JUNE 2015
Established 1854
JUNE 2015
PICTURE © NICOLAS HAENI, FROM THE FORTHCOMING BOOK SELF PUBLISH, BE HAPPY BY BRUNO CESCHEL (APERTURE 2015)
BRITISH JOURNAL OF PHOTOGRAPHY
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Volume 162 Issue No 7836
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OUTER COVER SPREAD FOR MICK_WITH 5MM SPINE FOR 84+4 PAGINATION.indd 1
08 FREE RANGE 36 THE WORLD’S BEST BOOK DESIGNERS 42 MATTHEW CONNORS: FIRE IN CAIRO 50 MICHAEL MACK ON THE FIRST BOOK AWARDS 59 SIMON BAKER INVITES OFFPRINT TO TATE 69 ON TEST: NIKON’S D5500 AND SONY’S A7II
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CONTENTS
A spread from Hong Kong Parr by Martin Parr, designed by Stuart Smith, who is interviewed this issue along with two other world-renowned photobook designers. See pages 36-41
AGENDA
07-13 European Publishers Award winner, Restricted Areas by Danila Tkachenko | Free Range 2015 | Products | Cosmos-Arles Books | Syngenta Photography Award winner, e Gardener by Jan Brykczynski
PROJECTS
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Carolyn van Houten | Dafna Talmor | Ciril Jazbec | Qian Ma | Rio Saito
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Independent bookmakers in France are trying to move beyond the traditional concept of the photobook. Laurence Butet-Roch explains why Paris leads the way
Michael Mack, the man behind the eponymous publisher, tells Tom Seymour why he’s seeking out cu ing-edge photobooks with the First Book Award
Gemma Padley finds out from Tate curator of photography Simon Baker why the gallery has decided to host Offprint London this month
INTELLIGENCE
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Taco Hidde Baker and Diane Smyth find out what makes good photobook design, and why it’s important, from some of the world’s leading designers
Michael Hoppen’s foray into digital realm | Café Royal Books on being an indie publisher | Optimal Media and innovative printing
TECHNOLOGY
FEATURES
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BJP gets five of London’s most influential independent publishers round one table – Self Publish, Be Happy, Trolley Books, Mörel Books, Oodee and Bemojake – to discuss contemporary photobook-making
Many of the images that came out of Ma hew Connors’ time in Cairo represent “interstitial moments” captured while walking around. In collaboration with Self Publish, Be Happy Editions, this study is now a book, Fire in Cairo. Lucy Davies investigates
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Nikon D5500 | Sony A7II
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The Nikon D5500 on test. See page 69
e Photocaptionist on the theatre of the anatomy
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Dummies’ guide Photobook world domination gathers pace with Arles launching a new award devoted to dummy books, plus a huge event, finds Diane Smyth Rencontres d’Arles and Luma Foundation have teamed up to launch a new dummy book award, with a €25,000 production budget up for grabs for the winner. The prize is open to any photographer or artist using photography in an unpublished book project, though “special attention will be paid to experimental and innovative publication forms”. Dummies can be submitted free before the 31 May deadline. Rencontres d’Arles will select a shortlist of 30 finalists, which it plans to exhibit at Cosmos-Arles Books, a new satellite event for the festival. The winner will be selected by an international jury and announced at one of the evening events at the Theatre Antique during Arles’ Opening Professional Week. Production on the selected book will begin this autumn, and the finished publication
AGENDA PHOTOBOOKS
presented at the 2016 festival. Cosmos-Arles Books is a new venture for the festival, which will take place in the more than 1000m2 Magasin Electrique in the Parc des Ateliers from 06-11 July. The initiative has been put together by the festival’s new director, Sam Stourdzé, in collaboration with artist Olivier Cablat and Le Bal Bookshop manager Sebastian Hau, who have run a photobook pop-up at Arles since 2009, known variously as Cosmos, Hypermarkt, Supermarkt and Le Club. This year Cosmos is supported by Luma-Arles, Actes Sud, Confederation Suisse and amanasalto/IMA, and will have room for some 50 international publishers, plus book signings, lectures, project presentations and experimental exhibitions. “Over the past 15 years, largescale photographic publications, self-published books and ebooks have become essential media for experimentation by photographers and artists,” states the festival publicity. “They allow photography to be rediscovered as a means of distribution, providing a rich terrain of expression for the art’s fundamentally hybrid forms.” “The Cosmos team has been in dialogue with Sam Stourdzé for quite a while, and this exchange made us very happy,” says Hau.
