Fotohof of contemporary Lithuanian photography. I was able to get Ugnius to Salzburg to make a body of work fitting into his ongoing series about the phenomenon of sensational newspaper headlines and the often obscure photographs which accompany them. The larger body of work in the book is based on the Lithuanian mass media, specifically daily newspapers which focus on disaster and crime. Because we are visual creatures, the atrocious and heart-renching events can't go un illustrated so the images which we are often presented with headlines are simply symbolic metaphors alluding to the event. Ugnius' work processes this gap between what the headline evokes, and what the illustration presents us. The book is broken into 2 sections, the Lithuanian work and the Salzburg series. Though the landscape changes a bit, it is interesting to see that the awkward relationship between text and image is universal.

It is published by Artbooks in Vilnius and cooincides with his show at the Vartai Gallery earlier this year in Vilnius.

Hardbound, 80 Pages. Lithuanian and English.

Thekla Ehling - Vergiszmeinnicht

2011-09-10T13:08:00.005+02:00

images from the publisher

This hasn't been released yet, so I am just attaching and forwarding the official release info, but this might be a special edition book/print which you don't want to miss. I am a big fan of Thekla's last book SOMMERHERZ from 2007, so I can imagine this will be quite beautiful.

The work is an homage to Thekla's former professor Arno Fischer and his book The Garden.

The title comes from the name of the flower "Forget-Me-Not".

Artist book in Box

Kehrer Verlag ,Heidelberg Berlin
11,5 x 15 cm
104 pages
ca. 79 color images.

Collector’s Edition with 3 C-Prints
Print of choice from the book
11,5 x 15 cm, edition of 50
Euro 128,– after the release on Sept. 17, Euro 148,–

Get the info here at KEHRER.

or check out more of Thekla's work here.

Douglas Stockdale - Ciociaria

2011-08-19T16:31:00.004+02:00

Douglas Stockdale, who you probably know through his great blog The PhotoBook, has sent out a pre-release offer for his upcoming book Ciociaria. Ciociaria is a region in central Italy which takes its name, funny enough, from a particular ancient sandal which was common long ago and can still be found in use by locals. Douglas has been traveling through the area, responding to a certain mystery which every place holds for a photographer who wants to believe in the power of photography to reveal secrets about a place, but knows the best it can do is just add to the paradox of the strangely-familiar vs. the familiarly-strange.

As an American, with just the rudimentary basics of the language, Douglas calls himself a "photographer-flaneur", a fitting title for any of us who wander and look.

Check out all of the details here, and be sure to get on the list for the info about the 2 limited edition prints which will be available. They are announced yet.

It will be presented in Rome at the FotoGrafia Festival Internazionale di Roma, September 23rd, published by Edizioni Punctum.

Univ. of Arts, Bremen - Kill Your Darlings

2011-08-10T20:21:00.004+02:00

This book isn't out yet but they are taking orders at the moment and there are some good friends involved, as teacher (Peter Bialobrzeski) and photographer (Sebastian Burger). You might want to check it out and show your support by ordering early.

What's happening in conceptual photography in Bremen? You'll find the answers within a well-illustrated catalogue of work by 20 former students of Peter Bialobrzeski who finished at the University of Arts Bremen between 2005 and 2011. Their renowned professor's credo "Kill your darlings" means that you occasionally have to discard a favourite photograph in order to build a coherent series. An exhibition project of the same name was curated by Ute Noll / Stuttgart. The bilingual catalogue will be published by Kerber and can be pre-ordered for a reduced price (€28) until the end of August.

You can order here.

Seba Kurtis book launch tonight

2011-08-08T09:38:00.003+02:00

HERE books is launching its first title tonight in London, this is a very limited edition booklet, Seba's first I think, you need to see this if you don't know his work already

You are warmly invited to the launch of our first book
Seba Curtis: Drowned

Tonight, Monday 8 August 7pm
Cafe Oto, 18-22 Ashwin Street, London E8 3DL

Seba Kurtis will be present for book signing, and a selection of short films related to the book will be shown

A set of music from Senegal, a point of departure for the work in this book, will be supplied by Brian Shimkovitz of Awesome Tapes From Africa

Books on the night will be on sale for £10

Dream City - Anoek Steketee and Eefje Blankevoort

2011-07-24T16:23:00.005+02:00

I just got one of the newest books from KEHRER, DREAM CITY from Anoek Steketee and Eefje Blankevoort.

Its always tough when a lot of people who's opinion I value keep telling me how good something is before I get it, sometimes its just disappointing, but not the case here.

Anoek (photos) and Eefje (text) travelled to 10 different countries and photographed in amusement parks, especially in places where we don't expect them such as Rwanda, Lebanon or Turkmenistan. Its not that it is surprising that there are amusement parks there, its just surprising to see how similar they look to the ones we (or I ) know from the states or europe. Eefje's text about each country and park addresses the socially relevant current and historical affairs which have shaped each country and through interviews and anecdotes reveals the roles of each of these parks in their respective cultures. I haven't figured it out yet, not that I am really trying to break down the technicalities, but Anoek has a way of lighting which creates an almost surreal edge between staged and street photography. Its more than just the off-camera flash which makes them into stages, its also the moments she photographs, they seem removed from any surrounding space.

The book is a co-production between KEHRER and FOTODOK, which is a Utrecht based space for documentary photography which goes beyond the usual editorial style of journalistic photography. KEHRER is making some of the most beautiful books at the moment and FOTODOK has based its mission on promoting work which finds just the right edge between storytelling and socially relevant power of "slow journalism", but with keeping a very high standard of interesting artistic photography.

Thus DREAM CITY has found its perfect home.

There is a show up right now at the Fotomuseum in Rotterdam.

order a copy here:

dreamcity@prospektor.nl

Léo Favier - The Dark Side of Graphic Deisign

2011-07-20T13:18:00.007+02:00

This is the ultimate version of "What I did on my summer vacation..."

Léo Favier is a graphic designer who I met through Charles Freger as Leo and Charles have worked together on several of Charle's books. Léo's newest book, The Dark Side of Graphic Design is loosely bound screen printed(!) 'zine of 48 pages (interlaced with as many pages of text) in which Lèo documents, on the sly, his experience as a graphic design intern at a large Berlin graphic design company.

The idea emerged when his professor for Visual Communications at the Kunsthochschule in Berlin asked the class the practical questions which face everyone studying arts and such, without a clear idea of where to proceed after finishing school:

What are we doing?

How will we live?

To whom will we sell ourselves?

What will we do for money?

What will we become?

These questions led Léo to apply for an internship on "the dark side..", his term for commercialized, and practical side of graphic design, working in an office that produces the daily mundane ads and products that surround us in our daily lives.

His b/w images of still-lives and interiors of the working space are interlaced with a sort of daily diary, documenting the ups and downs, the positive and the negative of what it means to be in the "real-world" of graphic design which in the end isn't nearly as sexy as one might believe, or, as a student, hope.

To produce the book, Léo drove around to printing houses and asked for left-over paper material onto which screen printed the book, the paper varies from book to book and the printing obviously as well through the screen print process, a bit warmer a bit cooler here and there.

You should pick one up soon as there are only 200 of them.

As usual, you can find a better tease than mine...

Yann Gross - Kitintale on Emphas.is

2011-07-12T09:07:00.005+02:00

Another one you should support...

Yann Gross in Kitintale

In Uganda, nobody knows about skateboarding as soon as we leave the slum area of Kitintale. Thirty years after its worldwide expansions, the skateboarding culture appeared in Uganda. As a skateboarder myself, I started to document the birth of this subculture since the early beginning and will follow its expansion, influenced by the Ugandan daily life context and African culture. For the last few years I have been going back to Uganda for two months every year to document the growing scene. This subculture grows every year and the idea of the project is to document the evolution in the next decade. Yann Gross

GO HERE TO SUPPORT!

