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BOOKS NEWS REFLECTION THOUGHTS ON BOOKS

B*@t of 2013 and bad choices

As has been the case for the last few years I have produced this list, I am not really bothered if the books were made in 2013 or not – I just don’t spend a great deal of time with enough books each year.

This years list is made up of books that in one way or another have moved me; created or recalled an emotional reaction. For that reason, ‘The Pigs’, ‘Various Small Books’, ‘The Looking Game’ and ‘Control Order House’ are not included – although they are some of my favorite books of the year…

Paul Gaffney
We Make the Path by Walking

Rein Jelle Terpstra
Retracing

Kadir van Lohuizen
Via PanAm

Joshua Lutz
Hesitating Beauty

Will Steacey
Down These Mean Streets

Vanessa Winship
She Dances on Jackson

There are a wee stack of books that I either regret not buying or simply can’t afford right now. I hope that in time I either realise I have little interest in these books, or that they are such a failure I can pick them up for peanuts in a few years*.

(These books have also been selected in relation to the reaction they have caused rather than their merit as an exemplary unit of the medium)

Bryan Schutmat
Grays the Mountain Sends

Verena Blok
I Smell Like Rain

/\ Damn this is great image making and emotionally engaged storytelling. Blok creates something here which taps into a popular aesthetic but brings genuine weight and the ability to move an audience. I wait on the sec on edition to get a hold of this.

Dagmar Keller and Martin Wittwer
Passengers

 

– Matt

*This already seems laughable as many have made the ‘best of’ and I wish no ill fortune to any hard working photographer or publisher

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BOOKS EVENTS EXHIBITION MEET-UPS NEWS THOUGHTS ON BOOKS

Paris 2013 – A Review

It is not enough anymore to review Paris Photo. With the addition of Offprint, and this year – Le PhotobookFest, a complete review of the city is needed. I am not the person to provide this complete and unbiased view of Paris 2013, but still I shall try with a quick reflection on the different events and some lessons learned in the 4 days I spent in town.

Paris Photo 2013

Image = PARIS PHOTO

Photography is by no means dead but Paris Photo is moribund. Everyone has known for some time that the exhibition is really no more than an expensive, glossy trade show but this year was especially uninspiring. It was my belief that exhibitions/events like this should show new work, spark conversations and the like but this years offering was lazy and showed no inclination whatsoever to showcase inspiring work – unless it also happened to be large, colour and by the latest hot photographer.

When I have thousands of pounds to blow on a photograph to sit above my dinner table I shall head straight to Paris Photo and be doted on by gallerists and glamorous assistants, until then I think I will avoid it! The one redeeming feature that returned in 2013 was Aperture’s book award section with display copies for anyone who could squeeze through to see them.

Offprint Paris 2013

I didn’t spend as much time as I would have liked at Offprint this year, but as last year, it offered an antidote to Paris Photo. The hall was lively, packed with publishers and artists who were all keen to talk and show work, if a little rushed by the flow of visitors. I can’t say i saw a great deal that interested me, at least not compared to last year but as I talked with others who has been there, they produced some real gems – perhaps I simply needed more time to peruse.

The ‘live’ bookmaking project in the side print room was a highlight, I regretted not making one myself.

Le PhotobookFest

300+ for the opening images by Ana Galan

Fair warning: I helped, albeit in a small way, on this project.

Le PhotobookFest was organised by Pablo Porlan and Emilie Hallard of the Photobook Club Paris and featured Nathalie Belayache, Juan Cires and Ricardo Garrido (Of the Photobook Club Madrid), Akina Books and a host of other speakers and helpers. The idea was to create a space to exhibit interesting books and encourage informal but thoughtful discussions. With that in mind the three days were a huge success – from 300 odd folk arriving to the opening on Friday night to relaxed conversations over books at the bar on Sunday.

The Le PhotobookFest/Photobook Club Family!

Image by Sean Davey of the Photobook Club Australia

I hope that in the days to come there may be other reviews of the event by people who were not directly involved – they may carry more weight than mine but in the meantime a huge thanks and congratulations for all who made it happen, especially to Emilie and Pablo who should be having a chilled week now!

Update 1: In fact I have just seen this posted by Annakarin Quinto:

Wonderful books, good wine, plenty of coffee, warm passion, wide friendships, free hearts, new experiences, deep sharings and much more. Thank you the Le Photobookfest 2013 to make all this possible at Picturetank and le.bar. le bar Floréal.photographie

Update 2: A mention in Blank Paper as an relaxed and close event in contrast with Paris Photo’s formal structure.