“Not only do we share ideas about the multiplicity of photography, but we found a willing ear for our propositions and needs, and the willingness to develop a vision together. This year we will have 10 project spaces for artists, 55 publishers from all over the world, and lots of events, conferences and pop-ups. Olivier and I share a fascination for publishing and the different forms of photography, and we believe in a space that’s at once commercial and curatorial. “We’ve called this year’s edition Experimenting Continuity, because we can still be fascinated by an old-fashioned Walker Evans print as much as by the many new voices and forms of expression of photographic and visual culture. “This year’s festival will renew its appeal to a global public, but also rebuild its connection to the French scene, with new collaborations with the cultural community in the Marseille region. We believe there will be a lot to discover for everyone, and that it’s a unique opportunity for publishers and photographers.” Rencontres d’Arles will also announce its 2015 Book Awards during opening week – the Author’s Book Award and the History Book Award. Recognising a book on photography and a thematic or monographic work respectively,
both awards come with an €8000 prize fund and will be awarded to books published between 01 June 2014 and 31 May 2015. The winners are selected by the nominators of the 2015 Discovery Awards, and a copy of each publication will be deposited in the library at the École Nationale Supérieure de la Photographie d’Arles. A second copy of each will also be added to another collection, which changes every year, but since 2010 has included the Three Shadows Photography Art Centre in Beijing, the Balla Fasséké Kouyaté Conservatory of Multimedia Arts and Crafts in Mali, the Market Photo Workshop in Johannesburg, the Institut Français in Phnom Penh, and the international photography festival in Valparaíso, Chile. Meanwhile in London, preparations are well underway for the Copeland Book Market, which will take place from 31 July to 02 August at the Bold Tendencies space in Peckham Multi-Storey Car Park. Including more than 40 publishers from around the world and a programme of talks, screenings and performances, the event is organised this year by Guy Robertson, Kat Black, Lewis Chaplin and Oliver Griffin. BJP www.rencontres-arles.com www.copelandbookmarket.com
Pages from the catalogue for the Poles & Bulls event organised at Arles 2014 by Sebastian Hau and Olivier Cablat JUNE 2015
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Sony DSC
With their optically stabilised 30× Zeiss-made zoom lenses, equivalent to 24-720mm, packed into bodies that weigh no more than 245g, Sony’s latest DSC series compacts are being touted as the ultimate pocket travel cameras. The WX500 is more basic, doing without the HX90V’s [1] tilting viewfinder, but otherwise they are equally feature-packed, including an 18.2-megapixel sensor, 1080/60p video, wifi and pop-up flash. sony.co.uk
Nikon 1 J5
The latest in Nikon’s growing lineup of mirrorless cameras, the J5 [2] offers 20.8-megapixel stills capture at speeds of up to 20fps, 4K video and wifi in a more traditionally styled camera than its 1 series predecessors. europe-nikon.com
Canon 4K
Capturing 12-megapixel stills and 4K video in a compact, lightweight body, the XC10 [3] is perhaps Canon’s most versatile multimedia camera to date. Its fixed 10× zoom delivers an
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AGENDA PRODUCTS
equivalent focal length of 24-241mm, steadied with an optical image stabiliser, plus it’s equipped with many features from the maker’s Cinema EOS range, such as a loupe viewfinder. Canon is also introducing a Mark II version of its C300 camera, making it more rugged and adding dual Digic DV5 processors, professional codecs and improving the dynamic range, along with a 24-inch 4K reference display (the DP-V2410) designed for use on set to provide accurate output of 4K content. canon.co.uk
Blackmagic Micro Cinema Camera
DJI Phantom 3
Camera copters were the big story at this year’s NAB Show in Vegas, and Phantom 3 Professional [5] was arguably the standout. Easy to operate, the quadcopter comes with a 4K camera, three-axis gimbal, dedicated remote and mobile app, and is priced at around £1000. DJI claims 23 minutes of flying time, and you get a live HD view, GPS, vision positioning for indoor flight, and flying features such as auto takeoff and return home. dji.com
Broncolor FT
It has been described as ‘a GoPro for pros’, and with its magnesium-alloy body, just a little larger than its Micro Four Thirds lens mount, 1080/60p capture and 13 stops of dynamic range… you get the point. It’s [4] got built-in, 12-bit raw and ProRes recording, and an expansion port with a DB-HD15 and breakout cable that gives wireless control via a model aeroplane remote control. Features include an HDMI connector (for monitors and TVs), an SD card slot and 3.5mm stereo input.