Ben Huff - The Last Road North at Kickstarter

2011-07-08T08:35:00.003+02:00

Ben Huff

You should check this out if you don't know it already, and support the project in any way you can.

Ben Huff, The Last Road North.

here at Kickstarter.

Roberto Vietri - Paragens

2011-06-28T20:34:00.004+02:00

Robert Vietri

I'm finally getting around to posting this little limited edition book which Roberto handed me when I was at the ICP in March. He is from Sao Paulo, Brazil but is studying in NY at the moment.

Pauses Along is very poetic and leaves a lot open but I make the connection to wandering and wondering. The text feels like a dream-book, and reads abstract from time to time, possibly a travel journal.

Its limited to 150 hand-bound copies, with a sewn japanese binding. 28 pages, 11 photographs. It is ink-jet printed, produced by Roberto himself under the imprint of Prologo Selo Editions.

AND, this gives me a chance to thank Marcelo Greco, a photographer and teacher, who is listed as a mentor in the book. Marcelo was kind enough to order 5 copies of POINT SUBLIME for his students who were interested. Unfortunately the fist package of 5 copies was seemingly lost somewhere over the Atlantic so I posted 5 more copies. Of course the first package did show up a few days later so I asked Marcel to just return the 5 he didn't need, but no, instead he kept them and actually peddled them off to 5 more people in Brazil. So that makes 10 copies in Brazil, thanks to Marcelo!

And thanks for the nice book Roberto.

Ofer Wolberger - Visitor

2011-06-20T08:32:00.004+02:00

Another one, probably my favorite, in Ofer's line of "The Photographic Book Project".

The Visitor is a collection of images made by a security camera, producing the small ID tag images of the same woman as she signs in to the same building every day. The book, which is loose-leaf bound, manages to bring 2 halves of 2 different images together in a haunting manner. Only when you take the book apart can you actually see the images in their full composition; the fact that they work folded on top of each other makes you think that the young lady is a collaborator, and not just a chance visitor.

Check out the video:

Untitled from Ofer Wolberger on Vimeo.

If you only get one out of Ofer's on-going set, get this one!

Visions and Documents

2011-05-19T08:33:00.004+02:00

Box set of 10 booklets. Visions and Documents, 2010.

Michele Cera.

Francesco Neri

Cesare Fabbri

Curated by Michele Cera / Federico Covre, Visions and Documents is a limited edition 10 catalogue box produced by the Documentary Platform in Italy.

I had the chance to meet several of the photographers involved when I was in Savignano , Italy a few times last year and its great to see this initiative come out about contemporary Italy.

"Every one of us has a geography..."

So begins the text, and each photographer fills a 16 page booklet with his or her visions of their own geography.

You will recognize several of the names from publications in the last few years; Petra Stavast's great book Libero is here in a shortened version and the work of Fabio Barile which I discovered in his last book from Treterzi, Things That Do Not Happen.

Here is the list.

Fabio Barile “Among”
Michele Cera “Taccone”
Federico Covre “Dovresti esserci…”
Cesare Fabbri “Un mondo di carta”
Marcello Galvani “Casi”
Giovanni Lami “Apnea”
Domingo Milella “Paesaggi”
Francesco Neri “Nove”
Gabriele Rossi “Litorale”
Petra Stavast “Libero”

The set is limited to 150 box -sets, so be sure to get one if you are looking for a strong set of publications from contemporary Italy.

Again, my little snap-shot documentation is lame compared to the presentation you can seeon their site.

All the info here.

Paul Kranzler and the Sugarplum Fairies

2011-04-26T07:47:00.003+02:00

My good friend Paul Kranzler just directed his first music video for the California based pop band Sugarplum Fairies. If you know his latest fantastic book BRUT, then you will recognize many of the people and places.

Sugarplum Fairies "The Images We Get" from sugarplum fairies on Vimeo.

Ofer Wolberger - Covers

2011-04-21T00:52:00.009+02:00

Not the latest, but a new one for me I got while in NY last month is a part Ofer Wohlberger's on-going book series "The Photographic Book Project" and is once again somewhere between the ready-made, appropriation and artist book. Both are my favorites to date for different reasons.

Covers is a xerox collection of the certain genre of hard-bound books which seem to have been replaced by the pulp fiction soft-bound books. These are the thrift-store books which are piling up by the millions in every corner of every thrift store, Ofer is the guy buying them, removing the dust-cover and revealing the beautiful and often poignant graphics hidden below.

Covers from Ofer Wolberger on Vimeo.

here is the trailer I grabbed off of his sight.

It also comes with a large copy of one of the books inside, the selection is random and each poster is unique.

They come folded into the book and are about the size of an average 5 year old:

The latest book Visitor is also out now, I will post it soon.

Get the info here.

Point Sublime - at Lost and Found tonight in Amsterdam

2011-04-15T09:56:00.004+02:00

12 original slides will be projected tonight at "Lost and Found", I can't make it, but maybe someone can send me an iphone snap?

Especially for L&F, the author of 'The Englishman Who Posted Himself and Other Curious Objects' comes from London to Theatrum Anatomicum, bringing some of W. Reginald Bray's curious objects.
Also on show are slides of a great-uncle in Africa, news photography gone wrong, heavy metal in Cameroon, two young artist on their way to Nigeria for their Nollywood project, beeping with six, and a photographer driving his Ford F250 into Point Sublime, a remote overlook at the North Rim of the Grand Canyon, in the summer of 1984 to photograph a sunset.

UPDATE:

I don't know who made these, but thanks, and thanks to Julia from Lost and Found for

the invitation and the Skype interview.

Lost & Found
Friday 15 April 2011
Doors open 20.30, start programme 21.00
Theater Anatomicum, De Waag, Nieuwmarkt 4, Amsterdam
cover charge 9
Be in Time! Limited seats available.

More information:
http://www.lost.nl
found@lost.nl
020 639 27 87

Publish Your Photography Book - Darius Himes and Mary Virginia Swanson

2011-04-07T11:00:00.003+02:00

I just got back from a month of traveling, much of it had to do with the Point Sublime project, much to do with making some new photographs, and a big part of it was giving 2 lectures in NY, one at ICP and one to the class of Amy Stein at the SVA. The ICP was pretty straight forward about my work, and the SVA was focused more on the books and book making. There was a lot of discussion about making books, and now, for when such situations arise, I have the perfect answer:

(sorry couldn't resist)

Darius Himes and Mary Virginia Swanson have compiled a great source for anyone wanting to get a glance behind the curtain of the book publishing process. This book is both practical, even with a timeline one can follow to efficiently work through the process, as well as theoretical as it explores many case-studies of successful books which have found their way into the world. It lists book stores, fairs, blogs, publishers and marketing resources.

It covers both ends of the spectrum; self-publishing in its various forms, right up to how to approach big publishing houses, and even into production details.

It is a fine step towards demystifying the book making process.

published by Princeton Architecture Press, I would check them out directly on Darius's site to get all of the info.

Point Sublime - the fun part

2011-03-29T09:39:00.003+02:00

the cash and a nice stack of checks

me, my folks and the team at Ironwood and the American Cancer Society

My dad and Dr. Ono, my dad is the one cuffing the cash behind his back.

Last week was the fun part of the Point Sublime project. My dad and mom and I went to the Ironwood Cancer and Research Center in Mesa to hand over the first of several installments from the funds raised so far. Specifically the money will go to the American Cancer Society Cancer Resource Center at the Ironwood Center (Ironwood CRC) and the local American Cancer Society's "Road to Recovery" program.

Like my dad said, it felt nice to go to this place in a good mood, with something nice happening, instead of always associating it with something bad. We were met by Melissa and Jill and Dr. Ono and given a tour of the place and it was all in all a touching afternoon, highlighted with the counting of a stack of money, the first installment of 4,200 dollars from the first 70 editions.

