YET magazine issue #4

21 december 2013

A Magazine about Photography

Issue N° 04

[Mohamed Amine Abassi][Arianna Angeloni][Salvatore Arnone][Edo Bertoglio][Filipe Casaca] [Ezio D’Agostino][Daniel Gebhart de Koekkoek][Sarah Girner][Luke Norman & Nik Adam] [Douglas Mandry][Sarah Moon][Tony Ray-Jones & Martin Parr][Pietro Paolini][Cyril Porchet] [Self Publish Be Happy][Heidi Voet][Clément Val][Tomáš Werner][Oksana Yushko]

From the series ASYLUM

by Salvatore Arnone

YET magazine

Comment & Notes

PUBLISHER Yet magazine, Editorial offices Lugano, Switzerland London, UK T +41 (0) 78 838 25 17 info@yet-magazine.com www. yet-magazine.com YET MAGAZINE #04 Editor-in-chief Salvatore Vitale Managing Editor Francesca Wilkins Art direction Nicolas Polli Photo Editors Ilaria Crosta Salvatore Vitale Online Editor Elena Vaninetti Graphic design Nicolas Polli Translations Francesca Wilkins Web designer Davide Morotti Social Media editor Giulia Giani INSIDE ISSUE 04

Issue 04

Front Cover Salvatore Arnone Back cover From Maps editorial Contributors Mohamed Amine Abassi Arianna Angeloni Salvatore Arnone Edo Bertoglio David Bogner Filipe Casaca Bruno Ceschel Ezio D’Agostino Chiara Fanetti Daniel Gebhart de Koekkoek Sarah Girner Luke Norman & Nik Adam Douglas Mandry Paola Paleari Pietro Paolini Camilla Pongiglione Cyril Porchet Heidi Voet Clément Val Tomáš Werner Oksana Yushko COPYRIGHT

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Yet magazine, Lugano, 2013 All rights reserved.

Ownership and intellectual property rights (i.e copyrights, trademarks, trade name right) of all materials, such as texts, data, illustrations, photos and logos contained in YET magazine shall belong to the publisher. The materials are protected by copyright law worldwide.

The materials may not be copied, downloaded, reproduced, distributed, transmitted, displayed or published without an explicit prior written permission of YET magazine, and/or in the case of third party materials, the copyright holder of that material.

Fourth issue

Comment & Notes

Editor’s Note This fourth issue marks an important date for YET magazine. Exactly one year has gone by since we released the first publication, a year in which many exciting things have happened. This is our first birthday.

Exactly one year ago today, the first issue of YET took shape, a shape which has changed over this period of time, but which has remained untouched in its essence. The concept remains the same: to showcase contemporary photography, and its role in today’s society. And we continue to do this, through new ideas, but most importantly, through collaborations with different people – because it’s the people we focus our attention on, those who contribute, time after time, to the creation of each issue.

bring you content which for us represents the present and future of photography. Occasionally, we look back upon the past and reflect on the importance it has today. It’s always an immense pleasure to discover new talents, or to come into direct contact with established photographers.

In this “birthday issue”, we explore new genres, we present series which delve into meanings, often profound.

After all, our task is also to show you the things that are happening today, the subjects which make this artistic environment so fascinating and diverse. We met up with Edo Bertoglio and Pietro Paolini, and spoke to Bruno Ceschel to discover what lies behind one of the most interesting editorial projects of recent years. We present to you a self-produced publication, I think it’s important to unveil some of put together with much dedication by what goes on behind the scenes, since Daniel Gebhart de Koekkoek. We step after all, with each birthday it seems fit into surreal atmospheres with the exhito recall episodes and milestones. YET bitions of Sarah Moon, Tony Ray-Jones is made up of people who, in one way and Martin Parr. or another, work with photography. The most important part of our work is the This is an issue rich in ideas and conrelationship we have with the phototent, which marks the first milestone in graphers we feature. What we do is not our young story. At the end of the day, only to present photography series, milestones are like points on a map: we but to collaborate in a profound manner look for the best road to reach them. with each photographer that we invite to contribute in each issue.

Salvatore Vitale We never stop learning, everything is in constant evolution and we always try to offer something interesting, in a world teeming with interesting content.

The choices that we have made, and that we continue to make, create our portfolio, our identity which, in time, becomes stronger and stronger. YET is a magazine “about photography”, this is our message. Issue after issue, we

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Contents

YET magazine

In this issue

Edo Bertoglio ASYLUM Salvatore Arnone

Editorial pp. 08—21

Q&A with Edo Bertoglio on his life from Warhol’s Factory to Switzerland

Interview pp. 22—29

Sooner or Later Douglas Mandry

Editorial pp. 30—35

Affections Filipe Casaca

Editorial pp. 52—67

The World We Live In Daniel Gebhart de Koekkoek

Editorial pp. 86—97

Tony Ray-Jones & Martin Parr Fruit & Vegetables Heidi Voet

Editorial pp. 36—45

Photography Classics: Only in England at the Science Museum, London

Exhibition pp. 46—51

Daniel Gebhart de Koekkoek Breathe Clément Val

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Editorial pp. 68—79

Book review of Daniel Gebhart de Koekkoek’s The World We Live In

Interview pp. 80—85

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Contents

SPBH Self Publish be Happy: Interview with Bruno Ceschel

Project pp. 98—101

Like a Cosmic Nebula Arianna Angeloni

Editorial pp. 102—121

The Village Ezio D’Agostino

Editorial pp. 122—135

Maps: editorial with Sarah Girner (Phantom Islands)

Focus On pp. 136-173

Utopia Luke Norman & Nik Adam

Editorial pp. 174—185

Racines Mohamed Amine Abassi

Editorial pp. 186—197

Balaklava the Lost History Oksana Yushko

Editorial pp. 204—219

Crowds Cyril Porchet

Editorial pp. 220—227

Pietro Paolini A Day With: Pietro Paolini grants us insight into his daily life

Interview pp. 198—203

Sarah Moon Podhájska Tomáš Werner

Editorial pp. 228—239

Review on Sarah Moon’s Alchimies at the Grande Galerie de l’Évolution, Paris

Exhibition pp. 240—243

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YET magazine

Editorial

ASYLUM Photographs by Salvatore Arnone

www.salvatorearnone.com

pp.

08—21

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Salvatore Arnone

ASYL

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Salvatore Arnone

“I have come to the frightening conclusion... that I am the decisive element.

It is my personal approach that creates the climate.

It is my daily mood that makes the weather.

I possess tremendous power to make life miserable or joyous.

I can be a tool of torture or an instrument of inspiration, I can humiliate or humour, hurt or heal.

In all situations it is my response that decides whether a crisis is escalated or de-escalated and a person is humanised or de-humanised.

If we treat people as they are, we make them worse.

If we treat people as they ought to be we help them become what they are capable of becoming.�

(J.W. Goethe)

LUM

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Interview

From the New York City of Andy Warhol and Jean-Michel Basquiat, then back to Switzerland: Edo Bertoglio tells us about his life as a photographer.

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By Chiara Fanetti 22

YET magazine

Edo Bertoglio Interview

There are people who have lived extraordinary lives, who have incredible stories to share. People who turned their professions into an out-and-out lifestyle.

Edo Bertoglio is one of those photographers who captured a historical and social period, the period that changed the art world in New York in the seventies and eighties. We met up with him to have him share his story with us, the anecdotes which characterised his personal and artistic life.

“I’d like to start off by saying, I have no interest in talking about abstract notions or technical discourses. I don’t want to delve into photography criticism or philosophical debate… I’m interested in sharing my experience. So, to kick off our conversation for example, I’d like to show you the latest things I’ve been working on, I also have a new project now.

Is that okay?” He, Edo Bertoglio, asks us if that’s okay. He wants to know if we, Salvatore and myself, would like to see a sneak preview of the material he’s been working on. It’s a day in the month of November and Edo Bertoglio has come to open the door for us to his studio in Viganello, this Thursday afternoon.

Edo Bertoglio has always been “addicted to faces”, a person who, like he himself will tell us during our encounter, “falls in love every five minutes”: with a gaze, the arch of an eyebrow, a group of facial features or an expression. His entire career is constellated with portraits, from the moment in which it takes off between the end of the seventies and the beginning of the eighties with his arrival in New York and his entrance into the artistic community which revolved around Andy Warhol’s Factory and the renowned magazine, Interview. Portraits

that immortalised the people who made up his days and his work in that period.

Friends and fellow-artists who would be known to everyone else as the artist JeanMichel Basquiat or singer Debbie Harry of Blondie. The desire or the necessity to capture a face, or to freeze in time the things it can evoke or epitomise, accompanies Edo when it comes to common people too. In fact, the most recent projects which he has produced are of female faces.

At the end of 2012 he exhibited a series of portraits in Lugano, Switzerland: female nudes in which each subject was asked to choose a personal object to be photographed with. Così è, se vi pare (This is How it is, ed.) is the name of the exhibition. And again, the faces. Edo looks for a book to show us.

“This is the series I shot on the roof of my New York loft. The most important thing to point out is the dates: these are all photographs taken between 1977 and ’84. These images are part of an exhibition I’m planning for next spring – I hope it all works out, it’s already been postponed a few times. In these pictures from the eighties you can really see the incredible desire of that time to show off, be eccentric, successful – but in these photographs taken on the roof there is

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Interview

no additional make-up or styling. The girls would turn up dressed just like that, maybe even dressed exactly the same as when I’d spotted them in a club the night before, they were all girls who hung out with this community of artists. In the exhibition, these pictures on the roof will create a dialogue with a whole series of photographs of different girls which I’ve been working on for three or four years now. As if thirty years later those girls have grown up with a family, children, a career.” Edo shows us many of these portraits on his computer screen, then he takes us into another room in which some of them are displayed on the walls.