 

What I learned in Paris, 2013:

– People are still talking about the bloody Afronauts!

– Being able to get cold beer for €2, see some brand spanking new work in the form of dummys and relax with a book from l’Ascenseur Végétal is close to photobook heaven

– For the most part, artists and publishers are keen to talk, share stories and collaborate

– Broomberg and Chanarin must not be bad-mouthed for fear of being shunned by the photobook community

– Along with the photobook itself, the viewer is evolving, ready to embrace new explorations into narrative formats within the once-linear medium of the book

– Gloves and coffee are essential items for an afternoon at Offprint

BookJockey sessions are awesome and for their humor and relaxed atmosphere, cover a surprising amount of information, make some deep links and pose interesting questions

– There are too many books to even attempt seeing all of them, so many goodn’s will slip away unnoticed, a price we pay for such a rich publishing scene

– Conversations about the Photobook bubble and sustainability will persist until they are seriously addressed or we are afforded the benefit of hindsight

– Matt

 

 

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INDEPTH INTERVIEW THOUGHTS ON BOOKS

Aaron Guy: Working with the Archive

This post will be featured in the open undergraduate photography class ‘#phonar‘ shortly but I thought it would also be of interest to readers here, especially when we consider the increasing interest in archive material within photographic publishing in all it’s guises.

Aaron Guy works at the North of England Institute of Mining where he has the daunting task of digitizing much of the institutes artefacts as well as transforming, categorizing and publishing them in new forms. Here Aaron takes us on a brief tour of the Institute and answers questions on the transformation of this great archive.

Below the photofilm/tour/interview you can see the stunning ‘Working, Void’, a piece produced by Aaron in response to much of the material he has been working with at the institute…

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EVENTS MEET-UPS NEWS THOUGHTS ON BOOKS

World Photobook Day – A quick Roundup

The inaugural World Photobook Day was instigated by the Photobook Club Madrid but quickly became a collaboration between many Photobook Club branches, publishers, bloggers, writers and photographers. The love shown by photobook enthusiasts was quite incredible and bodes well for a bigger and better event next year (mark your calendars).

Toowoomba Celebrates World Photobook Day

To see what went on during the day, head over to www.photobookday.org or have a look at just a few highlights here:

The Photographers Gallery celebrate with a great interview featuring Aaron Mörel as well as offering money off in the Gallery bookshop.

The Photobook Club Alicante launches during Photobook Day

Thirty attend Photobook Day celebrations in Toowoomba, Australia run by Victoria Cooper and Doug Spowart.

Perhaps the best gauge of discussion on the day is via the twitter hashtag – #PhotobookDay which reached over 65,000 folks in 600+ tweets. A few featured below:

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EVENTS MEET-UPS NEWS THOUGHTS ON BOOKS VIDEO

The PBC presented at the European League of Institutes of the Arts (VIDEO)

In June of 2013 I was invited to present the Photobook Club at the ELIA ‘Preparing the Artist of Tomorrow’ conference held in Utrecht and Amsterdam. I spoke about the projects birth, how it has enhanced my students learning and how, through the removal of my own authorship, the project has taken off all over the world.

Matt Johnston presents The Photobook Club at ELIA Confeence from Photobook Club on Vimeo.

More on ELIA – elia-artschools.org/

 

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COMMENTS THOUGHTS ON BOOKS

Photobooks and Narrative

The photobook is beautiful.

But the photobook is flawed and constrained.

These constraints and limitations lead to imaginative solutions on behalf of both the maker and reader, it is surely much of the reason we enjoy it.

It is also the reason I believe that in so many cases the photobook’s simplicity, and it’s ability to transport us through narratives without becoming a distraction is where many digital photobooks fall at the first hurdle in needless gimmicks and ‘medium over message’ solutions.

That being said, if we are to find a future for the photobook both in analogue and digital form, we should embrace any and all experiments with new forms. Seeing as today marks the launch of #phonar 2013 (A free undergraduate photography programme which explores storytelling in the 21st Century), I thought I would share my favourite piece of digital storytelling to date.

 
Welcome to Pine Point‘ is an online and interactive documentary, though it’s interactive techno-wizardry soon pales into insignificance aside the narrative we witness. Paul Shoebridge and Michael Simons tell the story of Pine Point, a purpose built town that in their own words was ‘left standing just long enough for a single generation to run through it’. It would be foolish to try and describe the project when it is such a great experience to travel through it yourself and watch the fireworks with reminiscent ‘Pine Pointers’. Not all of the content and characters will resonate, but those that do, will stick with you.