There are still checks rolling in and I am still receiving orders weekly, so it is certainly not over. Since returning home, I have seen that the orders have rounded the 100 mark of the edition of 200.

I can't say thank you enough to everyone who has ordered a book and print.

ICP lecture

2011-03-22T14:32:00.003+01:00

photo, Thomas Schultz

Things have been really quiet here as I have been in AZ, roaming the suburbs and deserts with my friend Thomas, soaking up sun and remembering what too much light can look like.

I am in NY at the moment, being treated like family at the Horses Think corral.

Tomorrow evening, March 23rd, I will be giving a lecture at the ICP, in case you are around.

Wolfgang Scheppe - DONE.BOOK

2011-03-06T16:15:00.008+01:00

Wolfgang Scheppe's new book Done.Book is the perfect follow up to his mega project Migropolis from 2009. Where Migropolis examines Venice, Italy's future as a complex globalized society, the Done.Book dives into its meticulously documented past by two self-proclaimed visual archivists. One, John Ruskin, is very famous. And one, Alvio Gabagnin, a virtually unknown self-taught photographer from the working class of Venice.

photos by Gavagnin (left) and drawings by Ruskin (right)

The british social thinker John Ruskin spent 2 years from 1851-53 compiling his Venetian Notebooks, an incredibly in-depth visual study of notes and sketches, filling 1240 pages of manuscript describing, in minute detail, hundreds of architectural nuances and social situations around Venice. The complexity of these notes is apparent in the small detail which appears on hundreds of his original pages; a note to himself when he felt a thought or study had been sufficiently worked out - “Done”. It also indicates his struggle to cope with the “...sheer un-manageable expansion of his practice of close looking...”

As Scheppe notes, “he lived in a society that made reference to itself in the written word.”It is safe to say that had Ruskin the chance to photograph, he surely would have reached for a camera. His way of searching and note-taking seems to be a fore-runner for the ideologies of straight photography;

...Ruskin distanced himself from the “confectionary idealities f the then prevailing mode of the picturesque. The projection into the object of subjectivity characteristic of every conventional form of representation he treatdted as a pathetic fallacy, which could serve only to express ignorance of the laws of nature. In contrast to the contrived composition of an idealizing way of seeing, he regarded his own practice of sketching simply as the “written notes of certain facts”...
Wolfgang Scheppe

Fast forward 130 years and Scheppe meets the contemporary equivalent of Ruskin and his relentless collecting of details, albeit in the form of a photographer, the appropriate medium for a contemporary documentarist.

Alvio Gavagnin is a Venetian, born, raised and still resides one of the worlds most complex cities and multilayered societies. Gavagnin and his wife Gabriella have spent the last decades (1960 to late 80S) literally cataloguing and photographing every corner, bridge, building and subtle attributes of the city. The working structure is very rigid, mapped out with the use of city guide books and maps, taking a scientific approach to covering all aspects of the city, yet the images don't shy away from poetic observation. Admitting it himself, Gavaganin is a fanatic collector, a stickler for organization and detail, and a self-taught admirer of the beauty of black and white photography. The previous works by Scheppe in Venice go so deep into the history and literally invent a visual language to describe the social and political nuances of contemporary Venice. Now, with the discovery of an archive of contemporary photographs of Venice which comes as close to matching the rigorous observation of Ruskin, Scheppe has created an entirely new catalogue of the city.

books by Gavagnin (left) and Ruskin (right)

The heart of the book is a comparison, both aesthetically and contextually of the two projects. Double-page spreads show us one photograph from Gavagnin and one sketch from Ruskin, often the verso of the photos or note cards. The final products of both Ruskin and Gavagnin seem to be small, hand-bound notebooks with remarkably similar dead-pan titles such as “Horse Book, 1983” and “Collision Book, 1979” (Gavagnin) or “Door Book, 1849” and “Palace Book, 1849” (Ruskin).

As a photographer, one of the most interesting aspects of the book for me are the “loading frames” which Scheppe grants equal attention as the catalogued images. These are the first couple of frames which the photographer, when shooting 35mm film, must advance past when loading the film in the camera. These first few inches are exposed in the loading process and to be sure that we start our image taking on a bit of un-exposed film, we aimlessly release and advance, release and advance the film a few times. Scheppe considers these “loading frames” to be the most objective form of image making; the photographer not influencing the outcome of the image, but instead blindly pushing the button at a random angle. We see a piece of the world peeking around the last bit of exposed film, dust and scratches and all, and being that Cavagnin is so efficient and economical in his approach, all of these loading frames were archived on each role.

This book is published by Hatje Cantz as a part of the Villa Frankenstein, the British Pavilion exhibition at the 12^th Architecture Biennale in Venice in 2010.

Wolfgang Scheppe might possibly have one of the best home pages out there...give it a look, you may not be there very long, or maybe you spend the day thinking about it.

Baptiste Lignel - Ce Qui Demeure, vol. 1

2011-02-21T08:29:00.005+01:00

Baptiste Lignel is now shipping his latest project Ce Qui Demeure, which was announced as a pre-release special edition last year. Covering 10 years of his children's life, a mixture of still-lives and portraits in color and b/w, it's a beautiful project that has been successfully brought to print.

I don't know how direct the reference to Sally Mann's What Remains is intended but the slight reference, if only in the title, is fitting as Baptiste doesn't shy away from surreal moments but, as Roger Ballen says in his text to the book: "...his approach is spontaneous and perceptive.." and I would add "personal and intimate".

This is claimed to be volume 1, so I assume, and hope, that a second one will come someday. As father and photographer, I am a bit jealous of this archive he has created for his kids. Unfortunately, and at the critique of my wife, I never seem to make enough photos of my kids, always associating the camera with "work" and not wanting it in the way of just hanging out with the kids. But also as a father of a 7 year old girl going on 14, I will be curious to see how long Babtiste and his camera will be invited to the days at the lake, pillow fights and birthday parties. I am taking a group of 9 giggling 7 year-old girls to see "Rapunzel" in the movie theater on friday, and I think I will seize the chance to photograph, or at least give it a try.

Thanks Baptiste.

The book is published by the photographer-run co-op Otra Vista.

Here at Photo-Eye.

Caroline Waltman - Native Soil

2011-02-13T16:57:00.003+01:00

Though it is from 2009, I just got a copy of Caroline Waltman’s artist book Native Soil. Like so many of her dutch colleagues, the design is top and I’m not sure if she has many left as it is only an edition of 100 copies.

From the text I gather that Caroline comes from a sculpture background, her text begins with an interesting statement:

As a sculptor I have touched the boundaries of the landscape, only as a photographer have I been able, as it were, to enter it.
CW

'Native soil' is printed on newspaper paper. It has 200 pages with 164 (full color) photos. The book has a traditional Japanese binding and an artificial leather cover with embossing. The sequence of the photo's is determined by both the visual spreads, and the pages that are physically tied to one another; the traditional Japanese binding makes that front- and backside of each page together also make up for one spread.

The images make subtle references to the circle: birth/life/aging/death and, because the people, places and details are sometimes so intimate, it must be in the rural landscape where Caroline either lives or grew up; hence the title.

Once again, here is a case of the photographer having a better documentation of the book than I manage to throw together.

UMBAU 25 - Baghdad Suite

2011-02-06T17:46:00.003+01:00

UMBAU magazine, a Vienna based architecture journal has just published the Baghdad Suite series in the latest issue titled "Toward an Economy of Excess".

The original Baghdad Suite book is sold out, but I have a few copies of this journal, which I think is the only place right now to see the entire series printed together.

24,- Euro.

Viviane Sassen - Sketches

2011-02-03T10:48:00.002+01:00

Misha KOMINEK has released a great little book from Viviane Sassen.

SKETCHES is a collection of Polaroids made my Sassen between 2002 and 2010 in Africa.