There’s also a series in which he juxtaposes portraits of sisters: “This is Lisa and her sister. Alessandra and her sister.

These are two sisters who share the same mother but have different fathers. These girls are the daughters of a Swiss man and a Chinese woman. Now, this is practically all I do, it’s an obsession. In reality, I am an archivist of faces.” Faces, but only women’s faces: “The reason for this is that it’s rare for me to come across a man’s face which I like. I find men very boring.

Just their facial features. I’ve come across men or particular adolescents which I’ve found interesting, but very few.”

While we browse through catalogues and look at a large series of faces on a white background on the screen, Edo takes a step back, after having talked to us about his recent work: “This is a passion which I’ve had ever since I took up photography.

My father was an amateur photographer, but it wasn’t his job at all. I’m part of that generation of photographers who decided to take up photography because they watched Antonioni’s Blow-Up. Naturally I loved the atmosphere of London’s Swinging Sixties, but what I loved the most is when the actor David Hemmings, the photographer, goes in the darkroom and sees this 24

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image which starts to emerge from the chemical reaction. In fact, up until four years ago I still used film and the darkroom which I have here downstairs.”

Edo Bertoglio lived in London for a period of his life, before moving to his New York in 1976. But before London, came Paris. “Paris was the window on the world, for someone who, like me, had just arrived from Lugano. I was there to study (at the Conservatoire Libre du Cinema Français, where he graduated with a degree in film production, ed.) and me and my friends were straightaway adopted by this group of people who were older than us and were all ex-sixty-eighters and engaged in left-wing politics, who after a while became fed up with that scene.

Some of the guys went on to establish the Gay Liberation Front. The girls on the other hand loved retro fashion and spent

YET magazine

Interview Edo Bertoglio

most of their time browsing through markets, looking for thirties or forties style dresses – I have a few photos of these people. They were all fledgling illustrators, fashion designers. We’d go to private views… we didn’t have a lot of money so we’d go from one party to the next drinking wine and eating canapés…”

The images slide past: bands, theatre plays, parties, exhibitions. “In the spring of ’77, I brought some of these photographs to the editor in chief of Interview magazine in New York, he said we must absolutely show them to Andy Warhol. The Factory already existed at the time – but the Factory of the sixties was more interesting, the one I became acquainted with already had this very glamorous vibe, very much tied to business – a change which Warhol took on after having disappeared for a few years following the shooting. Before that, Warhol painted images of celebrities, then he decided to create Interview magazine, which for him was a film magazine, in order to approach celebrities and interview them. Anyway, when I showed Andy Warhol my portfolio, at every page he’d go “Fabulous. Fabulous.

Fabulous”, but in reality he’d say “fabulous” IMG. 03

to everything because he was a very curious person, and for him, anything was a new incentive for a new piece of work or a new project. He was so enthusiastic. Thanks to that encounter, I started to have a fixed job. Each month on Interview there was a page dedicated to music, curated by my friend Glenn O’Brien, and I’d illustrate it with a photograph. The whole downtown artistic community was already present in that period (which Edo recounts in his 2005 documentary, Face Addict, ed.), where music played a key role. It was the beginning of new wave, in response to British punk. Glenn wrote about our friends’ new bands and I photographed them. The most peculiar thing is that I’d see the same photograph of a band in Holland, Argentina, Japan, that’s when I started to become known on an international level, which then led me to work with record companies, creating album covers, promotional material and so forth. …So, this is a synopsis of the period I spent living between Paris and New York City.”

They say that to really understand a new movement – be it of thought, in politics, or in art, one must wait a few years, in order to distance oneself and analyse it from the outside, to fully understand it and especially to value its legacy. I wander then, if finding oneself in New York towards the end of the seventies, in such a time of cultural and artistic flourish, one would have realised that they were part of an intellectual community which would cast new aesthetic, stylistic and behavioural foundations. “It was a peculiar moment because there were neighbourhoods such as the Lower East Side, the East Village, or even Soho – that was gradually changing with the opening of new, larger galleries - where the rent was low and any artist who would turn up in New York wanting to live in Manhattan

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Interview

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could do so, maybe working in a bar three days a week and spending the other days at home to write music, paint and so forth. A studio on the Bowery cost two hundred dollars a month. In 1979 work was going well and me and my girlfriend Maripol (a notable stylist and artist, ed.) wanted a loft, so we moved from Upton to a 250 square metre space on BroadwayBleecker, which cost us five hundred dollars a month. Maripol still lives there, and many of my records and books are still there. Today, the same space would be divided into three with each one costing around 3000 dollars a month. Now Manhattan is impossible for a young artist, the artistic innovations come out of Brooklyn, Wiliamsburg, but the last time I was in New York, in 2009, I saw that those zones are also becoming very expensive and the less well-off artists are moving away from Brooklyn, for example to New Jersey.”

Edo Bertoglio spent fourteen years of his life in New York City. These were intense years, divided between great success, great affections, important relationships but also great losses, excesses and struggles. “Now I’ll show you some 26

photographs from New York.” Salvatore and I are like children, as we draw close to the computer screen, almost as if it were a burning fireplace. “I thought I’d arrive in a metropolis of the future – even if watching the films noir of that time one could sense that it was a tattered city – but the New York I found was this…” Edo shows us photographs of ruined, decaying buildings and neighbourhoods. Some of the images are well known, other less, but they all convey the state of degradation of the Big Apple in those years. “These were our neighbourhoods. We’d wake up in the morning, head out into the streets and we’d see Samo’s graffiti on the walls, back when that’s how Jean-Michel would sign himself. At first we were a community, then we started to pull ourselves together, so to speak, because there was a club, there was music… all these things which tied us together. It was a very nice moment from ’78 to ’83, dynamic, creative, where there wasn’t any distinction between work and pleasure, also because the space of the lofts encouraged all this.

You would also have people around, people you could photograph, we’d have parties, gigs, small fashion shows.

Everyone was an aspiring something or other. Now New York has been rebuilt, with huge buildings, clean streets, less crime. In those days, in order to hang out in certain neighbourhoods you would really have to develop a sort of territory of your own. There were places in which it was hard to live. But I very much liked it like that, and you’d feel a sort of constant thrill. Now it’s a big shopping centre. But for me it’s like a dear old aunt which I happily go and visit.”

New York City in the eighties. Today, how many places or cities could recreate the favourable conditions for the birth of similar new artistic communities?

YET magazine

Edo Bertoglio Interview

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Interview

“Honestly I wonder if a similar event would be possible today. Everything has become professionalised, even the artists. Basquiat would live here for a bit, there for a bit. He’d get home and paint your fridge door. Today gallery owners go to art schools, select the best finalyear students, have them sign a contract where they commission them a certain number of works, then they organise an exhibition and they see how many they can sell. With this method I wonder if it’s still possible to start up a community with that sense of union that we had – because of this professionalisation, but also because of the development of individuality in any aspect of life. And maybe it’s all our fault, that was the beginning of an end.” Edo smiles, and in fact (but I wouldn’t dream of explaining, in just a few lines, the complete commercialisation of art) from Andy Warhol onwards, the art world, art itself, the artist, the gallery owners and the consumption of art have changed radically. “Yes, we were all young and ambitious. We wanted to be celebrities, but the kind of celebrity that Andy Warhol was before he became a businessman.

Then marketing came along, and everything else. Speaking of which, I’d like to point out something. The young New York artists of the eighties thrived thanks to the young wolves of Wall Street who in those years wanted to have fun and went to clubs, or galleries, and bought their work.”

Edo enjoys spending time with young people. He likes to share his experiences, it’s what he told us straightaway. He asked us about YET magazine and about our personal projects. He often visits schools to show his work from the early days of his career, as well as his most recent projects. “Yes, I also have a slideshow handy, to show my work to students 28

from art, photography and communication schools. It’s always such a pleasure because I see a lot of interested people.

I always tell them that I’m over sixty and I’ll talk to them about people who they’ve never heard of. When I ask them if they know Basquiat, Andy Warhol or Madonna they always say yes. But if I mention more obscure names, they’re not familiar with them. Maybe they were groups of friends of ours – friendships that only lasted for the duration of a morning…” Again, Edo tells us about his community, his New York family. He always refers to them as “ours”, never “my”. Edo Continues: “Many of them were celebrities only for those famous fifteen minutes. And many of them passed away when they were still young. The problem with that community was the drugs, and AIDS. That catastrophic lifestyle in which you end up no longer getting up in the morning to take that photograph or write that poem, that piece of music, but you wake up in order to find or spend the money to get a hit. Jean-Michel also died of an overdose. I was lucky to not end up the same way, because a dear friend of mine put me on a plane, forcing me to return to Switzerland. Fortunately, I still have all my archives, because at one point, when it was very prosperous, I risked losing my whole career. I lost the loft, the art collections, autographed books, drawings by Basquiat. He had lived with us for a few weeks, I had a lot of his work. Thankfully my friend forced me to leave New York, and I still have my archives.”

There’s still time to look at a few more photographs. Portraits of Madonna, Vincent Gallo, many of Basquiat. And then this: “This one’s a funny one. We hardly ever left Manhattan because we didn’t want to miss any of the parties, any event, any phone calls for work. This

YET magazine

Edo Bertoglio Interview

time though, we went on a trip, to Coney Island. Nowadays if you see a group of people dressed up like this you wouldn’t bat an eyelid. But in the eighties, outside of our Soho and East Village neighbourhoods, this group was pretty conspicuous. And here you can see how behind us there’s a typical Puerto Rican gang… tough people, right? And we were so colourful, so camp, these guys followed us and they couldn’t figure out where we were from, whether we were famous actors or something.” Edo smiles, and hands us the photograph for us to keep.

