Guide to Unique Photography e 5
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ARTI ST:
BAR RY KO R N B LU H
TITLE: M E D I U M: D I M E N S I O N S: E D ITI O N: C O M M E NTS:
M IN FRANCE (1987) ARCHIVE GLICﾃ右 PRINT (PRINTED IN 2006 BY SOUVEREIN) 90 x 118 cm 10 (SOLD OUT) SIGNED & NUMBERED BY ARTIST
POSTPRODUCTION LABORATORY INFO: SOUVEREIN@SOUVEREIN.NL
Intro For a photographer a project has come full circle if it ends with an exhibition. And it’s even more complete when it culminates in a photo book. Many photographers consider a book the most important medium for sharing their vision with the viewer. It’s the ideal way to show their work to the world. Moreover, compared to other popular stages for photographers such as exhibitions, magazines and the internet, the photo book is the most timeless document. A reference work with an unlimited expiration date that can be compiled and designed according to one’s own insight. The Netherlands has a rich tradition when it comes to producing photo books, which is growing even stronger thanks to the digital revolution that has taken place in recent years. It has become much easier to design and print your own book. According to Martin Parr, the worldwide publication aspect is the biggest problem with Dutch photo books: they rarely extend beyond the borders of the Netherlands. That’s a shame, considering that he refers to many Dutch books in both volumes of his worldwide respected The Photobook: A History. This issue is our ode to the photo book. Dutch as well as international productions. And, fair is fair, with summer just around the corner, it’s time for a good book. To start with, one with 132 pages.
Jochem Rijlaarsdam Peter Bas Mensink Roy Kahmann
GUP: Guide to Unique Photography
Cover: Monkey With Gun, New York, 1992 © Albert Watson, courtesy Young Gallery Exhibition at Young Gallery through September 15
Contents 04
New(s)
All you need to know. 14
Bookreview(s)
Remarkable photo books made by Erwin Olaf, Koos Breukel, Jehsong Baak, Jerome Sother and others. 18
History
Publicist Han Schoonhoven reviews his own photo bookshelf. 22
Portfolio #01
The Empty Bottles book by Thijs groot Wassink and Ruben Lundgren.
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Portfolio #03
An accordion-format foldout book, in Japan also known as the ‘pillow book’, which is 14 feet long when fully opened. Check out Yamamoto’s Omizuao. 53
Q&A
Ten questions to an authority on photo books, Martin Parr. 56
Portfolio #04
Cuny Janssen’s portraits in Finding Thoughts offer a fresh perspective on both the medium and method of photographic portraiture. 64
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Collectors Tip
In her first project, The Table of Power Jacqueline Hassink photographed the boardroom tables of Europe’s forty largest multinational corporations.
In Heartbeat Machiel Botman makes no distinction between personal and professional work. His work is a record of his life, and always has been. 73
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Portfolio #02
Ed van der Elsken made a 14-month world trip in 1960, met humanity and shot thousands of pictures. The best ones are reproduced in his legendary book Sweet Life. 42
ToDo
Fotospeed’s DIY print kits are ideal for everyone who’s not afraid of experimenting. Photographer Gregor Servais took the challenge.
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Good or bad title? Photographer Alec Soth reveals. 76
Portfolio #05
Three hundred pages of photos from the archives of photographer Mario Testino featuring backstage and unstaged moments from photo shoots. We let you in.
Useful Photography © KesselsKramer
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Inside
Producing your own photo book. 92
Portfolio #06
His debut in 1955 caused quite a stir in the Netherlands. Nowadays Johan van der Keuken’s Wij zijn 17 (We are 17) is a classic. 101
With 5,500 issues Jan Wingender has the largest collection Dutch photography books. GUP paid him a visit.