Polaroids are often hard to reproduce, keeping their tactile feeling, this one solves the problem by showing them in the way a working photographer deals with them; piled on the table with the latest one being surrounded by small details from the previous ones. Its a nice touch.

There is a show of her work in FOTOHOF right now in case you are near Salzburg.

here the book info.

WassinkLundgren - Tokyo Tokyo

2011-01-21T09:46:00.003+01:00

I just got the newest book from Wassink Lundgren Toky Tokyo which Fritz Gierstberg so rightly calls a "lampooning of the mythical decisive moment". Wassink and Lundgren often work together, but this might be the first time where their artistic co-op becomes a formal part of the work.

The so-called moment may be magical and mystical and elusive, but what happens when the spacial factor is figured in? The same moment, from 2 different perspectives, its a bit like street photography in 3d. The spaces almost become animated and somehow easier to enter. All of the images are made in Tokyo so this book feels like a long exhausting trek through the city.

There is a special edition available with the 2 images which are on the front and back covers.

thanks Hippolyte Bayard, thanks Fabio Severo

2011-01-20T16:54:00.002+01:00

Fabio Severo gave me a chance to answer some questions about my process of making books.

Check out his blog Hippolyte Bayard.

Point Sublime - book + print set

2011-01-17T11:33:00.008+01:00

AN UPDATE:

Tomorrow, March 10th, my dad and I will present the first portion of the proceeds which we have collected to date through the Point Sublime project.

With the help of Melissa, the "patient navigator" at the Ironwood Cancer and Research Center, we have decided to give the money to the American Cancer Society Cancer Resource Center at the Ironwood Center (Ironwood CRC) and the local American Cancer Society's "Road to Recovery" program. The Road to Recovery program will help patients get to and from their cancer appointments.

For a book about a scary, yet rewarding road-trip, it seems fitting to help people get to where they need to be.

The books and prints are still available, and this is just the first of several installments which will follow as the checks are rolling in, so please don't think it is too late. We will keep donating the money for each one sold.

This is the print image, 30x36 cm, C-Print.

Im not holding any punches when it comes to promoting this little booklet and print set.

All proceeds go to the research of prostate cancer, which hit close to home last year. To celebrate its remission, I have put together this little book and print set of photographs made by my father at Point Sublime on the north rim of the Grand Canyon in 1984.

Point Sublime.
In the summer of 1984 my father drove his Ford F250 alone into Point Sublime, a remote overlook at the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. His only objective was to photograph a sunset. A long, dangerous trip by any standard, these were the days before cell-phones and GPS and even he now admits it was fool-hardy. These photographs became stock-imagery for the river-rafting slide shows we produced over 30 years in the Grand Canyon. On a visit to Arizona last summer I began sorting through thousands of slides, deciding what to scan, what to archive and what to throw out. When I came upon a sheet titled “Sublime”, it wasn’t the sunsets that interested me, but the photographs he never showed me; his truck stuck in the mud, the lonely road, a spooked deer in the woods. I know he will say different, but if you have met my father, you will agree that below his rough outer-surface is a romantic renaissance man. An otherwise practical man, he was inspired to narrate his journey to watch the sun go down. I smile to think of him out there, cursing to no end, trudging away from his truck to compose that picture of his truck in the mud, capturing the spirit of the whole mess. The sunset simply being the excuse to go.
Andrew Phelps, 2011.

It is only available as a Book and Print set.

55,- Euro includes shipping within Europe.

68,- USD includes shipping within the US.

(US orders will be shipped in March)

The set is in an edition of 300, which isn't exactly low, but you aren't buying this for its rarity, but for a good cause! 100% of the proceeds go to the research of prostate cancer. In the summer of 2011 I will personally hand a check over to the research department and technicians who have treated my father for the last 2 years.

To order, please send me an email: mail@andrew-phelps.com

Interveiw on LANDSCAPE STORIES

2011-01-13T09:41:00.004+01:00

from Not Niigata, 2009.

Somehow I forgot to post about this interview on LANDSCAPE STORIES, an on-line magazine edited and directed by Andrea Gaio, Claudio Bettio and Gianpaolo Arena. I was thrilled to do it as the questions posted were right on. I met Gianpaolo Arena in Savignano, Italy at the SI Fest this year during a workshop and it was nice to meet an interesting, young photography scene in Italy.

Created in 2010, Landscape Stories is an independent and free online magazine dedicated to the presentation of stories and photographic work. Our aim is to connect more deeply a growing number of readers with fine art contemporary photography.
Our goal is to bring together a collection of photographers from around the globe and to present their work to a wider audience.
We encourage photographers to offer their vision of the world relating to a certain topic and their different interpretation of this artistic discipline as much as possible different in terms of subjects, concepts, styles and techniques.

LANDSCAPE STORIES

David Schoerner at MELK in Oslo

2011-01-13T08:37:00.004+01:00

photos: David Shoerner and the Gallery Melk, Oslo

David Schoerner manages to pursue his own work while publishing the small yet consistently high quality series of books under the imprint Hassla. Its hard to balance two worlds, whether they be photographer/publisher, photographer/curator, photographer/teacher, so its good to follow his work and constantly be reminded that it can work and work well.

When working with the single image, rather than focusing on classic photographic series, Schoerner makes use of the book-medium to put the work in a narrative context. The title May All Your Dreams Come True derives from a postcard to the artist signed by actress Tiffani-Amber Thiesen and also shows up in one of the works in the exhibition. The printed book and publications of Hassla, including Schoerner’s own, are shown alongside two large vinyl banners.

Gallery Melk.

Opens on Thursday January 13, at 7 pm.

POC at the Philadelphia Photo Arts Center

2011-01-08T10:31:00.002+01:00

POC Lecture/Panel Discussion

Saturday January 8, 2011
Lecture/Panel Discussion: 3-6pm @The Grey Area (down the hall from PPAC)
Reception: 6-7pm @PPAC

Please join us for a public event featuring the POC group North America on Saturday January 8^th from 3-7pm. POC, standing for Piece of Cake, is comprised of a group of young artists whose preferred medium is photography. The group’s mission is to enable the artists to interact as they create, produce and distribute their works. This event will be the first exchange in the United States between the members of POC and a public audience.

The first hour of the event will consist of a formal presentation of the group, presented by one of the members, addressing the creation, expansion, and nature of POC. During the second half of the event there will be a panel discussion between four members of POC, moderated by Christopher Gianunzio. Potential topics of discussion during the panel include: economic issues, collective nature, concentration of creative efforts, personal practice, and the roles of PPAC and POC functioning in larger communities, acting as centers for discussion and sites to disseminate ideas and creative practice.

POC Introduction:
Cara Phillips

Panel Discussion:
William Lamson, Loan Nguyen, Amy Stein, Brian Ulrich

Moderator:
Christopher Gianunzio

Following the discussion, PPAC will host a public reception and book signing for the members of POC. Refreshments will be provided by Standard Tap. Books will be available to purchase or view by the following artists:

Charles Freger,
William Lamson,
John Mann,
Loan Nguyen,
Christian Patterson,
Andrew Phelps,
Birthe Piontek,
Justin James Reed,
Amy Stein,
Ofer Wolberger,

For more information, please visit http://www.pocproject.com/

Realstadt - Wishes Knocking on Reality's Door

2010-12-29T11:40:00.007+01:00

I got a chance to be a part of an interesting book project this fall documenting the architecture exhibition REALSTADT in the Kraftwerk Mitte Berlin. Curated by Martin Heller and Angelika Fitz, the show presented nearly 300 architecture models from dozens of German cities.

From October 1 until November 28 2010 Berlin was playing host to «REALSTADT.Wünsche als Wirklichkeit» [Realstadt.Wishes Knocking on Reality's Doors]. The focal point in this exhibition has not only been the concept of the City but also the way we deal with the City. It were the wishes of very many different actors playing an active part in shaping the City that are central to the exhibition: mundane wishes and spectacular ones, idealistic and economic ones, local and global ones. Cities, after all, are built from wishes, animated by wishes and pulsing with wishes.
Martin Heller, Angelika Fitz.