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Basquiat-Head 1980 © Edo Bertoglio

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Basquiat Smoke 1981 © Edo Bertoglio

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Debbie Harry 1980 © Edo Bertoglio

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Madonna & Martin 1983 © Edo Bertoglio

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Man Made

by Basquiat 1980 © Edo Bertoglio

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Coney Island 1980 © Edo Bertoglio

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YET magazine

Editorial

Sooner or Later Photographs and text by Douglas Mandry

www.douglasmandry.com

pp.

30—35

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Douglas Mandry

Sooner o

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Douglas Mandry

It begins with a particular interest of mine for vernacular art.

When I got involved in a documentary about dog racing in western Switzerland, I started to realise just how much peoples’ traditions are based on Anglo-Saxon models.

Because they take place in the middle of the Swiss countryside, these rituals seemed a bit uprooted to me, like a copy of what they should really be.

For this series, I adopted the popular tradition of dog portraits, which people commission either to a painter or a photographer in order to hang them in their living room.

It appeared that in front of the camera the dogs’ attitudes were completely different than when they were on the field. They look anxious, insecure. Suddenly, the harnesses and muzzles become almost girly accessories, far from the original battlefield dresses.

or Later

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Editorial

YET magazine Fruit & Vegetables Photographs by Heidi Voet

www.heidivoet.net

pp.

36—45

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Heidi Voet

Fruit & V

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“(…) These magazine girls also become the inspiration for the series of work Fruits & Vegetables. In the process of folding the flowers, many cut or cropped images of the naked women have been left behind.

Heidi Voet then juxtaposes these leftover picture fragments with pieces of fruits or vegetables and re-photographs the assemblage in a miniature studio constructed of cinderblock. While Voet’s set of ingredients is consistent for these works, the resulting product is quite different. If in the flower vase works, photography becomes sculpture; in these works, the strategy of re-photography is used to negotiate the divide between sculpture, photography, and the readymade.

Heidi Voet poses her models against the granite backdrop and, like her own exquisite corpse in the making, she fits fresh vegetables in for missing limbs. It is child’s play, conjuring up the image of a young girl making sense and nonsense of her body and the world around her. Voet, after all, is only following her intuition, or as Jasper Johns ruminated about his artistic process: “Do something, do something to that, and then do something to that.” The merger of items and imagery in Heidi Voet’s pieces add up to no logical sum, but in the end, vegetables are equated with women and both are equated as objects in a still life.

Many of the fruits and vegetables in these images are specific to Chinese cuisine, and so match the Asian women depicted in the photographs. They also heighten a sense of exoticism or patronisation of the other – we are, after all, what we eat.

But any minor offense to political correctness or feminism that these images

Heidi Voet

may provoke is tamed by their absurdity, playfulness and simplicity. Once again, it is time that becomes Voet’s subject. While the photograph stops time in its track, the vegetable is organic and will disintegrate with the march of time, as will the model’s youth also fade. Nothing is permanent.”

(Mathieu Borysevicz, excerpt from Good news for people who love bad news, in the publication on Heidi Voet’s work One is Many, published by MER paperkunsthalle, 2013.)

Vegetables

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Photography Classics Only in England: Tony Ray-Jones and Martin Parr

YET magazine

Imprint / Comment & notes

Review by Francesca Wilkins

Exhibition Comment & Notes

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< Blackpool, 1968 by Tony Ray-Jones © National Media Museum

“Here they come. The bloody English… in their Zephyrs, Wolseleys and Anglias. Off to their beauty pageants, caravan parks and penny arcades. Off on their day trips and annual marches. Off to watch the children’s arcade. Off to their dog shows and fancy-dress competitions. To eat their buns under umbrellas. To sit in deckchairs in their suits and ties…” (Mick Jackson) Few things scream ENGLISH quite like the idea of a beach outing on a cold and cloudy day, a picnic in the rain, or the spot-on combination of tea and cake. Outsiders may view them with sceptical amusement, but for as long as we can remember, the English have been associated with the most peculiar of pastime traditions - eccentric habits which, decade after decade, they look upon lovingly and always with a sense of nostalgia.

For Tony Ray-Jones and Martin Parr, it was ordinary quirks like these that made for the subjects of years and years of research, of hundreds of rolls of film. Only in England gathers together in an insightful retrospective the work of these two great British photographers who were driven by an enduring passion for the English, for those day-to-day peculiarities that characterised life on the island in the late sixties and seventies. The exhibition focuses first on Tony Ray-Jones’s The English – a project later published in his book A Day Off - and then takes us back to those same locations ten years later, with Martin Parr’s The NonConformists – directly inspired by Ray-Jones’s work. Finally, we’re presented with a collection of Tony Ray-Jones’s previously un-exhibited images, selected by Parr. The exhibition creates an unconventional outlook onto certain aspects of British society over the past decades, and constitutes the opportunity for the materialisation of a deep bond between two artists who, regrettably, never had the chance to meet face-to-face.

Between 1965 and 1969, Tony Ray-Jones photographed with devoted sensibility those aspects of English life which, although rather familiar, fascinated him deeply. It was when studying in America in the early sixties that he came into contact with street photography, and upon his return to Britain, Ray-Jones dedicated himself to creating a both wistful and witty portrait of English society - before his career was cut short by his sudden death in 1972 at the age of thirty. With an impeccable capacity for composition, Tony Ray-Jones captured scenes of English everyday culture in a way which emphasised its distinctive idiosyncrasies. His interest lied not in making a social commentary, but simply in documenting aspects of a way of life which he perceived to be fading away, slowly being taken over by a gradual Americanisation. In a letter to a publisher he writes: “My aim has been to make a subjective record on the English people, particularly during leisure time. I have tried to show their way of life and to underline English characteristics.”

Through grainy black and white images of seaside towns, horse shows, carnivals, street markets and penny arcades, Ray-Jones portrayed a country in a moment of transition with a refreshing sense of humour, whilst also expressing a nostalgic sense of attachment to those habits and traditions which the English held so dear.

YET magazine

Photography Imprint / Comment Classics & notes

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His is a praise to the eccentricity of a nation’s customs.

And so, in Only in England we come across comical photographs such as Brighton Beach, in which a group of elderly women wrapped up in winter coats sit in deckchairs, eating, drinking tea and knitting on the beach. Behind them, naturally, the sky is dreary and grey.

Occasionally, the humour almost seems to descend into eeriness, as in the surreal scene of Eastbourne Carnival which portrays a young girl standing next to a disturbing Mickey Mouse and other odd figures – she holds a sorry looking puppet in one hand and a small trophy in the other, looking utterly discontented. In others, a new town mayor is being weighed, miserable looking children sit by a river on a day out, a man stands by the road in a suit and batman mask.

We can almost picture Tony Ray-Jones attentively moving through the English streets, ever ready for strange situations to unfold before his camera like sketches in a comedy show.

Displayed alongside pages from Ray-Jones’s journals, these photographs become an anthropological study of sorts. His notebooks include dated postcards of Brighton and Bognor piers, lengthy lists of books to read - bearing titles such as “British Taste”, “Working Class Community”, “English Psycho Analysed”, and an old copy of Orwell’s The Road to Wigan Pier.

For Ray-Jones, documenting English life was not merely about being out there and taking photographs, but a matter of fully understanding its culture through his own visual and written studies, and through other people’s experiences and records of it. In the extracts from his notebooks we come across “British characteristics and qualities” in comparison with “US characteristics”, and other lists such as “Impressions of the north” - which although describing a bleak and traditionally grim northern England, also mentions “small china dogs next to a potted plant behind a window pane”. Just like in his photographs, Ray-Jones is sure to include an element of humour, caught by his ability of finding amusing details in ordinary everyday scenes. Another fragment which grants us insight onto Tony Ray-Jones’s approach is a small piece of paper on which he lists twelve commandments,

< Brighton Beach, 1966 by Tony Ray-Jones © National Media Museum

twelve golden rules to always bear in mind when taking photographs. “Don’t take BORING pictures” it reads in capital letters, with the word “BORING” underlined three times in red pen. (…And not a single one of his photographs can be described as such.) It’s not often that we’re granted such an intimate glimpse into a great photographer’s method of study. To be able to do so is to look upon their work and perceive exactly what it is that captured the photographer’s attention in that precise fraction of a second.

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> Mankinholes Methodist Chapel, Todmorden 1975

by Martin Parr © Martin Parr/ Magnum

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Comment & Notes Exhibition

Only in England then directs its focus onto the early work of Martin Parr. Ten years on from Ray-Jones’s The English, Parr moved to Hebden Bridge where over a period of five years he documented the life and landscape of the town’s community, which revolved primarily around the church. Ray-Jones’s influence on Parr’s The Non-Conformists is undeniable, in subject-matter and in approach alike. They might not be the colourful photographs that spring to mind when we think of Martin Parr, but even in these black and white images from forty years ago, his vibrant style is unmistakable. In documenting the life of Hebden Bridge Community, Parr seemed to be constantly waiting for absurd situations to unfold, or for quirky individuals to pass by. A pair of oversize spectacles, a woman’s flamboyant hat or a peculiar expression become decisive elements in a comical interpretation of a common everyday scene. Both Tony Ray-Jones and Martin Parr managed to capture these simple scenarios in a way in which they appear as if staged, a parody of the English lifestyle. Because of their simplicity, the impression we get is that these incidents could almost go unnoticed. Although surely a casual passer-by would have noticed the young boy lurking behind a monument, a toy machine gun in his hands pointing out towards the congregation and brass band gathered for an outdoor church service?