GUP: Guide to Unique Photography
104 BKMRKS
Some of the world’s best publishers and printers listed. 107 GUIDE
The most impressive photo exhibitions lined-up. Europe USA/Canada Asia/Australia
NEW(s)
Freedom of image Who makes this picture? Who looks at it? Who determines what we see? Key questions in the ongoing discussion about the role of (news) photography in the digital era. Particularly with a view to the increasing
impact photos have in political, social and cultural fields. The Democratic Image Blog offers you the opportunity and space for pouring out your heart about these issues. Or your camera, because Flickr.com has
launched a Democratic Image Pool. The blog is a collaboration between The Photographers’ Gallery London, openDemocracy.net and Redeye/LOOK07.
http://thedemocraticimage.opendemocracy.net
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NEW(s)
Fake or not?
With Joseph Stalin’s commissar of water transport.
And without. (He had been shot to death.)
Everyone remembers last year’s edited photo of bombed Beirut. Photographer Adnan Haij made his smoke machine work double time in his picture. That turned it into a really dramatic picture and resulted in a lot of commotion. Adobe, the true creator of the imageediting software Photoshop, experiments with tools that detect these kinds of tricks. The Clone Tool Detector looks for identical pixel patterns, so if you do a bit of ‘cut and paste’ work, it’s quickly caught. Truth Dots checks by means of pixel patterns how a picture has been saved – as a camera original or one edited in Photoshop. http://tinyurl.com/2aw3to
Different view The Amsterdam Rijksmuseum acquired 11 photo albums and 200 individual photos made by the German military during the occupation of the Netherlands (1940-1945). The Nazis made snapshots of their daily life, such as outings with their comrades, everyday army routines and sightseeing excursions in the Netherlands. The Rijksmuseum started this collection of amateur photographs because it wanted to add a new dimension to the picture of the Netherlands during the first years of World
GUP: Guide to Unique Photography
War II seen from the vantage point of the German soldier. The photos can be seen at the Amsterdam Rijksmuseum through 13 June 2007. www.rijksmuseum.nl
Wehrmacht at the North Sea coast.
Wehrmacht in Scheveningen.
Wehrmacht at Rokin, Amsterdam.
Portfolio,#01 Portfolio Q&A
Empty Bottles
All images © WassinkLundgren
Dutchmen Thijs groot Wassink (1981) and Ruben Lundgren (1983) both graduated from the photography department of the Utrecht School of the Arts in the summer of 2005. Since then they’ve been working together as the photographers duo WassinkLundgren. Empty Bottles takes a concentrated look at the 64 pages daily ritual of China’s 2007 Design by refuse collectors. Beijing Kummer & Herrman and Shanghai form Veenman Publishers 800 copies the backdrop to these R 15 pictures of 24 bottle collectors attracted by the bottles in front of the view camera. Part-time scavengers, full-time collectors and cleaners, one after the other. Clinical images in which the last remains of refuse are removed by apparently random passers-by. In the publication, the pictures accompany essays by Volkskrant’s China correspondent Hans Moleman and Sinologist and former NRC China correspondent Floris-Jan van Luyn.
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Portfolio #03
Yamamoto
treasures All images © Masao Yamamoto Courtesy Gabriel Rolt Gallery Published by Nazraeli Press / 2003
Working from a Zen philosophy of ‘emptiness’, Japanese photographer, Masao Yamamoto’s (1957) images are essentially vignettes of nature and our intersection with it, ruminating over the passage of time and memory.
Many of the images were made specifically for this book, were never presented in an exhibition and are shown here for the first time.
GUP: Guide to Unique Photography
Portfolio #04
Finding Thoughts. Design by -SYB- Utrecht. Printed by Veenman, Rotterdam.
All images © Cuny Janssen
Published by The Photographers’ Gallery, London. ISBN 0907879691
Finding Thoughts Dutch photographer Cuny Janssen’s (1975) portraits of children and young people offer a fresh perspective on both the medium and method of photographic portraiture. Janssen’s work has taken her to locations including Norway, Macedonia, Iran, India and the UK. Her interest in the medium of books began in 2002 with a publication of images of children and young people in India. However, the true beginnings of her portrait and landscape series came with her photographic approach to portraying children in areas of conflict. The book Macedonia (2003) attests to this. In Finding Thoughts, portraits of children and landscapes alternate with the thoughts of people like Marcel Duchamp, Marcel Proust and Man Ray.