Hoping to break new ground with its latest continuous lights, Broncolor has made the FT [6] series to harness power from what remains a highly adaptable kit, easy to set up in a few simple steps. Comprising two heads (a 1600W daylight balanced version and a 2000W tungsten alternative), they work together with the Swiss maker’s existing continuous lights, including four new parabolic reflectors, two of which were developed for the FT. Introduced at the NAB Show, they’re due to go on sale in September. BJP
blackmagicdesign.com/uk
broncolor.co.uk
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PROJECTS
RIO SAITO www.saitorio.com
A project documenting the comings and goings on Cairo’s ring road is a study of an in-between place
There is a freeway circling the greater metropolitan area in Egypt known as the ‘ring road’ that stretches 70km around the outskirts of Cairo. Dusty, hot, noisy – it’s a dangerous road. Yet many people cross it on foot to get to and from the city, dodging traffic, often getting trapped in the central reservation. Rio Saito, a Japanese photographer based in Paris, saw people trying to negotiate the freeway and realised there was the potential for a project. He ended up going back again and again to shoot from 2012-14. “Trucks and cars pass, sand from the desert fills the air, and the sun is strong – there is no shade,” he says.
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All images © Rio Saito
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“Nevertheless, people sprint toward that middle and then get stuck – most of them for some time. I was fascinated by the outflow of people’s emotions when they try to cross it.” Through a series of portraits and landscapes in Open-Circuit, Saito has tried to capture the character of the central reservation that serves as this “momentary” place. “You see people running into the road, taking such risks. They can’t pass through in one movement because the road is so wide, so they have to stay in the middle place for a while until the right moment comes. Everybody wants to leave the middle place as soon as possible, not only because they’re in a hurry
to reach the other side, but because it’s just too difficult to stay there. It is the place where no one should be – like an empty corner of the world. “The ring road appears seamless, but you can see a number of disconnections. For me, it represents a big electrical circuit that supplies energy to Egypt, and the spots where the barrier is broken are like breaks in the open circuit, which I compare to the unstable situation in Egypt.” The road also has a metaphorical meaning for the photographer, who draws a parallel with the ebb and flow of human emotions. “In this project, I hope to show that the outflow of emotions heads nowhere – it simply goes ahead.” BJP JUNE 2015
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LONDON CALLING
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[L-R] Bruno Ceschel, Self Publish, Be Happy; Hannah Watson, Trolley; Maxwell Anderson, Bemojake; Aron Morel, Mörel Books; Damien Poulain, Oodee
Five of the best indie photobook publishers in London – and therefore the world – discuss breaking America and bypassing the institutions
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words by diane smyth portrait by laura pannack
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It’s 8pm on St Patrick’s Day, and in the pub across the road, everyone is ge ing merry. But at TJ Boulting in Fitzrovia, a meeting of London-based photobook publishers is just breaking up. e gallery’s director, Hannah Watson, who also runs Trolley Books, is there with Bruno Ceschel from Self Publish, Be Happy, Aron Morel from Mörel Books, Damien Poulain from Oodee, Timothy Prus from the Archive of Modern Conflict and Maxwell Anderson from Bemojake to discuss how to crack the US. Prus melts away into the night, but the others are happy to share the news – they’ve got together to set up their own distribution network in the US. Other small independents will be welcome to join later, says Watson, but “this is the core who have decided to do it and get it going”. BJP’s Diane Smyth used the opportunity to continue the debate with a group discussion about the current state of photobook publishing, and about why they’ve decided to club together. Hannah Watson: It has come out of years of moaning together at book fairs. We decided we weren’t just going to have drunken rants, we were going to actually do something about it. Maxwell Anderson: It also came out of realising that we’re a good community of people, and we’re all trying to do the same thing separately. e power of the group means it’s easier to get things
done together, so instead of ba ling by ourselves, individually, we thought it’s be er to join forces. Aron Morel: A few of us have already established distribution networks in the States, but we’ve all grown in the past few years, and I find that dealing with it personally is more difficult. Watson: We’ve all got lots of experience; we’ve all learned the hard way, by doing it ourselves. So we thought, ‘OK, now that we know what doesn’t work, we know how we could work it together.’ And America is such a huge market: when we go there for fairs, we find an amazing book-buying public. e New York Art Book Fair at PS1 had something like 15,000 people on the Saturday. Morel: It’s a mosh pit! Watson: It includes everything from kids making zines to rare books. en there’s a photobook room, and a big chunk of that is London publishers. We all get together, go out together. Morel: ere’s also an element of breaking down barriers with larger institutions and retailers, so they don’t have to order from smaller independent booksellers from across ‘the pond’, and cu ing shipping costs and things like that. Instead of us going there in person to visit the shops (which is what I used to do every