When captured by Martin Parr, simple, ordinary scenes become emblems of an England which Ray-Jones described as “a country lacking in drama”, yet one where “the people have the

YET magazine

Photography Classics Imprint / Comment & notes

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sense of drama”. A silver Jubilee street party, against a backdrop of an industrial landscape, is caught in the merciless rainstorm of a Yorkshire town. In Steep Lane Baptist Church Buffet Lunch, a prim elderly woman in a Sunday hat dips a teaspoon of sugar into her cup of tea as she converses with an aged couple in the foreground. Behind her, above her head, hangs a painting of the Last Supper, Christ’s posture mirroring her own, in a perfect contrast. Whether they be images of foggy moors, textile factories, or church services, Parr is always sure to slip in an element of humour, a characteristic magic touch given by the subjects’ interaction, timing, composition and lighting all lining up impeccably.

But it’s images entitled Lee Dam Annual New Year’s Day Swim, or depicting mouse shows and pigeon competitions held in local pubs that, when viewed side by side, really make us realise just how odd many traditions can seem. Blimey.

The last section of the exhibition is dedicated to a collection of Tony Ray-Jones’s previously unpublished and un-exhibited photographs, thoughtfully selected by Martin Parr from 2500 contact sheets. These “new” images, which might otherwise have remained stored indefinitely in the archive of Bradford’s National Media Museum, offer a rare and broader introspection into Ray-Jones’s work and research. The photographs have been chosen

by Parr following different trains of thought, and draw attention to more crowded shots, to different aspects than those which the photographer chose to highlight. In print, they retain Tony Ray-Jones’s characteristic tonal range and contrast.

We once again come across pleasure piers, fancy hats and rainy picnics on the beach, but also street scenes, fish and chip shops, festival goers and swimmers taking a dip in an ice-cold Serpentine lake – a scene which recalls Parr’s own winter bathers.

Further away from the tranquil seaside towns, Tony Ray-Jones ventures into London’s East End streets, amidst Brick Lane’s market stalls, through council estates and across the City’s financial district. The English eccentricity is often a subtle one. In one photograph, four ordinary blokes stand on a traffic island on Bethnal Green Road holding dogs on leads. Initially we’re drawn in by the flawless composition, by the impeccable balance in the arrangement of the subjects, we then notice that one of the young men holds a monkey peering out from his winter coat.

The order in which the photographs are displayed underlines the surreal nature of the images themselves, by creating compelling juxtapositions such as in the striking sequence of two photographs displayed side by side. The first is a landscape shot taken in Margate, in which a horse runs across a field on the left-hand side of the image, a man in a top hat stands in the centre of the frame with his back turned to us, gesturing to his right where, bizarrely, an elephant stands. The second image is a more quotidian one, a short-haired girl in sunglasses sits on the Brighton beach, playing 7-inch singles which lie scattered out on her towel. Another selection of notebook pages, written in his handwriting now all too familiar to us,

Page from Tony Ray-Jones's notebook, c 1965

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Only in England: Photographs by Tony Ray-Jones and Martin Parr, is on at the Science Museum until March 16th 2014.

< Tom Greenwood cleaning 1976

by Martin Parr © Martin Parr/ Magnum

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Comment Exhibition & Notes

reveals a list of subjects due to complete his ambitious project.

“Seaside”, “traditions” and “old customs” have all been checked off. Other subjects, such as “immigrants” and “the suburb” remain for the most part undocumented, his work cut short by his premature death. The final wall of the exhibition greets us with a large collage of contact sheets, in which Tony Ray-Jones’s approach to his subjects is palpable. From the initial encounter with a scene in the first frame of a sequence, up to the final flawless shot in which all the elements fall into place, we can almost sense his alertness, his patience.

It’s difficult to imagine to what lengths Tony Ray-Jones would have taken this project, or what kinds of images he’d be producing today. But picking up where he left off, we have Martin Parr and his witty observing of contemporary society. Together, these two photographers have created a unique portrait of English culture, and rendered timeless a peculiar way of life. A way of life which however still feels somewhat familiar, as if these little, distinctive quirks haven’t quite disappeared altogether, but can be found today in humble seaside towns or down forgotten countryside roads. One only needs to know where to look.

YET magazine

Editorial

Affections Photographs & text by Filipe Casaca

www.filipecasaca.com

pp.

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Affec

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Filipe Casaca

Affections is my kaleidoscope of memories.

Reflections on the people who have influenced me through their personalities and stories, and the presence of my private space in tuned with its surroundings.

When I find myself in a new place I need to fill it as my own... I want to know what resemblances with myself I find there. I started this project with the subjects I was most familiar with at that time â&#x20AC;&#x201C; my wife Teresa and my private space. This parallelism between her presence, her body, the organisation of the space in the room, and the objects in it, was my beginningâ&#x20AC;Ś At that time this was the element closest to me and one with which I could easily connect. I need to have some kind of emotional connection with the subjects and objects I want to represent. Afterwards, it was my friends, and others, whose personal stories somehow changed my understanding of what I feel in what I see.

I portrayed them in their different emotional states, with an attention to their body language and apparent movements. In my room, I found the balance between how the space was already organised and how I had decided to place my personal belongings in it. Outside, I tried to find a resemblance between her and them, between their bodies and my room in its surroundings...

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Breathe Photographs & text by Clément Val

www.clementval.com

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Brea

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Clement Val

Humans: signs of an exhausted civilization and wilderness, everywhere.

None of these photographs were planned ahead, each of them is a very real moment which I thought was worth keeping a trace of. I call this my “journal”, but that’s a white lie to myself: these images appear to be the antithesis of my usual routine made of concrete and computers.

They are the proof that an alternative exists, that enchantment can beat disillusion.

athe

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Interview by Nicolas Polli Photographs by Thomas Albdorf

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Interview

The World We Live In Interview with Daniel Gebhart de Koekkoek

Worlds, micro worlds, moments of everyday life and the people who live them. Austrian photographer Daniel Gebhart de Koekkoek documents the things around him, as he searches for small scenarios which are part of his life in one way or another. Intrigued and delighted, Daniel talks about reality by arranging it through his special point of view. What we glimpse as we browse through his new book, The World We Live In, is a complex of journeys across different scenarios, which probably will never have anything in common with one another, but which magically share a space as they seem to be tied by a strong bond. The photographerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s viewpoint and the excellent editing choices enable us to savour the 156 pages of the book immersed in these images, as we quickly and almost without notice reach the back cover with a smile on our face.

We had the chance to talk to Daniel Gebhart de Koekkoek who presented us his freshly printed publication, and together we looked into some of the peculiarities of this book.

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Interview

When we had the chance to see your book we were surprised to find that we straightaway enter a world made of images without any indication as to how to interpret this body of work. So whoever views this book is catapulted into your world without any direction.

For me, inserting an introductory text was problematic. Initially I thought about asking someone to write a long text to introduce the photographs, but the problem in the case of The World We Live In is that there aren’t really that many hidden meanings to look for in my images, so it would’ve been difficult for someone to write an essay on my way of approaching this book. I don’t want to give out a powerful message or talk about how hard it was to gather the necessary material. These are only photographs, which narrate certain moments, certain experiences in my world, and for this reason it’s hard to ask someone external to realise a text on who I am. There aren’t powerful stories, but more like combinations of images which brought together as a whole illustrate my feelings. There’s only a small text, which isn’t meant to be an introduction to the visual interpretation of the book, but helps the readers understand my way of seeing things. This brief text is written by a friend of mine, David Bogner who is the Editor in Chief of Vice magazine Austria. David’s text is really well structured around my idea of the narrative construction of the book. In a few lines he manages to capture the essence of it and give the reader a strong and positive input towards the understanding of the work. I couldn’t have asked for better.

The structure of the book is based around one main concept: to present my world.

The book is divided into six blocks made up of five double-page spread images, which represent different worlds, different realities. After each sequence of five images, we come to a sequence of images which display a microcosm in detail, in other words, a specific reality. This is basically the outline which the book’s structure establishes, which creates a functional, dynamic and flowing discourse.

Why did you decide to publish this book?

It’s a hard question, to which I would’ve liked to answer elaborating romantic principles around the choices and factors which lead me to realise this product. In reality, it’s not all that romantic. Everything started when Apple Inc. wrote to me asking if I wanted to sell them the licence for the use of one of my images on a very well-known software of theirs. I asked for a considerable amount of money to separate

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Interview Daniel Gebhart de Koekkoek

myself from that image and after some negotiations they gave me half of the money which I’d asked for, which is still a much higher amount of money than I’d have expected. I didn’t know exactly what to do with all this money, all I knew was that I didn’t want to pay a load of taxes, so I decided to invest it in a useful project.

For some time I’d been wanting to publish a book in which to present my work, so this was the right moment. I had a project and I also had the money to finance it.

Creating a book has always been a dream of mine, I think it’s the same for any photographer. It was incredible to be able to realise my own book, at the same time I reflected on whether it was really the right moment in which to publish a book, if I had the suitable material for a publication. I reflected on this possibility a lot and finally I decided I needed to create it. Because I had this great financial possibility, I had the possibility to create a book in the best way possible, as I’d always dreamt of doing.

And you decided to hook up with a publishing house for the production of the book, can you tell us about that?

Although I had the money to self-finance the project, I decided to ask a publishing house for support. I wrote to different publishers whom I appreciated and immediately received positive replies. In my email I presented the main concept and my idea for what I expected from the final result of the book. I decided to publish with Kehrer Verlag, because I really appreciate the other artists they’ve published in the past, and also because they’re very established on the market, as they distribute and present work at various fairs and events.

The photograph you sold to Apple, was it going to be a part of the project you present in the book?

