After months of residing in a sleeping body, I am finally coming back to life again.
Monthly Archive for February, 2010
every night my dog and I go out to capture digital elves … Some people call it “noise”.
In the last couple of days I got about 30 books which I now really would like to eat my way through. I could spend my whole life with books, if there were not some other things, that I love even more.
I will be working on assignments the next couple of days.
While I am having a headache about how to proceed after this post, considering the fact, that so so many of the examples shown in Japanese Photobooks of the 1960s and’70s dance along many visual disciplines, I had no trouble picking out “Someday, Somewhere” by Yasuhiro Ishimoto as a perfect bridge leading from Roger Ballen into the for me still unknown world of japanese photography (although I am working hard to change this unsatisfactory status).
I could not resist putting the image above together. It would be my absolute dream to have two of each of my favorite photobooks and to keep them as above on countless walls of an immense library, that would be my home. I am pretty sure I would live a short life, never making it past all the books to the kitchen to have some food and drink …
Ok. Enough of this. How embarrasing. Err… :)
Have a closer look at the double page on the right:
It contains a composition of 5 images, each of them showing some traces of human “illustrative” activity. The pictures on these pages, which were taken in Chicago and Tokyo, are devoid of people, at least directly. While I like each one of the five images, they would not be too meaningfull by themselves – it is the composition that makes them strong and gives them enough contrast and rhythm.
It is just marvelous how the two images on the top left resonate in the one on the top right – the same goes for the images below.
Here you can find more informations about Yasuhiro Ishimoto, and I find it absolutlely fascinating to see how vast his influences are and how he finds his personal balance between the US and Japan, between New Bauhaus and traditional Japanese aesthetics …
As an aside: while I write this post, there is a copy of “Someday, Somewhere” up on eBay for $4.190!
There has been a lot of talk about “Japanese Photobooks of the 1960s and ’70s”, and now that I hold one of them in my hands I totally understand the reasons for the applause. If you are interested in photobooks this is definitively a must-have book. But do not take my word for it, have a look here:
5b4
Conscientious
The British Journal of Photography
… and here is an interview with Ivan Vartanian, one of the authors, on japan exposures, who said that “apart from helping the reader learn how to understand Japanese photography books, I want them to know how essential it is to Japanese photography. It’s very different from western photography, which has this idea that photographs must exist as a print. Japanese photography, in its ultimate form, is the photobook. Communicating that simple idea, to even a Japanese audience, is the main homework of this project. And you’d be amazed how revolutionary that idea is to people who are well versed in photography in the West.”
I will be showing some of the work featured inside this wonderful survey in “photography & Illustration” next.
The camera was laying on the kitchen table and instead of turning it off, like I wanted to, I apparently took a picture. Did not even notice it until I downloaded the files yesterday …
Another thing I had not noticed is how crooked the kitchen ceiling is. Well it is a truly old house we live in, but maybe I should reconsider the meaning of the message carved in the outside wall: “In God we Trust”. Errr … or is it really just a side effect of the Scottish whisky collection on the shelf? Can walls get drunk?
Peter Beard’s Book Zara’s Tales: From Hog Ranch – Perilous Escapades in Equatorial Africa is just one of his many books. It was written for his young daughter Zara, and bought by me for my young niece Carlotta – although I fear I will have to wait until she is a little older to understand the content.
The official description on his website: “Zara’s Tales is an intricately woven series of eleven irresistible stories told to Peter Beard’s daughter, Zara, about his adventures in Kenya. His tales capture the essence of East Africa, bringing to life a cast of characters, including a 300-pound warthog named Thaka, who lived near his encampment. Man-eating lions and fifteen-foot crocodiles are part of every day life for Peter Beard, as he draws on the richness and diversity of East Africa to seduce the reader into a world of exploration, creativity, and excitement.”
I am not familiar with all of Peter Beard’s books but with some. While I am not normally drawn to overly decorated photographs, I totally dig the diary aspect of his work, which actually for me changes the whole frame into something I can very much appreciate. It is thus important to know that Zara’s Tales, like most of Peter Beard’s work, is part of his extended form of diary-keeping, which usually not only includes his writings and photographs, but also drawings and paintings, collages, blood and whatever else he thinks is necessary …
Zara’s Tales was published 2004 as a hardcover by Alfred A. Knopf in NY. It has 176 pages and includes Peter Beard’s photographs as well as “paintings by Mbuno, Mwangi, Galo-Galo, Kivoi, and the other members of the Hog Ranch art department.” (the Hog Ranch is Peter Beard’s Ranch in Kenya)
Have a look at Peter Beard’s official website
Here is an interview with him from 1998 (in German only)
Here is some kind of trailer about him on YouTube: Peter Beard – Scrapbooks from Africa and Beyond
And you can still get Zara’s Tales at Amazon - at least at the time I wrote this post.
By the way, Peter Beard did the Pirelli Calender 2009 :)
Read an interview about how he sees the current situation in Africa (and more) on the National Post website.
Temperatures are rising and it started to rain. Deep snow grits on the ground.
Let’s see it this way: it if goes on melting, I can start jogging again. If it freezes over I will read some more books and if it starts to snow again … well … then my dog will insist on yet more walks through the cold white while looking for mice trails. Either way I can only win.
I only wonder if these rather exotic plants will get over it.