Instead of standard exhibition photos, the curators decided to give free rein to 8 photographers, each of us interpreting the show in our own style.

The photographers:

Tobias Gratz, Torben Höke, Philipp Horak, Paul Kranzler, Sandra Kuhne, Kay Michalak, Julia Müller-Maenher, Andrew Phelps;

160 pages, Hardbound

ISBN 978-3-033-02748-0;

27.- Euro plus packaging and postage.

Get the info here.

Harry Watts - Studio

2010-12-10T08:56:00.003+01:00

Harry Watts has made the fitting companion book to Darkroom by Michel Campeau. His latest Black Box publication turns the camera onto the all the crap that clutters our studios, the stuff usually left outside the frame; broken fans, crumpled back-drops, cables. Whereas Darkroom is, for me, quite melancholic and nostalgic, considering my history of years in the darkroom, Studio is more whimsical and quirky, because all of this "stuff" is still used today. From certain repeated patterns and forms, I think al of the images were probably made in Harry's studio. It is a glimpse back stage where, regardless wether your images are digital or not, analogue is still king and duct-tape and zip-ties are worth more than any new plug-in.

There is a very good text in the book from Aaron Schuman whch I am taking the liberty of grabbing from the publisher's homepage.

The photographic studio is generally regarded as an invisible space — a non-place, distilled of reality, where photographers are presented with an opportunity to ‘make’, rather than ‘take’, photographs. At the centre of this stripped-back monochrome environment sits an isolated three-dimensional void that is exclusively intended to serve the two-dimensional image, where precise, polished, elaborate and imaginative worlds are conjured up and transformed into a single plane.
In STUDIO, Harry Watts turns this environment inside out, allowing the camera itself to inhabit the void and explore its surrounding boundaries, where the means, mechanisms and ephemera of the photographic image — and the photographic imagination — reside. Remarkably, he discovers that upon closer examination the borders and tools so often used to define this space and generate sleek, idealized visions are themselves clunky, cramped and awkward. Painted cinderblocks, crumpled backdrops, crooked ladders, half-broken fans, snaking wires, crumbling styrofoam, and countless bits of gaffer, masking and packing tape encircle such sites, alluding to the hidden character and true nature of the studio itself.
Within the series, the charm of the functional trumps the thrill of the fantastical, and through clever and considered observation, Watts sheds light on both the making and taking of photographs, returning these environments — originally created for the purposes — of illusion — into places of photographic insight, intrigue, investigation and ultimately, study.
Text by Aaron Schuman

It is 32 pages, in an edition of 500 and the current price, thanks to a holiday sale at Black Box Press, is 8 quid.

Jasper De Beijer - The Giant Popsicle

2010-12-09T07:59:00.002+01:00

My friend and fellow POC member Jasper De Beijer just sent me his thoughts on this year's Scope Miami experience. After being in Paris 2 weeks ago and seeing many red dots on superficial work, I laughed a bit and cried a bit after reading his words.

Let me tell you a story about the art market. I went to Scope Miami to promote the Recollector, my interactive piece. 5 months I have given all my time and effort to finish it, and luckily it was received very well by the Dutch press and audience. So we put up the booth, flat screen, computer, controller and all to make it really sing. And it did. I also brought some photo portraits from this project to put on the wall.

I was there for the opening; people where really amazed by the results; never seen anything like it bladibladiblah.

Then it happened. The gallery opposite to us had the brilliant idea to put a giant pink popsicle on the wall, you know – the double stick one. About the size of a 5 year old infant. Collector couples where completely into my presentation, and every time their looks went gazing they were caught by this pink monster across the alley. “Yeeeeez look Henry a giant popsicle!” Gone were they.
This happened to me about 15-20 times. Also, people just walking by all were drawn to it like shit flies by a cow’s dung. We could shout and scream all we wanted, the popsicle went pulling and pulling attention like some kind of pop star. Girls wanted to be photographed with it while licking it, they were making these small exhilarated jumps that only rich girls can.

At the end of the fair they sold 6 of those things – 30.000 dollar a piece. And me? Well, after spending so much money on something so profound there is not enough left to buy something else apparently. So I will stop making pictures and will produce giant consumer products for next year, starting with a giant hamburger. I hear that people like them, especially when they are big.

So this year’s lesson about the art market is this - No matter what people say or do, however clever their comments are on your work, no matter what reviews you have or any other insights you might have on the uplifting experience of art: You will ALWAYS lose from the giant popsicle.

Greets Jasper

Kaylynn Deveney - The Day to Day Life of Albert Hastings

2010-12-06T08:13:00.004+01:00

I don't know why this book is in the deep discount section at Photo Eye,

but if you don't have one you should check it out. It is on my short-list of

favorite books from the last few years.

Empty Land, Promised Land, Forbidden Land - Rob Hornstra and Arnold van Bruggen

2010-11-28T12:02:00.018+01:00

Empty Land, Promised Land, Forbidden Land is the second annual publication of Rob and Arnold's ongoing Sochi Project. The first being last years Sanitorium. Sanitorium is everything a photo-book collector wants; limited print run, a slick design, clear concept and nice big pretty pictures un-cluttered by too much text. Its the last wish, "not too much text" which sets this book apart. Rob told me he often hears people say "I don't like photo books with alot of text...." This might be true in some cases but as any follower of the Sochi Project knows, the entire project is not positioned as an artistic endeavor but instead as a social documentary, albeit with a way above average photo contribution. I have to be honest and say that Arnold's text, until now, have had a hard time competing with Rob's images. This is an attempt to level the playing field and bring the texts and the images into one form; that form not being a "photo-book" nor a novel, but something in-between. A perfect sign for me is that I haven't read this on my big green couch next to the bookshelves in the studio which I have set up with perfect light for looking at photo books, but instead this one is on my nightstand, for reading in bed. This one keeps company at the moment with Barbara Kingsolver's "Lacuna" and Markus Zusak's "The Book Thief". At 290 pages and about the size of a hefty novel, this book is one you will take on a long train-ride, dog-ear the corners and refreashingly admit that EL,PL,FL is a damn good read!

A short summary of the story: Amid the bigger Sochi Project, Rob and Arnold travel to the very small and obscure region of Abkhazia on the Black Sea, squeezed (literally and politically) between Russian and Georgia. This story is the complex situation of a country which isn't recognized as a country, devastated by war and now mostly abandoned as it exiled about 75% of it's Georgian inhabitants at the beginning of the Georgian-Abkhazian War in 1992-93. As is with most histories from this region and down into the Balkans, the events leading up to civil wars are so incredibly complex and span generations of political, religious, and social nuances that are nearly impossible to understand, unless of course you dive in as Rob and Arnold have done, and even they admit it is quite a mess.

The design: I think the quickest way for a set of photographs to lose a bit of their surface illusion and take on the form of a book is to print the images across the gutter; double-truck. The photographs have to bend to the binding, becoming an object and not a surface. Normally this is done with a horizontal image, the verticles left to their own format. What really breaks with this form in EL,PL,FL is that you have to turn the book to see almost every one of the color plates, even the verticles which are spread across the gutter. The horizontals are also printed full bleed in a verticle format, so you even have to turn it for these. For the photo-book reader looking for an easy entry, this one will slow you down as it is basically impossible to flip through this like a magazine, with fleeting glimpses of images. Sometimes this feels like a text book from a history class, and rightly so. Its also worth noting that many of the most interesting photographs are not printed big and bold and colorful, but instead are embeded in the text, illustrating places and people as they are cross-referenced in the text.