Actually yes, in fact it was one of the images which I liked the most, but because I used it to pay for the production of the project in its entirety, I’m still happy – even if I had to remove it completely from my portfolio and from all of my webpages. This money allowed me to choose the best quality for the production of the book, because I was paying for it. I don’t think the publisher would have made my same choices if they would’ve had to put their own money into it. For example, this meant I could choose a hardcover and the possibility to work with a good art director.

So, you worked with someone to make the choices for the structure of the book – did you also choose the order of the images together, and the type of layout?

Yes, I worked in close contact with Manuel Radde, an Austrian graphic designer. I really like his work and I found myself on the same wavelength as him when it came to the different aspects of this project. We decided that I’d select the images I wanted in the book for him, and that he’d create a narrative flow, by choosing the structure. He put everything together exactly as I would’ve done! So we only made some small adjustments together, nothing too big. Manuel really managed to interpret my images with a certain freshness, putting together images which I never would’ve associated with one another.

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Because he didn’t know what was behind each photograph, he was able to work in a more spontaneous way, something I probably wouldn’t have been able to do as those images represent something more for me. This was an absolutely positive and interesting aspect.

His way of looking at my images lead to a layout which I didn’t expect. When I thought of a book, I had in mind a layout which was too much like magazines, I thought of Zeit Magazine or The Gentlewoman as examples and as mental models – too trendy and distant from what a book could be like. Manuel Radde transformed everything into a real publication which can last throughout the years, without relying on the trends of the moment.

The cover is brilliant, like you said, it’s something innovative, yet at the same time something which will last over time…

It was a tough decision because initially we thought about having an image on the cover, as is usual for a photography book, but we couldn’t decide on which shot could’ve been the most representative for the project. At one point we came up with this idea which spawned the ideas of using a hardcover with this kind of layout.

How much time did you invest into producing this book?

In its entirety is was quite fast, it didn’t take more than six months, the goal was to present it at the Paris Photo fair. It took so little time because the interaction between the people involved was very spontaneous. Working with an art director like Manuel was incredible, you could tell how interested he was in the project and this was certainly essential. Manuel Radde is really involved in his work, he loves books so much that he could buy them even just because of how they’re made, the paper they’re printed on, their scent, with little importance in regards to the content. Working with enthusiastic people certainly made it so that the creation of the project could be a spontaneous process, each phase of the production really worked a treat.

Going back to the publishing house, in photography how important is the figure of the publisher?

Publishing through a company which you look up to is fundamental, you step into a circle of publications and you’re fascinated by photographers who probably have a higher reputation than you, but at the same you’re treated on their same level.

Publishing a book like this enables you to come into contact with communities that were unfamiliar to you, which you probably would never have come across. If I would have published this book by myself I would never have come into contact with this circle of acquaintances – I would have organised an exhibition in Vienna and all of us would’ve gotten drunk and nobody would have bought the book. It’s fun, but it’s also important that this book has ways to be distributed, this publishing company allows me to do this and as a result the book will be presented at important events such as the Paris Photo fair. We decided to publish an edition of five-hundred copies.

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Daniel Gebhart de Koekkoek Interview

On your website there’s a series with the same name as your book.

Yes, originally The Wold We Live In was a photography project that looked at the worlds of different people from an outside point of view, these images are part of some microcosms within a larger reality. This series sort of became the starting point for the realisation of the book, I started collecting images of incredible places with peculiar situations. I won’t deny trying to create beautiful images, but at the same time ones which would be strange for the situation in question. Initially I didn’t think that this could be part of an editorial product, but when the possibility to create it became concrete, I saw the images I had through different eyes and only in that moment did I find the idea of creating a visual play between worlds and micro worlds.

It’s very interesting, also because in your book you don’t just present the project The World We Live In, but also some other projects which you created.

This book can be seen as a mixture of all the projects I’ve put together up until now, but this is only because I was able to insert some images which could be adapted to the book’s theme. Whilst I was choosing the images, I realise how interested I was in these microcosms and how in my career I’ve always been in search of peculiar scenarios.

My work has a meaning because it’s a large research, each microcosm could be taken separately, but it also works in a more general context.

Do you think there could be a continuation to this book?

New, different scenarios?

I’m interested in different themes which could very well work within the project, but I think the time has come to start something new, I think it’s important to find something solid on which to work, I know I want to, but I’ve not thought about what to concentrate on.

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Editorial

The World We Live In Photographs by Daniel Gebhart de Koekkoek Text by David Bogner

www.gebhart.dk

The World

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Daniel Gebhart de Koekkoek

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Daniel Gebhart de Koekkoek

“Daniel Gebhart de Koekkoek is a cranky Tyrolean, which sounds like a cliché but actually is the truth.

In another universe he may be the mastermind behind revolutions, a bicycle racer or the leader of a nudist cult. Here Daniel is one of the finest photographers, who dives into microcosms and comes back with romantic and yet authentic photos. At the same time he feels at home in the vastness of open landscapes. This alleged contradiction is what makes this book so great”.

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Project

Self Publish, Be Happy: a new approach to photobook publishing

Since 2010, Bruno Ceschel has been contributing to the world of self-publishing thanks to a project which has given visibility to the works of established and upcoming photographers who engage with the creation and publication of books and other editorial products. Today, Self Publish, Be Happy is a platform, a mixture of energies which can be developed in different ways, but which have a common denominator: the creation, promotion and distribution of new and interesting editorial products.

Publications, exhibitions and workshops are an integral part of Bruno Ceschel’s work and of his collaborators.

We decided to meet up with him and understand what motivated him to embark on this project and how, in his opinion, self-publishing – and consequently the printing of photography books – is today finding its place in the editorial world, which is more and more oriented towards the digital industry.

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Bruno Ceschel Interview

could see and refer to these publications, which often weren’t available on the market - they were produced mainly by unknown people, but also by established photographers such as Alex Wolff.

Basically, I discovered that in reality the word of self-publishing was a lot more dynamic. Self Publish, Be Happy, in part, played a role in bringing people together, offering a platform for all those artists interested in producing this kind of art through websites, meeting places, events, participating at art fairs, etc.

With time, we’ve developed other projects When did you start this project, within Self Publish, Be Happy, which, Self Publish, Be Happy, and why? for example, embrace the role of publishing house with SPBH Editions, the organisation Self Publish, Be Happy started in 2010. My of events and live publishing with SPBH background is divided into two separate Live and the publication of books with 1 worlds, on one hand Colors magazine , SPBH Books. where I acquired a lot of experience and became familiar with the magazine industry, Do you tend to offer support after which I moved into the world of pubmore to artists who aim to create lishing and distribution, where I worked publications, rather than to for Chris Boot, now director of Aperture independent publishing houses?

Foundation2. So, a pretty traditional publishing circle. On the other hand, Our role as Self Publish, Be Happy is to thanks also to my job as a lecturer at give support to some self-publishers. We the University of Arts London and the help the photographers with whom we continuous contact I have there with people work to produce publications. By process full of ideas, at a certain point, I became we mean all the steps which lead up to disillusioned with the traditional publishing the final product. For example, one of industry, and became more and more the recent projects at which we worked interested in the world of self-publishing. is Dalston Anatomy by Lorenzo Vitturi, Because I’m always in contact with people exhibited at the Foam Gallery. In this who experiment with publication, I started case Self Publish, Be Happy is the to collect books, zines, and independent co-editor of the book. products and I noticed that there was an interesting energy which came out of that As publishers, are you involved kind of world, an energy different from the only in the financial aspects or world of traditional publishing. So, with also in all those aspects which the aim to bring attention onto this form include the making of a book? of art, I created Self Publish, Be Happy, which started off as a three or four day We have different relationships and event at The Photographer’s Gallery. It different agreements with different projects. was a sort of library where the public SPBH Editions is made up of myself Fourth issue

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and Antonio De Luca (art director) and we work like a small publishing house. Often the projects aren’t commissioned, but come from ideas of our own. Other times, the author is already working at a book and we support them and help them produce it.

We deal with the creation, promotion and distribution of each editorial product.

How do you select the artists you publish?

Are there criteria?

Given the nature of the project and the advantage of being outside of certain commercial dynamics, the most important thing for us is to be able to work with people whom we enjoy working with.

Often this leads to relationships established over time. For us it’s important to work with people whose potential and modus operandi we’re familiar with, also because it’s very hard to start a project with someone who’s a complete stranger since, in our sector, it’s hard to work on something without the personal premises that make it enjoyable.

Given the importance of the relationship with the artists with whom we work, starting a project with a stranger isn’t worth it, even for the area of the market in which we operate. First and foremost, the relationship between the authors and us needs to be enjoyable and interesting.

In the world of photography, how important do you think it is to have a publisher? What’s the true value of a publisher in the creation of an editorial project?

The figure of the traditional publisher has changed a lot nowadays. Certainly it’s very important to have a publisher, but this figure has been substituted, often in a very efficient way, by the setting-up of a team which is often a combination of the artists asking a designer, a publisher, a distributor, 100

for help in creating the work – they collaborate in the realisation of the editorial project. Today, I think this dynamic is fundamental. And it’s the dynamic we embrace at SPBH Editions. I think this mixture of skills and expertise is very interesting, and often the artist is also the art director.

For you, what role does the photography book play today, in a world which is increasingly more digital?

The photography book fixes a project in time. It fixes a photography project in its sequence, in its relationship with the white space, in its dimensions, in its material-ness, these images are placed onto paper and create a sequence and a processes of editing. This happens through an object which can last for decades. With digital material, you don’t have the perception of time, it’s in a constant transition – both when it comes to accessibility and in the nature of the medium.