time I visited New York, every few months), we can have someone do that on a personal basis, without having that weird distance of a big distributor. And she’s cool, she’s like us – she’s not a dusty old man in a suit. She’s young and passionate, she knows books in and out, and she likes our stuff, so she’s like, ‘Yeah! I’ll take it on! I’ll pack it up, I’ll wrap it up, I’ll do it!’ Diane Smyth: Hannah mentioned how many London publishers there were at the Art Book Fair in New York – are there more publishers per head here than elsewhere? Morel: at’s the other aspect I think is really fascinating: London has possibly the best group of small publishers globally. Damien Poulain: Yes, it’s like Japan in some ways. I believe it’s because of the lack of museums and institutions. You look at Paris, where there are so many, and all the institutions publish really amazing catalogues, so there isn’t really that same need. Here, there’s a lack, and that’s why I would compare it to Japan, where the photobook became so important in the absence of gallery spaces devoted to photography. e book was the gallery, it was the portfolio space. Bruno Ceschel: Also, if you look at our lists, there aren’t that many British photographers
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FRENCH INDEPENDENCE From rue de Rivoli to Belleville, Paris publishers are capitalising on the nation’s love of photography and trying to move beyond the classic conception of the photobook, finds Laurence Butet-Roch
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REPORT
“I work in my own li le corner of rue de Rivoli,� jokes Pierre Bessard. Starting out as a photojournalist with agencies including AFP, he went on to oversee the photography department of VSD magazine, then set up his eponymous publishing house three years ago. It was good timing. Right now the French photobook industry is thriving – bookshelves in Le Bal, Artazart, Ofr, la Chambre Claire and Librairie 29 (to name just a few bookshops in Paris alone) are groaning under the weight of new releases, while boutique publishing houses are gaining a stronghold all their own.
Bessard’s publishing journey began when the French multinational Alstom commissioned him to produce a series of volumes on its activities abroad. “ e experience heightened my interest in print design and taught me the ropes,� he says. “By the end, I was hooked. I wanted to make books.� Before diving in, he watched video interviews with some of the greatest publishers of the 20th century and gained a crucial insight into “just how important it is to control distribution�, he says. “Some companies will take a 60 percent share, so once you factor in taxes and production
costs, you’re le with very li le margin.� He chose an approach he compares to hautecouture – producing limited-edition books, each of which has a unique format. Wang Qingsong’s History of Monument, for example, unfolds like an accordion that can be read on both sides to emulate a frieze, while Max Pam’s Ramadan in Yemen opens like a jewellery box. Ren Hang’s e Brightest Light Runs Too Fast includes a cover image that appears only when exposed to heat, inspired by a run-in with Chinese customs officials when Hang tried to cross the border with a book featuring nudity on the
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Chattanooga, The Green Factory by Pierre Bessard, published by Éditions Bessard
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Delta by François Deladerrière; Photos-Souvenirs by BenoÎt Grimalt; 16 photos que je n’ai pas prises by BenoÎt Grimalt; Paris 88/89 by Daido Moriyama; and Contacts by Toshio Shibata. All published by Poursuite
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DREAM TEAM Good design can make or break a photobook. We catch up with three of the world’s best to discuss the challenges. Interviews by Taco Hidde Baker and Diane Smyth
REPORT
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“Design is a funny thing,” says Stuart Smith. “People don’t value it, because if it’s good, it’s invisible.” Even so, you’ve probably seen his work – one of the UK’s leading book designers, he’s worked on titles by Martin Parr, Mark Power and Broomberg & Chanarin, among many more, and is one half of Gost Books. Like him, the duo Jeroen Kummer & Arthur Herrman, and Hans Gremmen, may not be familiar names, but the projects they’ve worked on will be – the la er collaborated with Rinko Kawauchi, Anouk Kruithof and WassinkLundgren, while the duo worked with Rob Hornstra and Arnold van Bruggen on the successful e Sochi Project. And if their work is “invisible”, bad design is not. We caught up with them to hear their thoughts on how to avoid it. JUNE 2015
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Ametsuchi by Rinko Kawauchi is published by Aperture All images this spread designed by and courtesy of Hans Gremmen
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Cette montagne c’est moi by Witho Worms, which was off set printed on black paper, is published by Fw:Books