Photobook enthusiast who have missed out on a title or two will know that Rob seems to have a Midas touch with marketing and selling his books so it makes sense that this one has a higher print run of 1000 copies considering that the purpose of these books is to finance the trips of the Sochi Project. This one might have a slower reception in the art/photo book world because of "all that text", but in the long run it will be the most important of the Sochi Project to date and, for me, the first time Arnold van Bruggen is given room and really shines, the collaboration becoming solid.

There is a special edition of EL,PL,FL launched at the Off Print in Paris.

A limited edition comprising a signed copy of the book, three c-prints (a mini-exhibition about Abkhazia’s only prison ‘Dranda’) all numbered and signed, housed together in an handmade box. The color of the box is the same as the flyleafs in the book. Edition of 25 copies + 2 artists’ proofs. Each print and book is signed and numbered 1-25.Price € 375 excl. p&p.

Get both the trade edition and the special edition here.

I'm giving 2 for Christmas presents.

Interview on Bookbla

2010-11-23T14:10:00.003+01:00

Jasmin Seck, the creator of the BOOKBLA forum for photography books has posted this interview about my thoughts, reasons, worries and hopes for this blog.

Unfortunately it is all in german....aber viel Spass.

Thanks Jasmin

Itza´- Charles Freger

2010-11-18T17:00:00.005+01:00

Charles Freger was just passing through Salzburg where he got a warm soup and a bed and I got a beautiful new book. This is Charles' latest book, though the work is several years old; its been a long road getting this book out but here it is. ITZA`, Mayan Memories, or as its original title reads: ITZA´Memrias Mayas, is a collaboration between Charles and the anthropologist/writer Scott Atran. Mr. Atran is a very well known specialist when it comes to histories and issues of societies and cultures. The guy has rubbed elbows with Noam Chomsky and the Taliban, and everyone in-between.

The book is broken into 3 sections, the first consists of portraits of the ITZA´, the last surviving descendants of the Mayan kingdom. The middle section is a collection of poems and stories in the ITZA´ language, a language which is based mostly on an oral tradition and therefore in danger of disappearing as the storytellers themselves become lost. The third section is a broader overview of the culture in general; places, still-lives, landscapes.

I am lucky to have one of the hard-bound copies, I hear there are only about 70 or so, otherwise the softbound version is the same, but without the handmade paper end boards.

ca 220 pages

Universidad Nacional Autonoma De Mexico, 2010.

This thing is not easy to find, but this is what I could dig up:

You might just want to contact Charles for this one.

New Topographics - a reprise in German

2010-11-14T15:42:00.006+01:00

New Topographics, Texte und Rezeption, Fotohof and Landesgalerie Linz, 2010

Original New Topographics catalogue from 1975, George Eastman House.

New Topographics book from 2009 by Steidl, CCP, and George Eastman House

New Topographics in Linz, Landesgalerie Oberösterreich, November/December 2010.

The New Topographics exhibition can be seen in its etirety for the first time in Europe. The show has been re-curated by the Center for Creative Photographs, and the George Eastman House.

Alongside the 180 vintage works from the original cast

Robert Adams, Bernd & Hilla Becher, Joe Deal, Frank Gohlke, Nicholas Nixon, John Schott, Stephen Shore, Henry Wessel Jr.

the show is augmented with contemporary positions by

Joachim Brohm, Andrew Phelps and Mario Pfeifer

11. November 2010 - 09. January 2011

Landesgallery Linz in
Oberösterreichischen Landesmuseum
Museumstr. 14, A-4010 Linz
+43 (0)732 774482
galerie@landesmuseum.at
http://www.landesgalerie.at

As a follow up to the follow up Steidl book last year, the Landesgallery in Linz and the SK Stiftung in Cologne have released a slimed down version in German which will accompany the show around Europe. It has been published in the Edition Fotohof and contains a selection of the original works as well as a selection of contemporary photographers working in the spirit of the NT.

I noticed that Fotohof doesn't have it listed yet in the new releases, it was hot-off-the-press only a few days ago, so if you want one, let me know and I will forward your request to the right place.

I'm excited to have work in the shadow of a very inspirational and formative show. For me it is a circle coming back around, due to my time in the 80's as a student of Bill Jenkins, the curator of the original NT exhibition.

After Linz it will travel to the SK Stiftung in Cologne.

Salt Marsh Predators - BlisterZine #5

2010-11-11T12:05:00.004+01:00

Here is the promised follow-up to Suburban which I posted last week. BliserZine #5 is a 3-D collection of stuffed and exhibited salt marsh predators. There is something very similar between photography and taxidermy, both freezing a moment, a moment declared more important than the moment before, or any moment to follow.

Taxidermy and photography have more in common then meets the unsuspecting eye. Consider how both “capture” a specific slice of life and freeze it solid. The antelope’s gaze, the brown bear’s stare preserve the moment of attention in the forest when there was a noise in the bushes or a sudden scent in the air. That attentive look of life is captured, chopped off at the neck, and displayed among the paraphernalia of middle class domesticity. Beautiful and dead. Life is a ceaseless flow of change. We find this constant change, this knowledge of certain death unbearable. Photography and taxidermy make time hold still. They are good at preserving the illusion of permanence.

Tamarra Kaida. Excert from Losing Ground, HIGLEY, 2007

As before, this is limited to 100 copies, so I'm sure they will sell out.

get them here.

Harvey Benge - As It Is? in four chapters

2010-11-09T08:54:00.003+01:00

Its getting hard to keep up with Harvey, but I hope he doesn't stop sending me books. Here is his latest, a 4 part booklet set that is hidden behind the notion that it's not photography's fault that it doesn't have answers, it's our fault for not knowing the question.

As so often with Harvey, there is no text, just the titles, which change flavor depending on how you lay them out:

IS THIS WHAT IT IS?

SOME UNEXPECTED ANSWERS

THE FEAR OF NOT GETTING IT

I DON'T KNOW WHAT IT MEANS YET

you can get them from him directly, or probably at Paris Photo, along with an impressive stack of his publications to date, though most of them are probably sold out, this one is limited to 75.

TRYS in Fotohof Salzburg

2010-11-06T11:31:00.005+01:00

Ugnius Gelguda

Andrew Miksys

Indre Serpytyte

This is the last week to see a show which I curated in the Gallery Fotohof in Salzburg this summer.

A group show of 3 contemporary Lithuanian artists, TRYS (Lithuanian for "three") highlights the work of

Andrew Miksys

Indre Serpytyte

Ugnius Gelguda

If you have the time, and the language, here is the press-text in german.

Die drei litauischen Künstler ( trys = drei) Ugnius GELGUDA, Andrew MIKSYS und Indre SERPYTYTE beschäftigen sich mit der Fotografie als Medium der eigenen, sowie der kulturellen und sozialen Identitätssuche.

Andrew Miksys geht der Spur seiner 2006 fertig gestellten Porträtserie BAXT nach und zeigt daran, wie seine Fotografien von ihren Besitzern in den Wohnungen neu kontextualisiert wurden.

In BAXT befasst sich Miksys mit dem Volk der Roma, von denen heute ca. 3000 Menschen in Litauen leben, wo die Fotoserie in mehreren Roma-Siedlungen ab 1999 entstand. „Während der Zeit, in der ich Menschen für ein Projekt, das später BAXT heißen sollte porträtierte, schenkte ich ihnen Abzüge ihres Porträts.

Später habe ich Bücher verschenkt. Als ich die Menschen dann wieder besuchte, war ich erstaunt zu sehen, wie sie meine Fotos verändert hatten und bei sich zuhause aufhingen. Manche haben ihr Bildnis aus dem Buch herausgerissen und im Wohn- oder Schlafzimmer aufgehängt.“

Er zeigt ein von den Zeitläufen unberührtes Volk mit ausgeprägter Identität. Menschen, umgeben von obsolet gewordenen Versatzstücken des Sowjetregimes und kapitalistisch konnotierten Gegenständen in einer sich im Umbruch befindlichen Zeit. Die Schauplätze der Fotografien eröffnen eine Vielzahl von Bedeutungsebenen, die sie mit Ironie und Witz aufladen. Miksys beschönigt nicht und idealisiert nicht. Seine Qualität liegt in der Schnelligkeit, mit der er eine Verbindung zwischen sich und dem Protagonisten herstellt und eine Form des monumentalen klassischen Porträts generiert das gepaart ist mit liebevoller humoristischer Individualität.