A book is tangible and can give you an experience which has not yet been replaced or replicated by digital means in any way. Then there are areas in which the digital medium is establishing itself in a rather obvious and functional way, such as in the area of fiction. I always prefer to have a book in my hand, but I can understand the motivations which lead people to reading a book on a tablet.

But with photography books, in my opinion, this is hardly a relevant point. In any case, the coexistence of paper and digital has changed the world of publishing, take magazines for example: today a magazine can’t compete with the immediacy of the internet, so it can’t exist on paper alone, but it must offer something different, not only regarding content, but also when it comes to form and experience.

YET magazine

Interview Bruno Ceschel

In your opinion, should a book today be an integral part of a project, and not just a container for it?

I think a book can be the index of a project, like a catalogue would be, for example. But that’s where all it value lies. Having said this, I think the book is an ideal place for a photography project.

For some projects, in fact, more than other forms. Books certainly offer the ideal place in which to present a photography project, which can become something else within the form of a book.

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1—Colors is a magazine created by photographer Oliviero Toscani and art director Tibor Kalman in 1991 to show the world to the world. The message has remained the same: diversity is good.

2—Created in 1952 by photographers and writers as “common ground for the advancement of photography,” Aperture today is a multiplatform publisher and center for the photo community. Aperture produces, publishes, and presents a program of photography projects.

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“A nebula is an interstellar cloud of dust, hydrogen, helium and other ionized gases. Originally, nebula was a name for any diffuse astronomical object, including galaxies beyond the Milky Way.” Like a Cosmic Nebula

Arianna Angeloni

Photographs & text by Arianna Angeloni

Lik a Cosmic

www.ariannaangeloni.com

pp.

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Arianna Angeloni

Like a Cosmic Nebula is an ongoing project room is a galaxy with a strong relationship started in the winter of 2013. with memory, which always leads me back to the safe places of delight. Here, I don’t This is the place of the drawers in the need to be careful, I don’t need to be cautious wardrobes, of blue tiles, of mirrors. Of or hesitate, there’s no embarrassment or the large, wooden-frame bed, and of the confusion, here nothing is fatal. If I’m walk in wardrobe with a window looking fragile, I can hide in the walk in wardrobe out onto the firs in the garden. Of afteror in the white ceramic of the bathtub, noons spent watching Juliet of the Spirits or wish for the snow of faraway places. on the armrests of a velvet armchair and on Granddad’s knee - telling me: I gathered into a relationship, as subtle “You’re a desert fox”. In this house, an and intangible as dust, the words, the intimate fabric made of memories, each photographs discovered in drawers, with my visual story of the places where they once lived and their objects: from the emerald green papyrus - Grandmother’s pride, to the room’s chandeliers adorned with crystals, from the photograph of an Alitalia Boeing in a 1969 sky to the pillows of the double bed embroidered with flowers, from the photograph taken in front of the Golden Pavilion in Kyoto - taken during my grandparents’ holiday in Japan in 1978, to the hydrangeas in the garden - tattered by the winter.

The series opens and finishes with the images of two nebulas, as if encapsulating a secret and passing journey. Images like fragments of a changing, unpredictable universe without particular significance, which create a narration devoid of any suggestion, on the clean thread of memory, like a cosmic nebula.

ke c Nebula

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Editorial

The Village Photographs & text by Ezio D’Agostino

www.eziodagostino.com

pp.

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The V

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Ezio Dâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;Agostino

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A city of 30’000 inhabitants, with an average age of thirty-seven, the highest birth rate in France and a mortality rate of a mere 2%. A place inspired by architectural styles from before the Second World War, where advertisement is forbidden and every house is protected by alarms or connected to a video surveillance system. This is Val d’Europe, an urban community 35km from the French capital. Unique in its kind, it consists of six communes gathered around the premiere tourist destination in Europe: Disneyland Paris.

The development of Val d’Europe begins to take place thanks to the building of Disneyland Park. In 1987 the French government decides to sell part of its land to the Walt Disney Company, through a public and private partnership between the state, the territorial communities and the world’s largest media and entertainment company. The Disney Company is appointed with the task of developing a new city on land up until then rural: 20’000 hectares of French terrain for which Disney will choose the construction companies, determine the urban structure of the six communes and establish the design of the houses and roads. For the first time in France, a private corporation is directly involved in an urban organisation on such a large scale. Through the Euro Disney SCA, the Walt Disney Company builds residential areas, offices, schools and sport centres on the land surrounding the theme park – the supporting foundation of the newborn community’s economy.

Hence, Val D’Europe became the most significant example of New Urbanism in Europe, a movement developed starting from the 1980s in the United States and in Europe with the aim to profoundly renew

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the dominant models of urban planning, and which today represents one of the most important movements of reformation within architecture. According to the New Urbanism movement, the urban model for traditional villages and cities constitutes the most efficient way for the development of a community. The cardinal points around which the renovation proposals are defined include: population density, the integration of different transport systems and the continuity with the traditions of national architecture. The architectural styles of Val d’Europe are of Neotraditional inspiration, the principal models are those of the typical farms in the Brie region and of Haussmann’s Parisian buildings. According to Valérie Vautier and Véronique Wild, authors of an important ethnological study on Val d’Europe, “The ‘neo’ style favours the image, giving it more importance than the function of an architectural construction, thus creating an urban scene without real content.”

Outside the crowded shopping centre, the streets are in fact empty. Every now and then, a car drives along one of the many roads which connect the residential areas with the shopping centre, the names of which are known to few. One hears voices, laughter or sounds from behind the walls of houses, from over the garden fences or from the construction sites where workmen continue to build new roads, new houses, and new residences to welcome the temporary employees of Disneyland Paris.

Walking through Val d’Europe, the question arises: What does the mise-en-scene created by the Disney empire imply in the construction of a real city?

Twenty-five years from its creation, Val d’Europe is still a place in search of an identity of its own. For some people who have chosen to live there it represents a dream, a synthesis of tranquillity, security and well-being. For others, it has become a nightmare, made of alienation and solitude, where the only place in which real encounters can take place is in the immense shopping centre which bears the same name as the urban community.

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Phantom Islands Photographs & text by 34 Sarah Girner

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“Islands have always fascinated the human mind. Perhaps it is the instinctive response of man, the land-animal, welcoming a brief intrusion of earth in the vast, overwhelming expanse of sea.

Here in the great ocean basin, a thousand miles from the nearest continent, with miles of water under our vessel, we come upon an island. Our imaginations can follow its slope through darkening waters to where it rests on the seabed. We wonder why and how it arose here, in the midst of the ocean.”

(Rachel Carson, The Sea Around Us)

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From the 13th through the 15th centuries, mapmakers used first-hand knowledge of mariners, sailors, captains and merchants in order to draw up portolan charts that would facilitate safe navigation from one harbor to another. These maps were drawn on calfskin and crisscrossed by a dense network of lines, representing the directions of the wind and compass points, while clearly demarcating the shores of continents and islands. Many of the islands immortalised on the portolan charts constituted cartographic errors: they were phantom islands, which never existed in the first place. Nevertheless some of them remained on subsequent maps well into the 19th century, at which point the waters were traversed regularly and left little to the imagination.

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Aside from geographical and human error, however, imagination, superstition, hopes and fears also played into the birth of the phantom islands. This is evident in the mythical descriptions of the non-existent places: there are islands that were enveloped in fog and only appeared for a single day every seven years, islands where the sand under the sailors feet was a soft dusting of gold, islands where childbirth was facilitated next to islands where it was not, and finally islands where the wailing of men warned sailors from miles away to best avoid this slip of land where demons roamed.

The following images are photographic proof of non-existent and imagined places – unexplored landscapes, as they appear on the horizon in the recounted stories In large part, the phantom islands were of merchants and sailors. The moment of the result of human error: until the invention discovery encompasses the promise of Harrison’s chronometer in the 18th of the unknown, the anticipation of hopes century, it was impossible to establish a and fears of what might lie ahead and vessel’s exact longitude while navigating also the overarching certainty of a respite – the vast oceans, and existing islands brief as it may be – from the vastness appeared offset by hundreds of nautical of the alien sea. miles to the east or west of their real location. Confused sailors made notes of these islands - in addition to fog and cloud banks, icebergs and thermal inversions all mistakenly identified as physical islands - in their logbooks and relayed the false information to the mapmakers.

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â&#x20AC;&#x153;In the great ocean is an island, which is visible at sea at some distance, but if one tries to approach it, it withdraws and disappears. If one returns to the place one started from, it is seen again as before.â&#x20AC;?

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Anonymous Arab author tells of an island in the West (10th century)

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“True it is and I myself have heard it, not from one, but from a great number of sailors and pilots with whom I have made many voyages, that when they passed this way, they heard in the air, on the top or about the masts, a great clamor of men's voices, confused and inarticulate, such as you may hear from a crowd at a fair or market place; whereupon they knew that the Isle of Demons as not far off.”

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André Thevet (1555)

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“On the first day of August following, Gillam saw land bearing west from two miles off and judged it to be an island. Being dark and foggy weather having sailed due West 24 leagues and a half seeing many great flocks of small birds and, in sounding, found 120 fathom water, the land, or island bearing West 2 miles from them.”

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A Breviate of Captain Zechariah Gillam’s Journal to the North-West (1668)

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â&#x20AC;&#x153;The lost island discovered by Saint Brendan, but nobody has found it since.â&#x20AC;?

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Mappamundi of Ebstorf (13th century)

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â&#x20AC;&#x153;It was a clear evening with a fine golden sunset when just as the sun went down a dark island suddenly appeared far out to sea but not on the horizon.

It had two hills, one wooded between them from a low plain rose towers and curls of smoke.â&#x20AC;?

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William Hamilton (1675)

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â&#x20AC;&#x153;Pregnant women of Bra who have difficulty in delivery, will give birth easily if taken over to Daculi.â&#x20AC;?