And this is what it is all about for me. The academic or conceptual work coming from the likes of Broomberg and Chanarin et al is interesting, it is thought provoking but it does not move me. I would rather my heart and mind are moved for 10 minutes than my intelligence is challenged for an hour.

Stories. Stories. Stories

Or, as Ralph Waldo Emerson said:

“If a man is inflamed and carried away by his thought, to that degree that he forgets the authors and the public, and heeds only this one dream, which holds him like an insanity, let me read his paper, and you may have all the arguments and histories and criticism.”

Matt

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BOOKS THOUGHTS ON BOOKS VIDEO

Midwest Dirt by Nathan Pearce, ed by Matt Johnston – looking for support

I mentioned briefly when it was launched that I have been working with a talented Midwest photographer Nathan Pearce to bring his story and vision of the Midwest to more people in the form of a beautiful photobook.

If you want to help fund the project or find out more, you can do so on the indiegogo page but what I would really love is for you to listen to Nathan…

It was not lightly that I took on this project and there have been a number before and since that have simply not been a good fit but I am very interested to hear from anyone who may be interested in working alongside me on book projects or photography or any other medium provided it provokes memory or emotion.

– Matt

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BOOKS EVENTS THOUGHTS ON BOOKS

Fifteen Ruscha Readers and a Pint of Bitter (please)

I stumbled across a great collection of Ed Ruscha’s books at Coventry University earlier this week and considered it an opportunity for a whole ‘Evening with Ed‘ with the Photobook Club Coventry. This in turn seemed a good opportunity for a cheeky homage to the great man, and so here is the Phtoobook Club’s ‘Fifteen Ruscha Readers and a Pint of Bitter (please)‘ as a free downloadable PDF…

…and if you would like to see these books or have them visit you, let me know (more info inside)

Fifteen Ruscha Readers…
Fifteen Ruscha Readers…
Fifteen Ruscha Readers…
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BOOKS EVENTS THOUGHTS ON BOOKS

10 x 10 American Photobooks: Matt Johnston

I am honored to have been asked to take part in the fantastic 10×10 American Photobooks project, already on day 4 I am being introduced to new works and seeing some of my own books in a new light. To see other selections head to the website here.

American photography and photobooks were what initially drove me to this medium and many of my early purchases were made as I gazed at the US from across the Atlantic Ocean in a pair of rather fetching rose-tinted specs. I couldn’t get enough of the road, the desert, the liquor store and the jukebox, there was certainly no way I could turn down any book which focused on Football or College life in the States.

I have since broadened my view on America but those earlier books continue to resonate with me, they may not all have been deep, nor profound, perhaps to some they are merely postcards, but for me they are as important as the books I have seen since which dig a little deeper under the surface. I have included here 10 books that in some way have shaped my opinions or understanding of America and it’s photography, either then, or now.

– Matt

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Brouws, Jeff
Twentysix Abandoned Gasoline Stations
(Santa Barbara: Colorworks, 1992)



Date constraints mean I cannot select Ruscha’s ‘Twentysix Gasoline Station’s but then maybe that’s a good thing as instead I have chosen Jeff Brouw’s ’ Twentysix Abandoned Gasoline Stations’. This book echoes the history explored in Ruscha’s ‘Then and Now’ as well acting as a direct reference to Ruscha’s original, and a dry comment on the health and prosperity of the American dream.

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Mortensen, Viggo

I Forget You Forever

(Santa Monica: Perceval Press, 2006)

Mortensen and his publishing house Perceval should be commended for their outputs, they mix mediums as they see fit and publish work that might otherwise go unseen. I don’t think it unfair to say that sometimes the mix doesn’t quite gel, and the physical properties of the books are not always a top priority but here in ‘I Forget you Forever’, it all comes together.

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Halpern, Gregory

A

(New York: J and L Books, 2011)

Not just selected for being an interesting book but also for the photographic style and editing it represents that seems to be booming in America. There’s plenty to take from this book with knowledge of the rust belt or without but the less I think, the more rewarding it seems to be.

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Shafer, Dave

A Winters Season 

(Self published: Magcloud, 2009)

A group of middle aged men on ice, trying to win but not really giving a shit as long as they play hard and have fun. What’s not to love about this humble and honest slice of America?