The picture on the cover is inviting. A boy offers the reader – or rather the viewer, since this is a photo book with only occasional pieces of writing – two flowers with outstretched arms. Two daisies, clearly visible because the photographer brings them into focus. ‘For you,’ the boy seems to be telling the viewer. Which isn’t true of course. He was only saying it to the person who took the picture, in the intimacy of that particular moment. But for the past thirteen years or so, the photographer has been able to lure all kinds of people, often strangers and unfamiliar people, into his books this way.
The book that makes your heart beat Text: Merel Bem
Heartbeat. A book by Machiel Botman (1955), photographer, teacher, curator and, in a distant past, a musician as well. Regardless of his profession, he became known for his love of the small, the tender, the intimate and the personal everyday moment, which is given universal meaning when it is captured and enlarged. The question of how the private can become public seems to filter through all of the photographer’s works. Although ‘question’ isn’t the right word, since it’s more of an observation. Machiel Botman makes no distinction between personal and professional work. His work is a record of his life, and always has been. Heartbeat (Volute, 1994) is a beautiful example of this. The austerity and the seemingly simple design of the book almost make you want to call it a graphic novel. It tells a story of love, death, illness, birth and eroticism, in the typical Machiel Botman style. The black-and-white photos are often blurred and stirring, sometimes appearing to show nothing more than a light spot, but the pictures contain a great deal more than first meets the eye. A woman presses something against her breast with a tender gesture. A baby’s head? If you look slightly lower, you will see
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All images Š Machiel Botman, courtesy HUP Gallery Amsterdam
Portfolio #05
LET ME IN!
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All images © Johan van der Keuken. Courtesy Gallery Paul Andriesse, Amsterdam
Portfolio #06
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Sombre-looking boys. Throughout the entire book. Doesn’t really cheer you up. But it’s intriguing stuff. What is this young, post-WWII generation thinking? ‘I believe that the appreciation of the book, besides its considerable photographic qualities, will be strongly influenced by the vision you have of today’s youth. Because that’s who is looking at you from these photographs: problematic, sombre, self-important pose (...),’ writes Simon Carmiggelt in his introduction.
Wij zijn 17 (We are 17) by Johan van der Keuken (1938-2001) caused quite a stir in the Netherlands. Good for two very special responses. The Catholic camp published a book entitled Wij zijn OOK zeventien (We TOO are seventeen), which paints a much more optimistic picture of this generation. In Waren wij maar zeventien (If only we were seventeen) artist Gras Heyen responded with photographs of elderly people. Wij zijn 17 was republished in 2005. 64 pages 1955 30 b&w photographs Introduction by Simon Carmiggelt Design by Johan van der Keuken Published by CAJ van Dishoeck, Bussum
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GUP: Guide to Unique Photography
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MANIA
COLLECTOR’S
Text: Peter Bas Mensink
GUP: Guide to Unique Photography
A sunny spring day in picturesque Leusden, The Netherlands, in the middle of the countryside in an absolutely ordinary neighbourhood. I walk into a very normal room in a very normal house containing a collection that is anything but ordinary. I find myself in a room barely ten square metres large with two computers, three chairs, a desk and 5,500 books. I am visiting the greatest collector of Dutch photography books, Jan Wingender. What started as an interest in photography has evolved into a hobby that has gotten completely out of hand. Every corner of the small room is filled with books, which are neatly arranged by genre and in excellent condition. A sophisticated computer archive tells you exactly which photographer can be found in which book, and vice versa. A machine provides air moisture, and ingeniously constructed shelves ensure that all available space is perfectly used. Despite all this, there isn’t space for even one more book because Jan’s wife does not allow him to keep books on the floor anymore. Luckily part of the attic will soon be his to use.