Mit stillebenartigen, großformatigen Fotos der Serie „A state of Silence“ von hinterlassenen Gegenständen ihres Vaters, versucht Indre Serpytyte seinen mysteriösen Tod und die bisher unbekannte Identität als Geheimagent zu durchleuchten. Albinas Serpytis starb am 13. Oktober 2001 bei einem Autounfall. Die weiteren Umstände dieses Unglücksfalls bleiben im Dunkel. Die Künstlerin nimmt dieses tragische Ereignis zum Anlass einer umfangreichen Recherche, bei der die Grenzen zwischen Realität und Fiktion nicht immer klar voneinander zu trennen sind. Die Antwort, ob es sich bei Albinas Serpytis tatsächlich um den Vater der Künstlerin, bzw. um einen Geheimagenten handelt lässt die Künstlerlin letztendlich unbeantwortet.

Gelguda befasst sich in der Serie „crimescapes“, mit Bildstrategien in litauischen Printmedien. Ausgewählte Bilder der Seiten „Verbrechen und Katastrophen“ aus litauischen Tageszeitungen bilden die Grundlage seines Arbeitsaufenthaltes in Salzburg.

Gelguda interessiert sich für das Verhältnis von Text und Bild, das in den litauischen Zeitungsbeispielen kaum einen Zusammenhang hat. Die Abbildungen dienen nicht primär als Illustration der dazu gehörigen Schlagzeilen. Die im Text angeführten zeitlichen und örtlichen Bezüge finden keine Entsprechung in den Bildern.

Gelguda stellt einzelne ausgewählte „settings“ solcher litauischen Zeitungsphotos in der Peripherie Salzburgs nach , er generiert dadurch eine neue Realitätsebene, die so jedoch nie stattgefunden hat. Auf die Rekonstruktion des Tatortes an einem völlig anderen Ort, folgt die Dokumentation, mit dem Ergebnis einer Reproduktion von simulierter Wirklichkeit.

Die Ausstellung ist Teil eines umfangreichen Kulturprogramms in Salzburg mit KünstlerInnen aus Vilnius im Rahmen einer Städtepartnerschaft „Alte Liebe rostet nicht – Salzburg / Litauen 1970 – 2010“

Biografien:

Ugnius Gelguda, * 1977, Vilnius Academy of Fine Arts, 2000-2008. Lebt in Vilnius.

Andrew Miksys, * 1969, Guggenheim und Fulbright Stipendien. Lebt in Seattle und Vilnius.

Indre Serpytyte, * 1983 Litauen, Royal College of Art, London 2007-2009. Lebt in London.

BlisterZine - Suburban and Suburban RGB

2010-10-31T10:13:00.004+01:00

Since making the 720 book, I've been receiving loads of skateboarding related 'zines and books. I am excited to have these in my collection and this is one that was given to me personally by Emiliano Biondelli and Valentina Venturi who I spent some time with this summer photographing in Savignano, Italy. Their monthly fanzine called BlisterZine is a great collection for anyone interested in limited edition 'zines.

Suburbia and Suburbia RGB are a double set of booklets, each 16 pages, sewn binding with color and b/w images. These are limited to 50 copies. 21x15 cm.

the website lists an email of nastynasty@hotmail.it

BlisterZine #5, which I don't have, looks intriguing, it is in 3-D....

Print-for-a-book swap #4

2010-10-14T12:41:00.005+02:00

"Tikiman" from HIGLEY, 2006. 24x30 cm.

As I've said before...

I am offering a few of my press prints from various book projects over the last years in trade for a selection of books I would like to have. THESE PRINTS ARE SLIGHTLY DAMAGED* (a small kink here or there) and most have various printer notes cryptically scribbled on the back, but they are in tact though they show the signs of the scanning and proofing process. They will be inscribed with my name and project title but will also say "press print- not for sale". They are 24x30 cm c-prints, hand printed by me and should look exactly like the printed versions as the scans were made from these exact prints.

*but...this print doesn't seem to be damaged, thank you scan people.

I would like to have this book in trade: Mark Steinmetz, South East.

Send me an email if would like to trade. I am not going to tell you where to buy it, maybe you have an extra copy laying around, but if you do simply order one, I would suggest doing so through one of the stores which I listed in the roster to the right.

Christian Patterson - Redheaded Peckerwood

2010-10-12T09:08:00.006+02:00

Cover of Christian Patterson's Redheaded Peckerwood

Following the last post, this is the 2nd in a line of books I don't have yet, but will surely follow and await their release. Fellow POC and friend Christian Patterson is offering a pre-release edition of his up-comming book Redheaded Peckerwood. If you know his first book Sound Affects, then you are familiar with Christian's fine tuned eye for editing and sequencing. You might recognize some of the images under their early title, Out There, but under the new packaging as Redheaded Peckerwood you will find a much more refined and complete collection of sometimes collected, sometimes staged, sometimes found imagery telling a tale of a true-crime legacy left behind by 2 teenage serial killers named Starkweather and Fugate who raised hell between Nebraska and Wyoming in the late 50's. Christian's tracking of the 2 is documented through places and objects relevant to the pair.

"The project is part road trip, part time machine, and mostly a testament to the thin line between fame and infamy, truth and representation." Light Work Bolg

Christian is offering a hand-bound ink-jet artist book, limited to 10 copies, along with a print.

He has all of the info here, so be sure to see it. The last I heard there are about 5 left.

Hardcover, gray linen with black silkscreen.
8 x 10 inches.
144 pages.
64 original b/w and color archival inkjet prints.
4 unique handmade inserts.

He spent an artist in residence at Light Work to produce the 10 artist books.

Baptiste Lignel - Ce Qui Demeure

2010-10-06T08:10:00.006+02:00

I traded books last year with Baptiste Lignel for his Coney Island book, a collection of details of the objects and the people who made the famous, fated amusement park an icon.

He is following it up with a book about childhood, including only images of his own children. As it seems to becoming common practice in the self-publishing world, Baptiste is offering a pre-sale version of the book in the form of a special "shoebox" edition.

« The photographs that Baptiste has produced of his children are emotional, sensitive, and personal. The images capture a universal experience that brings forth childhood memories from years past. His approach in photographing his children is spontaneous and perceptive. It reflects a deep relationship not only with his children, but with an element of childhood that is part of the human experience. Baptiste has taken upon himself to record in a poetic and touching manner, moments that will last. »

Roger Ballen

He has put up a nice video, displaying the entire book.

As with Coney Island, it is being published by Otra Vista, an on-line store with a nice selection of prints, books, and special editions.

Harvey Benge - Birds and All the Places I've Ever Known

2010-09-30T14:27:00.011+02:00

All the Places I've ever Known, Harvey Benge, Kehrer Publishing, 2010

Birds, Harvey Benge, FAQedtions, 2010

Harvey Benge just sent me his two latest books, though knowing Harvey, there might even have been something new released in the time it takes me to get a handle on these 2. Harvey is a busy man, not only publishing constantly, he also writes and insightful blog.

I have talked about a few of his other books here, both of which have been self-produced under his own imprint FAQeditions in Auckland, New Zealand.

Here 2 short descriptions from the publishers:

All the Places I've Ever Known

New Zealander Harvey Benge works and lives in Auckland and Paris. Since the early 1990’s his photography practice has investigated our view of the world and the relationship between parallel lives, when one thing is happening here something else is happening over there. Laced with irony and humor, his work reminds us just how strange the world is. Benge’s photographs reveal the bizarre absurdities of life. Moments of the everyday flash with ambiguity and tension, contrast and conflicts. Small anarchies, an urban dream at the edges of reality....