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Steacy, Will 

Down these Mean Streets

(B. Frank Books, 2012)

I actually don’t have a copy of this book but I have seen it and I do have a copy of the newspaper that I think was printed back in 2011. Steacy describes his locations as ‘places you drive through, not to’ and these locations have been visited over and over again in photography. What raises this book above being a ‘ooh look a bullet hole and closed sign’ coffee table book is the inclusion of press clippings which adds variety, depth and a sense of the scale some images cannot show.

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Adler, Rudy. Criado, Victoria and Huneycutt, Brett

The Border Film Project: Migrant and Minutemen photos from the U.S. – Mexico Border
(New York: Harry N. Abrams, 2007)

An important subject (Minutemen/Immigrants on US-Mexico border) told by images made by both sides. The temptation to skew the message of this book must have been big but the editors took a calm and thoughtful approach to editing, it’s all the better for it.

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Sultan, Larry

The Valley

(Scalo, 2004)

The choice of art hanging on the wall and furnishings dressing the home all come under a new scrutiny when juxtaposed with the writhing bodies of many fantasies now occupying family spaces. I wonder, like Sultan, whether the real fantasy taking place here is that of the perfect American home.

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Simon, Taryn

An American Index of the Hidden and Unfamiliar

(Göttingen: Steidl, 2007)

Many will say we can tell a lot about society by those we push to the edge, out of sight. Here we learn less about the hidden and unfamiliar and more about the organizations and groups that have made them, or kept them so. Simon keeps things from getting too dark with the likes of the Star Wars Death Star II model.

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Levy, Carrie

51 Months
(London: Trolley Books, 2005)

“Quietly, we all wondered what life would be like once my father returned from prison. We knew that the five of us would be different people when the fifty-one months were over.” 
I need so no more than the description above really. A powerful book that appropriately avoids confrontation with incarceration and the judicial system itself.

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Hido, Todd

House Hunting

(Portland: Nazraeli Press, 2001)

So another one I don’t own but this one I desperately want to. I imagine these houses as the homes for Edward Hopper’s subjects, the same sense of anti-time seen from the outside. I find this series so incredibly frustrating – too many questions, but in that frustration is a great amount of enjoyment. Not to mention the fact that I deeply want to be sitting inside these houses, with the glow of a TV screen or bedside lamp.

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A few bonus books perchance?

Chávez Ravine, 1949: a Los Angeles story 
Don Normark

Rites of Fall: High School Football in Texas
Geoff Winningham

Iowa
Nancy Rexroth

Bobcats
Eric Payson

Ransacked
Nancy Holt

Pictures from the Surface of the Earth
Wim Wenders

Gun Nation 
Zed Nelson

The House I Once Called Home
Duane Michaels

Categories
BOOKS THOUGHTS ON BOOKS

Approaching Whiteness; If you can afford it – a triumph in content/communication

In part this is a genuine frustration but I should also say that I have spent my limited book budget for the year in just the first three months and so perhaps a good deal of my frustration is aimed at my own lack of self restraint.

Rinko Kawauchi teamed up with Ivan Vartanian/Goliga recently to realise her latest work ‘Approaching Whiteness‘. The result is a beautiful scroll with a set of images on it, there are 9 scrolls with different themes or images, each also has a silk-screened pattern in luminescent ink and calligraphy with sumi ink. Sounds great eh! Those amongst us who occasionally fetishize the photobook must be in heaven, but unfortunately this excessive beautifying may have gotten in the way of something much more valid for the photobook (at least for most of us) in the expansion of the reading experience.

From the Goliga site and video:
“The sequence of frames flow from right to left and connote the passage of time as an uninterrupted sequence. This idea extends to a larger philosophy that all things are connected.”

Of course the scroll is not a new invention and so perhaps it is over the top to call it a triumph in communication, but here is a photographer and publisher thinking beyond the bound book to the most suitable means of communicating a horizon to the viewer. I only wish the damn thing wasn’t £200+ pound for each version; surely a sign that this is being produced solely for the collector. There’s nowt wrong with collectors editions and making work specifically for them, hell I imagine that without the collectors money many projects would never be realised, much less break even. But what’s the alternative for the vast majority of us? Can we not enjoy this work as it is intended to be read, minus the rare wood, gold butterfly wings and price tag?

John Baldessari once said that every artist should have a “cheap line”. I imagine in 6 months time I shall be proved wrong about Approcahing Whiteness and Vartanian might bring out a non boxed scroll set or something similar for the masses but in the meantime I wish Baldessari was taken into account for this is a mainstream artist asking questions of the book that few others have dared to.

– Matt