Huis Marseille Keizersgracht 401 1016 EK Amsterdam The Netherlands T: +31 20 531 89 89 www.huismarseille.nl
Polder Holland Han Singels - Aug 26
Uiterwaarden Gameren 2006 © Han Singels
Following in the footsteps of painters from The Hague School and Paulus Potter, Han Singels has been travelling through the Dutch polders for years in order to photograph cows in the landscape. In the context of economies of scale in agriculture and cattle breeding, which entails that cows are increasingly kept in sheds, this new perspective of an ancient genre is nothing short of enlightening.
© Steve Bloom / www.stevebloom.com
Westermarkt (outdoor) Amsterdam The Netherlands
Spirit of the Wild Steve Bloom - Jul 31 A giant, free, outdoor exhibition of 100 images by photographer Steve Bloom. Floodlit and open 24 hours, the exhibition brings the jungle into the city. Photographed over twelve years, these images inspire people to become more caring about the Earth, more compassionate to animals, and increase their awareness of the environment and the growing dangers of extinction. 108 — 109
Reflex New Art Gallery Weteringschans 83 1017 RZ Amsterdam The Netherlands T: +31 20 423 54 23 www.reflex-art.nl
Group Expo David LaChapelle Erwin Olaf Roger Ballen Daido Moriyama Jun 30 - Aug 30 Fusion of recent and less recent works from world famous photographers.
Š David LaChapelle
De Balie Kleine-Gartmanplantsoen 10 1017 RR Amsterdam T: +31 20 553 51 51 www.debalie.nl
Shelters Henk Wildschut - Aug 26 Since a year Wildschut has worked for a series concerning refugees in Europe. He focuses on spots where refugee flows come together. On these spots situations arise which are very nonEuropean. Wildschut captures the huts which refugees build in the public space. Š Henk Wildschut
GUP: Guide to Unique Photography
© Thomas Erber, Benoît Peverelli
Colette 213 rue Saint-Honoré 75001 Paris France T: +33 1 55 35 33 90 www.colette.fr
Thomas Erber and Benoît Peverelli - Jun 30
A combination of photographs and imagery as a devoted travel writer meets a fighting photographer passing through cities and assorted locations. An arranged escape.
Albert Watson - Sep 15 For the last four decades, Albert Watson has made a name for himself as one of the world’s most successful fashion and commercial photographers. Through the years, his striking photos have graced the covers of more than 250 issues of Vogue all over the world, as well as countless other publications, from Rolling Stone and Time to Vibe.
75b avenue Louise 1050 Brussels Belgium T: +32 2 374 07 04 www.younggalleryphoto.com 122 — 123
© Albert Watson
Young Gallery
Jeu de Paume 1, place de la Concorde 75008 Paris France T: +33 1 47 03 12 50 www.jeudepaume.org
The Boyadjians Armenian photographs from the court of the Negus - Sep 2
Bringing together objects, texts and photographs, this exhibition recalls the singular destiny of an Armenian family, the Boyadjians, who were official photographers to the Negus of Ethiopia, and offers a unique insight into the life of the Armenian community in Ethiopia in the 20th century. Collection Abebe Berhanu, Addis-Abeba
Brückenstrasse 9-11 60594 Frankfurt am Main Germany T: +49 (0) 69 62 40 42 www.galerie-poller.com
© Julia Gröning
Poller Gallery
future.loves.me Julia Gröning - Jun 23 Her work always shows part of a (or her) body in unfamiliar circumstances which confront the viewer with a riddle. It resembles a game of peek-a-boo in the sense that the clues presented in the photo arouse the viewer’s curiosity as to how the story will unfold. Photography, in other words, is only ‘a moment in time’. Her work contains different perspectives that go hand in hand with an almost painterly approach to colour composition, making her photographs overwhelming creations of pure beauty and mysterious charm.
Š Hannes Wallrafen
Tesselschadestraat 15 Amsterdam The Netherlands www.hupgallery.com Open: Tuesday, Thursday and Friday 12.00 - 17.00 h. or by appointment