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Entre Entree by Stephan Keppel is published by Fw:Books
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Sequester by Awoiska van der Molen is published by Fw:Books
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HANS GREMMEN www.hansgremmen.nl
Trained as a graphic designer and typographer, Hans Gremmen has been designing, producing and publishing photobooks for around 15 years, working with the Fw:Books imprint, among others, which is part of the collective Fw:Photography that he cofounded. In recent years the Dutch designer has become increasingly celebrated for photobooks such as Ce e montagne c’est moi (Witho Worms, 2012), Ametsuchi (Rinko Kawauchi, 2013) and Sequester (Awoiska van der Molen, 2014). He is selective about who he takes on, trusting in a certain “gut feeling” that alerts him to projects
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that will make good books. And while artists and photographers o en approach him with book dummies, he can o en recognise the potential before photographers have even thought about which platform they want to use. In fact, for Gremmen the images are key, and once he has selected a project, he’ll start by simply asking the photographer what he’s looking at. “I want to know the basics,” he says. “No anecdotes.” Photographers o en don’t have enough emotional distance from their work, because they know how every image was made, Gremmen says. By contrast, he starts from the outside in, and only when that’s clear does he start to look for the story and do the picture
editing. Some artists are capable of making good books, which could be regarded as monologues, but in Gremmen’s opinion the best books result from dialogues. “If you want to publish a book, you’re looking for interaction with a public,” he explains. “And if that’s what you want, you’d be er start this dialogue.” Good design usually develops in the slipstream of good conversations, and Gremmen pays close a ention to not only what the photographer wants but also to what the photographs request. Sequester, for example, demanded superb printing so that van der Molen’s dusky landscape photographs could be smoothly enjoyed, but by combining this
with a frayed edge, he gave the book – and therefore the work – a contemporary feel. Gremmen notes that “making good books is a serious time investment, but if both parties are equally involved in the process of producing a book, it doesn’t even feel like you’re making one”. Gremmen says that good photobook design will entice the reader to pick up the book, but be as unobtrusive as possible. Entre Entree (2014), which he made with, and for, Stephan Keppel, is an interesting example of this. “It proved impossible to say who did what,” he says. “I didn’t want credit for the design, because I felt there wasn’t any. We solved it by both being credited. My work became his work, and that’s how it should be.” BJP
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INTELLIGENCE
Michael Hoppen makes a surprise move onto online print sales, while Café Royal Books and Optimal Media tap into the photobook boom
Beyond the white cube Michael Hoppen is one of the few gallerists in London to make a success of photography print sales. Now, he tells Lauren Heinz, the time is right to take it online One of the few London galleries dedicated solely to photography, Michael Hoppen has been at the cutting edge of the print sales business in the UK since it opened in 1992. Its list of international artists is eclectic and diverse, representing the old and the young, the incredibly famous and the lesser known, accommodating a wide range of tastes and genres for prospective collectors. But now, in an attempt to make print sales more accessible and diversify its audience further still, the gallery has launched an online venture that
will allow visitors to buy prints at a range of affordable prices. “The online shop will allow us to not only showcase new and emerging talent that otherwise might not have made its way into the main gallery space, it will also aim to expose some fascinating projects and one-off pieces from within the collection,” says Hoppen. “Our programme of online shows will have something for everyone.” Each artist will be highlighted with an online exhibition, which will remain on the site for a couple of weeks before the next takes place. “The exciting new aspect of the site is the ability to host online
exhibitions – curated content, available to purchase at the click of a button,” says Hoppen. “Alongside these prints is an extraordinary collection of publications and miscellaneous items we plan to expand on over the coming
months. What matters most is that all the works we ‘hang’ online will be extremely high standard and accessibly priced, hopefully providing budding collectors and art lovers with a new destination for purchasing art online.” The first artist to feature is Matt Henry, whose work exudes 1960s and ’70s Americana through staged images that reflect the underlying psychology of the time – think Elvis, lounge singers, diners and woodpanelled motel rooms. The images [Top] Michael Hoppen’s well-established private gallery, here showing Sohei Nishino’s New Dioramas. Image © Michael Hoppen Gallery [Above] Matt Henry is the first artist to feature in Michael Hoppen’s online gallery.