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Caption next to the islands Daculi and Bra on the Pareto Map of 1455

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A map is representatio a symbolic highlighting between of that space su regions, an

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s a visual on of an area, c depiction relationships elements uch as objects, nd themes.

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Alpinism â&#x20AC;&#x153;the sport of climbing with difficulty such high mountains as the Alpsâ&#x20AC;?

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Surface topography and observational network of the Gries Glacier (The Swiss Glaciers, Geological Report No. 125/126, 2003/2005)

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Scientists have been monitoring the state of the glaciers since 1869. Between 1850 and 1970 alpine glaciers lost at least one third of their surface area and about half their density. When glaciers melt, the outflow of water does not necessarily increase gradually. It is usually dammed by boulders for a certain time, until it breaks through with great destructive force onto the valley below.

I’ve been to the Gries Glacier, Ulrichen (CH), which is one of the most important, but at the same time at risk, glaciers of Switzerland. Griesgletscher is a temperate valley glacier located in the central Swiss Alps. The glacier covers an area of 5.26 km2 flowing in north-east direction from 3374 m a.s.l. down to 2409 m a.s.l. Mass

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balance measurements started in 1961 in connection with the construction of a reservoir for hydro-power production.

According to the data of the preliminary glacier mass balance 2011/2012 supplied by the World Glacier Monitoring Service, Gries Glacier lost -2400 points in annual mass balance (mm w.e.). I started from a data analysis conducted by the Swiss Glacier Monitoring Network to see the map of the glacier and its relative change in the length variation from 1961 and 2011. The word used to call the part of a glacier that goes under a certain mass is interesting. They are called “dead”. All the pictures shown here are taken at the new entrance of the glacier, in the “dead” part of it. Looking at the map, 50 years ago, this would have been completely covered by the ice.

This is the beginning of a project that aims to explore the powerful nature of a living creature in constant evolution. I want to show how such a powerful creature can be so fragile. In these pictures you can see their magnificence, but at the same time all their fragility.

graphy Glacier

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Utopia Photographs & text by Luke Norman & Nik Adam

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Uto

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The photographic process we used in this series is a method that we have been developing over a number of years now. We first began working in this method a few years ago, back in 2010 when we were in India on an Artist Residency at the National Institute of Design. Our process was to visually interact and document the physical and social environment we found ourselves in.

Luke Norman & Nik Adam

â&#x20AC;&#x153;You are now in the space in which all creates Utopia.â&#x20AC;?

We used the inspiration that one finds when placed in a unique environment, a space unknown and untouched by your own experiences, to reconcile a visual understanding and interpretation which offers and dictates a new approach or language.

Utopia is whatever you want it to be.

A place, a time, a space, a corner, a moment, an apple, the water, the illusion, the second, grab all of that and multiply it by four separate lives and now divide that by two.

For us it is a place where we can create and search for whatever we want, a space of possibilities and contradictions, paradoxes and the infinite.

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Roots, Anxious Nature Photographs & text by Mohamed Amine Abassi

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Mohamed Amine Abassi

A tough week, a week of stressful work, I get a drink with friends, hoping to calm my body and to give liveliness to my poor mind.

Day after day, nothing works, but it’s all alright. With agonising soul, we’re satisfied with saying “Everything’s good! and tomorrow is another day” and we end up accepting our melancholy which habit turns into an illusion of happiness.

I fall, I fall from above, to find myself below.

The soul carries the body in darkness and in pain, in fear, in distress, and anxiety takes over me.

Alone and wounded, I walk in search of a refuge - ephemeral in a world in which sadism is the only pleasure which is offered.

We like the things that hurt us, and we hate the things that are good for us.

A flash reminded me that perhaps my being suffers in bearing these modern times, thinking of yesterday, tomorrow, family, relationships, work,… coffee, cigarette, coffee, cigarette, sandwich, drink, beer, cigarette,…

In the end, nothing useful. I’m good at torturing myself, I like my pain.

Observing nature, looking at the trees, I have the impression of seeing silent beings.

Far from our fears, far from our problems…

I see them live in harmony, in a synergy which can be disturbed by us, human

beings, because we mutilate them and reduce them to ashes. If they were in their own world. They’d be happier.

I wanted to be a tree. Unable to be so useful and to produce oxygen, I wanted to find the wisdom, the peace and the tranquillity of a tree. After a while, I can’t say that I obtained what I desired to be. But I saw, yes, I saw in these creatures the symptoms of a hidden evil which manifests itself in front of those who try to see.

Anxious nature, depressed trees, dangling branches?

It can’t be very easy to see or to describe or explain. But when my eyes saw it, I felt that I was scared, they tremble and in the end they suddenly burst spontaneously.

Am I a witness to an anxious nature, revealed in an analysis and reflection, do I really see? It tended to my pain, or I’m a madman who hurls his own misfortunes, his suffering and unhappiness onto a simple, beautiful, sleeping and idle nature.

Roots is a project made up of images taken in various parts of Tunisia such as Jendouba, Siliana and Cap Bon.

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A Day With: Interview

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by Paola Paleari

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Pietro Paolini YET magazine

Pietro Paolini Interview

Pietro Paolini is an Italian photojournalist, and a member of the TerraProject collective. For many years he has divided his time between his home country and South America, a continent on which he has chosen to base most of his photographic research. When he returns to Europe, usually it is because he has a new prize to collect. In 2012, he won the second prize in the World Press Photo award in the category Daily Life, with his series Bolivians â&#x20AC;&#x201C; a visual journey through Evo Moraleâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s native country, the first indigenous president in the history of South America. Last September, his most recent project, Balance on the Zero: Ecuador 2011-2013, won the Marco Pesaresi Prize for Contemporary Photography.

These images confer a portrait of the current situation in South America, in all its contradictions and potential, from the economic growth of the capital, Quinto, to the exploitation of natural resources, to the local lifestyle which has adopted the model of the US, in a union of tradition and progress.

We met Pietro in order to understand more in depth the reasons for his interest in the neosocialist Latin American nations, and to reflect on the importance of certain choices and their impact on the work of a reportage photographer.

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The first question – and maybe the most obvious for an author who has committed himself with such dedication to the representation of a particular area of the world: when and why is your passion for South America triggered?

political and social point of view. In many aspects its culture is similar to that of Europe, though the period it is living is completely new and unique, charged with instability but also with innovative energy. My desire is to capture this moment and the vast space for possibility which it offers, and at the same time to contribute towards filling a gap in the information regarding what’s happening there, especially on a civic and everyday level.

Even though I had already travelled to South America in the past, the decisive moment was in 2004, when I was still attending the photography course at the Fondazione Studio Marangoni in We often receive an incomplete Florence. By chance, I was starting to and stereotypical vision of South become interested in the dynamics America’s dynamics with regard relative to Chavez’s rise to power at the in particular to the countries same time in which a close friend of on which you’ve focused your mine was preparing her thesis on the attention. Photography, especially political use of media in Venezuela. I documentary and journalistic seized the opportunity to travel to those photography, is certainly a places and document the events through powerful tool with which to fill a reportage. After that trip, I made sure the gaps in the information.

I returned to Venezuela every year, and In this process, how important is my interest towards the country and the language you’ve adopted? towards the neighbouring countries grew more and more.

The language is fundamental. Through it, a whole imagery is constructed, which The thing I find most fascinating about one day translates into identity and the South America is the idea that anything next day will become collective memory. can happen: the continent is in constant My desire is to give life to a new iconoand rapid development, from an economic, graphy of Latin America, which reflects Preparing the video for the project “Wu Ming + TerraProject=4” - https://vimeo. com/77594180 -

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A print for my friends at EGO gallery in Lugano.

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Interview Pietro Paolini

what I see with my own eyes and doesn’t follow the preconceptions which we’re used to. From a visual point of view, this implies the necessity to find contemporary solutions. I decided to work with medium format and to use colour. Considering that the formal models of photography projects based where I work imply the use a wideangle lens and black and white, one can sense how through my eyes I want to offer a different, alternative view.

Even when it comes to subject-matter, I chose to free myself from the common stereotypes, for example gangs and violence, or corruption. Through my work I try to demonstrate that many things are happening, both in the streets and in the houses, in the seats of power and in workplaces.

And then, we mustn’t overlook the fact that with the introduction of digital innovations, there’s a whole new generation of Latin-American photographers, young professionals who work in this area, transmitting a more contemporary image of their country.

as a photographer have, both throughout your travels and throughout your career, and what importance does your intimate contact with the lands which you tell us about have?

In a photographer’s career, the aspect of personal growth and discovery, both technical and stylistic, is inevitable. In my case, we’re talking about ten crucial years, during which I’ve become more and more mature: I was still a student when I first began, I developed my style as I went along. I like setting myself challenges: I always try to take original images, images which I’ve not seen before, and this forces me into a continuous research. Naturally, the places I visit have a huge influence on my style.

The atmosphere in South American countries is dense with the same Magic Realism which you find in Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s novels, where reality and fantasy, history and legend, intertwine ceaselessly. My contact with this culture without doubt Your own language has changed amplified my tendency to favour thematics over the course of time, becoming of dreams and the imagination. A practical at the same time more essential example, regarding my most recent work, and more evocative. What impor- taken in Ecuador: the kind of light tance did your natural evolution present in the image, which confers a My cat Bruno exhausted after an editing session.

During a TerraProject meeting.

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My favorite cameras.

Mamiya 6x7 and Rollei 6x6.

Some of the frames for the exhibition “Wu Ming + TerraProject=4” in the laboratory of a craftsman in Florence.

sense of suspension to the scene, is that which can be found in the rainy season.