...The book opens with this quotation from the ancient Buddhist master Longchenpa: »Since everything is but an apparition, perfect in being what it is, having nothing to do with good or bad, acceptance and rejection, you might as well burst out laughing!« KEHRER

Birds

I've always liked Hans-Peter Feldmann's little book, The Little Seagull Book (Walther Konig, 2004) which presents a series of photographs Feldmann made while on vacation in Scotland in the 70's. These ordinary seagull pictures celebrate the simple beauty of nature and the very essence of life.

Here are some birds flying west into a darkening winter sky that I photographed yesterday afternoon from the deck of the Devonport ferry as it headed into Auckland harbor. What can be more fundamental and inspiring than observing this incredible performance.... I'm not sure what the bird is, possibly the short-tailed shearwater, a migratory bird that heads south in the Pacific at this time of year. H.B.

All the Places I Have Ever Known is published by KEHRER, a major german publishing house with international distribution, an amazing team, the best printing and a real PR machine helping photographers to get their books into a wide audience. Birds on the other hand is a slim, 10 page stapled pamphlet of an edition of 50.

These 2 publications are worlds apart in cost and ideology, each representing opposite ends of the publishing spectrum. The fact is, I really love both ends and these 2 books are examples of why. I was recently asked to give a few comments about self-publishing as I have self published 2 books in between my "bigger" books, and whether self-publising will be the "future" and publishers and big publishing houses will be thing of the past.

Here my feelings, then and now:

The toughest part of self-publishing used to be distribution. The web has solved this problem and now it is possible to sell out an edition of a few hundred books within a few hours. Combine that with the possibility to "print on demand" and all of the financial problems of self publishing can be kept in check. Though I try to self-publish a book each year, and the process is an important step of how I think about my photographs, I do think that the work which a motivated publishing house achieves is very important; wide distribution and press, as well as getting the books into public collections and libraries where they can be accessed by many. That is the only down-side I have found to self-publishing; the books get snatched up by collectors who keep them safe, out of harms way, and out of sight to anyone else. I often wonder how many of my 100 editon books get looked at even once a year.

I really admire the way Harvey manages these 2 worlds. All the Places I've Ever Known will be seen by many and end up in all the right collections and libraries, where Birds will end up in the hands of 50 people who will covet them in little boxes and glassine sleeves. I am teaching a class at the univ. here this semester focusing on the photography book and I know when I show up with these 2 books, I will hesitate about sending Birds through the classroom, worried about kinks and smudges, I won't worry much about All the Places... It can handle some groping.

The books I have been able to make with KEHRER were fantastic experiences, really the highlight of any work I have done in the publishing field, but I also have to say that the self-published books fulfill a different desire, to purposefully make something small and a bit elusive. But, as fun as it is to produce something "off the radar" it is nice to sell them out, and that works because the bigger books, promoted and distributed by the likes of KEHRER, help establish the market for people who then find their way to the smaller titles.

I received both of these within a few days of each other. One doesn't replace or de-value the other, I need them both. You need them both.

video interview on E-PhotoReview

2010-09-28T14:57:00.004+02:00

Fabio Severo, who writes the Hippolyte Bayard Blog interviewed me for E-PhotoReview about my latest books and how and why they came about. Don't let the short sleeves and the sunshine fool you, Salzburg was super crappy this year weather-wise, the interview was on my sister's back patio while I was back visiting HIGLEY this summer.

Andrew Phelps - Higley from e-photoreview on Vimeo.

ps. With "giving up" in the last post, I meant "giving in" to FACEBOOK, something I swore would never happen, but for the BUFFET cause, I guess it is best...

ok, I give up, follow the BUFFET on FACEBOOK.

2010-09-25T22:23:00.003+02:00

Not that it is much fun to follow a blog as silent as this one has been lately, but this is the "on-deck" stack and, believe me, I think it will be a long cold winter here with lots of time to kill and post, so try not to let me slip form your sight. If you are FACEBOOK user, (and my wife thinks I am the only person who isn't), you can now follow the BUFFET by befriending me as Andrew's Buffet.

Lewis Chaplin - You Make Me Feel (mighty real)

2010-09-17T11:14:00.004+02:00

I don't have one of these yet, but hope to get one soon. I usually wait to post about something when I have one in my hands but i thought this might be a chance to open the forum a bit. If anyone has one of Lewis Chaplin' book, and wants to write a few words about it, I will post them here.

In the meantime, see a bit of the book here.

it is 62 pages and limited to 50.

Bela Doka - The Sundays of Life

2010-09-14T09:28:00.008+02:00

I traded books this summer with Bela Doka, a Hungarian photographer who has been photographing his extended family at the country house of his girlfriend for the last several summers. The Sundays of Life is a limited edition pre-runner to a soon to be trade edition.

Bela Doka, The Sundays of Life

Bela Doka, in his series titled "Sundays of Life", charts a challenging path for himself.
How do you photograph the quotidian moments that, while not dramatic, form the core of life’s pleasures and satisfactions? The answer for him is found in a country house owned by the family of his girlfriend. The world that he reveals to us is one of sun-warmed lunch tables, cool afternoon river swims, lazy walks in pathless fields, and tasks that are met with no timetable in mind. If we view these pictures from a hurried, urban mindset, we see nothing. Literally. Nothing is happening. But if we shift our sensibilities – as I believe he is asking us to do along with him – then we see the timeless, daily activities that create a Zen of satisfaction.
Evan Mirapaul

Limited Edition of 250 Copies

Handmade Canvas bound ,
80 Pages , 60 photographs ,
245 x300 mm 10x12 inches
Offset printing , Hardcover

Each book is numbered and signed by the author, the price is 88,- Euro.

There will soon be a limited edition box set with a print, so maybe you want to get on Bela's mailing list.

P.I.Y. - Publish It Yourself, Paris

2010-09-03T09:39:00.002+02:00

The photobook collecter and publisher Laurence Vecten, along with Laurent Champoussin have initiated an event celebrating self-published photo books which is taking place next weekend in Paris, Sept. 11 and 12.

Maison d'art Bernard Anthonioz, 16 rue Charles VII, 94130 Nogent-sur-Marne

"We quickly decide to focus on the self vibe, and work on a selection of books we love, trying to show different range of objects : from the poster to the box, the monograph to zines, the offset to the home printed, important actors of the self published scene as well as more confidential photographers, and impulsive choices too."

Books on display by:

Patricia Almeida, Maxwell Anderson, Michelle Arcila, Craig Atkinson, Noah Beil, Beierle + Keijser, Harvey Benge, Simon Berg, Justin Bland, Joscha Bruckert & Andreas Till, Dani Cardona, Laurent Champoussin, David Crespo, Jean Dolhats, Charlotte Dumas, Geoffrey Ellis, Roe Ethridge, Jason Evans, Sam Falls, Stephen Gill, Sébastien Girard, Yann Gross, T. Reilly Hodgson, Ana Kras, Seiji Kumagai, Mathieu Lambert, Marten Lange, Pierre Le Hors, Frank Loriou, Henrik Malmström, Jennilee Marigomen, Ye Rin Mok, Jim Newitt, Keith NG, Conor O'Brien, Andrew Phelps, David Potes, Preston is my Paris, Pedro Ramos, Justin James Reed, Denise Schatz, David Schoerner, Anne Schwalbe, RJ Shaughnessy, Theo Simpson & Tom Common & Ben Mclaughlin, Stéphanie Solinas, Alec Soth, Bert Teunissen, Graeme Vaughan, Wassink Lundgren, Jessica Williams, Grant Willing, Ofer Wolberger, Stuart Woodman.

You can get all the info here.