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TECHNOLOGY CAMERA TEST
Nikon D5500 It may be a ‘consumer’ camera, but Nikon’s latest DSLR offers a taste of features to come, reports David Kilpatrick The features introduced on consumer cameras constantly jump ahead of their professional equivalents, and Nikon’s D5500 is the latest example, adding a touchscreen that could well appear in pro models soon. It also has wifi and a 24-megapixel DX format sensor identical to the previous D5300. Since Adobe does not release updates to camera raw at the same pace that manufacturers launch new cameras, this proved convenient. A quick Exif tool fix for all the raw files, telling Lightroom and ACR that they were D5300 not D5500, gave access to raw processing. Nikon released a new version of View NX at the same time as this camera, partly overcoming the problem by making dedicated raw conversion available free. I prefer to use one conversion method – Adobe – even though it does not always match the colour quality of makers’ own software. For one thing, it allows comparison between models and makes. A range of D5500 raw files showed that nothing is lost over the D5300, and the in-camera JPEGs supported this – it’s the Expeed 4 processor in the camera. Unlike some makes, in which the watercolour effect degrades higher ISO files, the Nikon JPEGs hold up extremely well right up to 3200. That’s still the practical limit for quality results from 24 megapixels packed into a 15.3×23.5mm sensor. The native and auto ISO range now goes up to 25,600, which was an extended Hi setting on the D5300. Nikon’s user control of auto ISO range and slow shutter speed limits is comprehensive. At 1600 or lower ISO settings, noise can be said to disappear with sensibly adjusted processing defaults – even blue sky doesn’t show too much grain. When using the D5500, I had the Sony A6000 (mirrorless, APS-C) alongside it, which uses a similar sensor
and is aimed at the same market. Interestingly, more professionals seem willing to use an A6000 (or a Fujifilm X-T1, or Olympus OM-D EM-1), finding it acceptable to downsize to a consumer model in the mirrorless ranges, but not to opt for a Nikon 5 series.
Kit lens
Comparing the A6000 with its collapsible 16-50mm kit lens and the Nikon D5500 with its similar 18-55mm, there is a loss of quality in the outer field of the Sony at high ISOs, which can be attributed to the strong in-camera distortion and vignetting corrections applied to make the 16-50mm produce a
normal image. The Nikon kit lens has distortion and vignetting, but it doesn’t need extreme corrections; at 18mm, barrel distortion is around -5 percent (Adobe Correction) or -1.23 percent when measured on a typical sea horizon (landscape view). When the separate Adobe profile is applied, the result is what you would expect from any reasonable zoom. By contrast, the A6000 kit lens at 16mm has more than -8 percent (barrel distortion) and a true focal length of 14.7mm with semi-fisheye rendering and corners clipped by black vignetting. Using an embedded profile in the raw file, the outer field at wide-angle is brightened by almost two f-stops, and this makes noise levels higher.