So, even though the choice to shoot solely in a specific environment is mine, the rest of the image’s suggestion is given by the context. There’s a funny comment all my local friends made when I showed them my project: “Did you notice that it’s also sunny in Ecuador?”.

mation content to be momentary and transitory. So I started to search for a style which could be understood in a universal sense, an approach which, still remaining within a documentary context, could add a greater meaning to the “what, when, where”.

I think that to tell stories through images means first of all to overcome the After The Bolivians received anaesthesia to which our eyes are subject. second place at the World Press The current problem with documentary Photo 2012 in the category photography derives from the inability Daily Life, your project Balance of the images to stimulate spectators, on the Zero received the Premio who are overwhelmed by an abundance Pesaresi. In both cases the of repetitive visual material. As a conseawards were given to entire quence, for me it’s important to provoke series, not to individual shots. a reaction, to raise questions. This What does it mean to tell stories implies a more articulate phase of research, through images in photojoura greater concentration and an attitude nalism today? of complete honesty.

My idea of photographic narration hasn’t always been the same. The first projects I created in South America were of photojournalistic nature: I was working with the publishing industry, which was tied to the traditional idea of journalistic information. As time went by, I became less and less interested in the accounting of facts, because I perceived the infor202

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By this point, you’ve established a continuous relationship of intimate understanding with the places which you describe in your projects, yet you are still based in Italy. What influence does this choice have on your life, even in everyday terms?

Pietro Paolini Interview

The view from my terrace in Florence.

Some of my negatives.

Often I feel as though I’m travelling on parallel tracks. To live in two worlds in equal intensity isn’t a simple thing to manage, both in a logistic and in a mental sense. I had to find a balance, this too after all is an aspect of my job.

I think the solution was to allow both of the two environments to satisfy different parts of me: although in South America I have friends and a certain lifestyle, when I’m there I live a day-to-day life which is still out of the ordinary, a life based only on artistic research. I’m totally concentrated on photography.

In Italy, aside from my family and affections, I have my professional base, my work network, and naturally the collective (TerraProject), which is an important part of my career as a photographer. And I admit: I love Latin-American culture, but as a Tuscan I would struggle to relinquish forever a good glass of wine...

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Balaklava: The Lost History Photographs & text by Oksana Yushko

www.youok.ru

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Balak The Lost

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Oksana Yushko

This project is part of my exploration on the minds of people who were born in the USSR. Changing peoples’ minds is the most difficult thing. The Soviet Union hasn’t existed for twenty years, but its shadow lies everywhere. Things have changed but peoples’ minds and attitudes have not.

I made my way to Balaklava, a small town by the sea in the Crimean Peninsula, Ukraine. During the Soviet era, it was a city inexistent to the outside world. The town was closed to the public for more than thirty years due to the submarine base that was situated there.

Almost the entire population of Balaklava worked at the base, and even their family members could not visit the town without a good reason or proper identification. It was a closed society, an ambitious, privileged caste, a major league, a private club with limited membership. Officers were well paid, enjoyed special apartments and were given other privileges. It used to be like this.

After the collapse of the USSR in 1992, the Soviet army was automatically transferred to Russia’s control. It was only in 1997 that the ships and equipment of the Black Sea Fleet were officially divided between the two countries, Russia and Ukraine.

The process of fleet division remains painful since many aspects of the two navies co-existence are under-regulated, causing recurring conflicts.

The system collapse turned the once privileged Soviet officers into unwanted people.

Crossing the streets of Balaklava, I saw traces of this not only in the town but also on people’s faces. They still live in the past.

Their attitude towards the present situation is complicated, but most of them don’t want to look forward to the future.

The Soviet Union hasn’t existed for twenty years, and you might not see military guards on every corner nowadays, but its shadow lies everywhere.

Things have changed, but peoples’ minds and attitudes have not.

klava: t History

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Crowds Photographs & text by Cyril Porchet

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Crow

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Cyril Porchet

Although itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s not really intentional, my work follows its own path, with each question leading to others.

I wanted to continue my previous research into other forms of vibrations and flows which allow â&#x20AC;&#x153;invisible structuresâ&#x20AC;? to be shaped. However, I wanted to give more prominence to the human being, I wanted to place fairly basic physical phenomena on the same level as human masses. Without really knowing why, I immediately started focusing on folk gatherings because, in my opinion, they release a particular strength in an age in which everything seems to move towards globalisation. This idea of gathering clans, the domination of colours, in relation to tradition, etc... all contribute to give distinctive tones and interlacing with different crowds. It took me a long time to finally define an adequate position, especially due to the technical constraints involved, but I can anticipate more accurately the photogenicity of a gathering according to its density, colours and movements.

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Podhájska Photographs & text by Tomáš Werner

www.tomaswerner.com

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Podh

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Tomáš Werner

The presented images were taken in Podhájska, a village in southern Slovakia known for its recreational spa complex. The overnight tourist attraction for elderly visitors is formed around the belief, common in Slovakia and the Czech Republic, that the water has healing properties which evoke a utopian dream of foreign lands. As one of the slogans at the entrance to the spa describes: Welcome to the Slovak Dead Sea. Inside, the ice cream stand plays Croatian pop songs and people in swimsuits queue up for sausages and beers. Podhájska’s economy depends entirely on the spa, which is the main source of income for its inhabitants. The pre-fabricated houses, newly-built restaurants and the souvenir shops copy the capitalist model, yet the sense of nostalgia for Communist times is heavily omnipresent. The restaurant menu is the same as in any other place is Slovakia, and they are proud of it, but the dining-out tradition and the night life is nearly inexistent, as most of the people who come here stay for a few weeks, and, in order to save money, they cook and party in their private rooms.

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Sarah Moonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Alchimies, on display at the Jardins de Plantes

YET magazine

Sarah Moon

By Camilla Pongiglione

Those who say exhibition say analysis I write to evaluate a situation I classify and I repeat myself I date, I entitle, I wrap, I embalm I exhibit I show myself, I take up a challenge I am all that is at stake I am the target, I am the arrow I live on the edge If I win I lose myself Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s the price of the means The past cannot start again The interest is in exhibiting Ladies and gentlemen, come, come Here is time, time which devours everything (...)

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Comment & Notes Exhibition

What remains of this picture?

What remains of beauty?

The wind, the winds The years, the years The fashion, the fashions Vanity of vanities Instant death We turn the pages of glossy paper And looking backwards brings bad luck in fairy tales, Never mind, the dice have been cast The dice are loaded And despite myself, I find myself in the retrospective (...)

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These words introduce the video projected during the ceremony of the Prix Excellence Française, attributed to Sarah Moon on November 27th this year. At the Jardins des Plantes in Paris, her exhibition Alchimies has just come to an end. The French photographer gathers together about a hundred photographs, as well as two short films projected in a small cinema set up in the space. On the other side of the room, following the spectator’s movements, a lioness lies in ambush, eternally ready to pounce.

Upon entering, we’re immersed in Sarah Moon’s world, a world in which we feel as though we’re in a late, south-west afternoon, where a warm and sandy wind shakes the trees’ boughs and stirs the animals. Because that is the photographer’s intention, to spawn ambiguity, to turn reality into something unexpected. To tell credible stories, ones which she herself must believe in order for the alchemy to work. In her photographs, the atmospheres are oneiric, dark, occasionally mystical. Atmospheres open to interpretation and to the viewer’s state of mind.

Sarah Moon loves telling stories, and she does so with that unmistakable style of hers, through dirty, ruined images, obtained by exposing the photographs to sea water, and through other stratagems which confer a distant, atemporal nature to the image. “This is the advantage of using Polaroids,” she says, “the deterioration. It means that the photograph can appear as if it has been torn”.

YET magazine

Sarah Moon

Rougly one hundred photographs from the nineties up until August 2013, and when invited by curator Florence Drouhet to exhibit her photographs of nature, Sarah Moon offered to realise a new series, by photographing some of the taxidermy animals of the Museum of Natural History. Thus, she sets up scenes with animals (are they alive? are they stuffed? does it matter?), in which the subject is the light, the story, that something which happens – and even better if it is unexpected.

Those who say alchemy say research, experimentation, the transmutation of elements. In this exhibition, nature is observed, investigated, in nature one searches for reality, “like when we look at a still-life,” says the photographer. Three kingdoms are traced: animal, mineral and vegetable, but no human figure appears in the photographs. We are just spectators of a fantasised nature.

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Comment & Notes Exhibition

> Š Sarah Moon All rights reserved

YET magazine

Issue 04

YET magazine is an online triannual photography publication which showcases editorials and photography series by worldwide artists.

YET is a magazine about photography. Photography is the main subject and our aim is to feature several different styles of photography, without any restriction in genre, medium, or theme. All the photographers invited by the editorial team are free to develop a personal project and to tell their stories. YET aspires to explore the artist’s work in depth to discover what lies beneath, to find out what it is the photographers want to convey through their series and why.

“Photography is the result of combining several technical discoveries”. We believe that these processes should be shown because they are the result of the thought process which goes on behind the photographer’s work. Each photograph, regardless of what medium it has been captured with, represents something very meaningful, buried deep in whoever took it.

YET magazine was created to give a visual voice to these stories, in order to share them with an audience. We will showcase both emerging and established photographers.

To us, a photographer is someone who can control time and space, who has a vision and is able to express it in the form of an image. What we desire is to tell something about the person behind these creations, starting from the story they tell through their photographs.

The photography in YET magazine, by editorial choice, is published free from any graphic or text insertions, without being cropped or cut, and free from any form of further editing.

Each series is exhibited exactly how the photographer created it. We base our work on ethical rules which emerge from the firm belief that a photographer’s work must be shown as it is.

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ISSN 2296-407X