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Mirrorless cameras often use built-in profiles to keep lenses small, accepting high levels of optical distortion and vignetting designed to be corrected in processing. DSLR cameras such as the D5500 don’t share this approach. Their sensors are mapped to a great lens-to-focal-plane register and the lenses, even when designed for digital, can yield a decent result on film. Against this benefit, it should be recorded that this (third) sample of the 18-55mm VRII lens tested was not as good as the previous ones, and had softer corners and more chromatic aberration. But there’s nothing to stop you using better Nikon glass, like the excellent 16-85mm VR. Handling the D5500, it’s bigger than a mirrorless model, but it’s half the size of a traditional, fullbody scale camera like the D300 Nikon. The D7000 series (now at D7200) is midway and Nikon shows no sign of planning to revive the 300 body form. In that size, you now get full frame. The kit lens is small and light due to its plastic construction. It’s only slightly more heavy than the Sony A6000 equivalent, with the body at 420g. The fully articulated rear threeinch screen is a great feature, and can be reversed to face the body and avoid scratches. When used for video or live view, the touchscreen function can move the focus point, including video focus tracking, and a single still shot (tap to focus and fire) function can be turned on or off. You can move this
At ISO 3200, the Nikon D5500 delivers well-saturated, balanced colours. The images have a neutral look with excellent shadow and highlight detail. The dyed felt crafts pictured are seen by window light. [Right] Enlarged, there is minimal noise, despite the 3200 setting. JUNE 2015
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TECHNOLOGY CAMERA TEST
Sony A7II The latest addition to the A7 series packs in a big change to a slightly larger body – the first full-frame sensor stabilisation in any mirrorless compact system, reports David Kilpatrick
[Top] Distortion-correction, in-camera or in raw conversion, yields a straight horizon in this shot. Auto exposure has coped well and retained the detail from everything including the white house paint to the figures on the dark tarmac. [Below] The same file, without any correction applied for the 18-55mm VRII lens, shows a noticeable barrel distortion curve to the sea horizon. Overall, the D5500’s images can be described as extremely well-mannered and faithful to the scene. Illustrative images © David Kilpatrick
focus-and-fire function using Nikon’s remote app on smartphones via wifi, but other rear screen functions such as menus and controls are not replicated. A respectable 5fps maximum sequence speed is accessed via the shutter release, which can be held down. HD1080 video is at 50/60p, and there’s a new flat picture look (linear gamma) for those who want to shoot raw video and grade each clip in post.
Conclusions
The D5500 has some ergonomic improvements, such as a better rear dial (now a metallic toprear design resembling popular mirrorless models) and minor changes to the position and feel of the buttons. Overall, despite being a super-compact body, it handles well. Nikon owners may think they do not have a mirrorless system to provide a lightweight compact
alternative, but the truth is they have this. It should be just as acceptable for a pro to have a D5500 in their kit alongside the D4S as it is to have an OM-D or a Sony A – and there’s no need for a bagful of lens adaptors. Nor is there any real compromise in compatibility for flash and other accessories. One accessory may indeed be desirable, as GPS has been removed (present in the 5300). But battery life, despite wifi, has been improved by more than 20 percent to around 800 shots, which is double many mirrorless models, despite the fairly small battery format. You can fit an accessory GPS just as you can with higher-end Nikon models. Overall, any Nikon user considering investment in a mirrorless, non-Nikon second APS-C system to take the weight off overloaded shoulders should consider the D5500. BJP
There could have been less to say about the A7II had one critical change not forced Sony to revise the whole camera body – the addition of the first full-frame sensor stabilisation in any mirrorless compact system camera body. A full-frame stabilised sensor needs at least 5mm additional space to give the mechanism room to move, so the body is deeper front-to-back, and taller top-to-bottom, than previous A7 bodies, allowing for a stabilising carriage assembly. Sony has also added a chunky right-hand grip, and this, plus the additional depth, makes for a much more secure hold than the previous models in this series. The original A7 body, which is coming up for 18 months since it launched, is a solid composite body, but so minimal in terms of grip that owners often add a vertical battery grip for additional right-hand security. The lighter but higher-spec A7R and the A7S, with 4K video and high ISO, also benefit from adding a hand grip. All three earlier A7 models lack sensor-based stabilisation and depend on lenses to provide OSS (optical steady shot). Many of the more desirable lenses, such as the Carl Zeiss 55mm f/1.8 and 35mm f/2.8 primes, don’t have this, so there’s no stabilisation at all whether for stills at 36 megapixels or 4K movies from a 12-megapixel sensor.
Other than that, the 24-megapixel A7II is not so different from the previous models, but there are a few other details. It’s constructed from magnesium, like the A7R and S, and it uses a new extra-strong, solid stainless steel bayonet mount to support heavy lenses better. The extra space on top has allowed Sony to move the shutter release from a Leica-style top plate location. The front control wheel has changed from a flat disc type to an exposed rim similar to Nikon’s controls. The on-off switch moves with the shutter it surrounds, and the extra space on the top right-hand plate area lets two custom buttons sit there with loads of space between. Previously, a single C1 button has been jammed into a crowded space.
Ergonomic improvements
Further improvements include repositioning the C2 magnify button as C3 on the back, using an angled shoulder to place it so the thumb hits it easily. The back contours are beefed up, and the deeper baseplate it used in earlier models to ensure the articulated screen that jams against tripod head platforms can now be tilted down with the baseplate attached to a large tripod top. Even the strap lugs are moved to rebalance the camera, and the EVF eyepiece pushed backwards keeping your nose away from the three-inch LCD screen, with better eye relief. The only slightly weaker design element is the card slot door, which lacks the firmer action of the A7R and its better weather-sealing. The A7R, it’s worth pointing out, has fallen by more that 20 percent in typical retail price after a couple
www.europe-nikon.com JUNE 2015
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The Photocaptionist explores the relationship between images and words; this month, founding director Federica Chiocchetti reflects on anatomical gazes, juxtaposing Luke Wilson’s essay on the theatre of anatomy against Francesca Catastini’s image of the smallest Neoclassical dissection room in the world Anatomical Theatre, Ospedale Del Ceppo, Pistoia, Tuscany © Francesca Catastini, from the series The Modern Spirit is Vivisective, 2015
“ All bodies, then, living and dead, clothed and naked, man and animal, are potential subjects of dissection, and all share with the cadaver the anatomising gaze of the onlookers; the spectators themselves form spectacles both for one another and for the outside observer” Luke Wilson, The Performance of the Body in the Renaissance Theater of Anatomy, published in Representations, issue 17, 1987 Built between 1770 and 1780, Pistoia’s anatomical theatre hosted dissections for a small group of medical students until 1844. In this small Neoclassical room in Tuscany – the smallest of its kind in the world – cadavers were dissected on a marble central table, overlooked by frescos and Latin medical inscriptions. The professor would examine sections of the human body for the onlooking students, arranged in circular wooden constructions with rising tiers of seats or standing places to get a good view, as if watching from above. In her project The Modern Spirit is Vivisective, Italian artist Francesca Catastini starts from these theatres of the past and their lost functionality, suspended in limbo between the carnality of death and the quest for knowledge, to embrace dissection and vivisection, metaphorically, as an aesthetic performance. Her title is derived from the modernist manifesto of a young James Joyce, a former
medical student who, in his autobiographic novel Stephen Hero (published posthumously), praises vivisection as the most modern process one can conceive for the analytic artist; a method that – unlike the ancient one, which transformed and disfigured – “examines its territory by the light of day”. Presented as a cornucopia of materials, Catastini’s found photographs of old anatomy labs and blind school students mingle with appropriated frontispieces of Renaissance anatomy manuals, and her austere yet ironic photographs form a telescopic structure divided into overlapping sections – the chapters of her forthcoming book – on looking, touching, cutting and discovering. The relationship between photography, death and time is fascinating, and abundantly explored, but what makes Catastini’s image subtler and more mysterious is what Luke Wilson describes as the proliferation of potential
subjects of dissection through notions of gaze and spectacle. Lurking behind this apparently glacial and empty image, partly reminiscent of Candida Höfer’s institutional spaces, a plethora of invisible and reciprocal gazes of past and present times invades the room and haunts the viewer’s imagination. The void of the anatomical table attracts the viewer to lay bare as a corpse and be examined; almost simultaneously, the empty seats invite the viewer to join a potential anatomy class and share astonishing findings with fellow students. The spectre of history does the rest, subverting the perception of the space. Catastini’s voyeuristic contemplation swarms with surprise and wonder as she dares to arouse long-uncharted darkness, and culminates with her anatomising eye, turning inward, offering a portrait of the artist as both the eroticised victim of the surgeon’s scalpel and the vivisector with his quest for knowledge. BJP www.photocaptionist.com
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Walker Evans – New York City, about 1933
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