Nephew & nieces

Yesterday we had nephew and nieces on a visit. They willingly submit to the photo ordeal. I had one of them assisting with a reflector. Taken with the 5D and the 35/1.4. Kids pictures is certainly one of the areas where it's nice to be able to rely on digital capture ...

Photobook Roundup

The blog has been a little slow. Not that there's nothing going on - I've been scanning holiday negs like hell - but I just didn't seem to be able to settle down to write something. I notice my friend Marko has given a roundup on his blog of his newly acquired photobooks. Good idea. Let's do that too. 

I haven't been buying a lot of photobooks this year but over the summer things have gotten more interesting. I am trying to focus on small books, as this is what I like best. So here is a list of the really interesting stuff:

• Stephan Vanfleteren/"Flandrien": a small volume, measuring 14x14 cm. Vanfleteren published this in 2005, well before his impressive "Belgicum", and the book is now in its third printing. Despite its modest size, this study of Belgian cycling culture does not fail to impress. There's the typical Vanfleterian mix of tough, darkly etched, heroic portraits of cycling icons and poignant images of the popular culture surrounding this sportfest. The book has been designed by Studio Luc Derycke and, compared to "Belgicum", they did a better job here in mixing different formats into a coherent whole. (Despite my misgivings, "Belgicum" was awarded the Plantin-Moretus price this year for "best designed book"). 

• Photo Poche "Michel Vanden Eeckhoudt": a volume from the well-known series published by Actes Sud and curated by Robert Delpire. I am ashamed to admit that I didn't know Vanden Eeckhoudt, a Belgian photographer who lives in Paris. Another master of the decisive moment. His focus is on the surreal, comic but also poignant situations that emerge when the animal and the human worlds collide. There is some astonishing work in this book.

• André Kertesz/"The Early Years": marvelous little volume (13x13), published in 2005, that shows the early Hungarian prints of Kertesz. The pictures are beautifully rendered, very small, as contact prints, which just increases their fascination. Another proof that small can be very beautiful indeed. Almost the perfect photobook. One doesn't have to ask for more.

• André Kertesz/"The Polaroids": this slightly larger volume (16x18) surveys Kertesz' largely unpublished work on Polaroid from the last years of his life. All pictures were taken in his New York apartment, mostly carefully arranged still lifes with glass objects and a few portraits. Stupendous work, that shows that at 85 his creative vision was as fresh as ever. The book contains a good introduction, surveying the key stages in his life and  his approach to Polaroid. 

• Arno Fischer/"Der Garten": another Polaroid body of work from an ageing master. Arno Fischer was born in 1927 and spent the last 30 years of his work shooting in the garden of his farmhouse with an SX 70. The result is a lavishly produced book published by Hatje Cantz. However, I miss the intimacy of the Kertesz book. Fischer's work is laid out as a series of tryptichs, creating an aura of monumentality which does not square with the deliberately modest nature of his photographic approach. That being said, it is always a pleasure to surrender once more to the magic of Polaroid.

• Patti Smith/"Land 250": it is slightly ironic that we have a flurry of beautiful Polaroid books now that the medium is fading into oblivion. Patti Smith, the well-known rock icon, has been building a collection of black and white Pola pictures over the years. Her vision harks back to the pictorialist tradition, with soft, sumptuous, low contrast images of interiors, gravestones, parks and gardens. Each image is accompanied by a caption in Smith's own neat but rather baroque handwriting, reinforcing the book's spirit of quiet nostalgia. Perhaps not greatest work but the book is really beautifully produced by the Fondation Cartier pour l'art contemporain.

• Vittoria Sella/"Dal Caucasio al Himalaya 1889-1909": I am keeping an eye on interesting bits of alpine photography. This volume I found on an antique market in Italy whilst on holiday. It's a sizeable volume, published by the Touring Club Italiano, accompanied by a separate folder with five huge foldout panoramas. Definitely a must-have for Sella afficionados. The book itself surveys well-known terrain but I discovered some new images and there's a very interesting epilogue with pictures of his studio, archives etc. Very instructive. 

• Raymond Meeks/"A Clearing": another collector's item published by Nazraeli Press. A first edition of just 500 copies. Each copy is numbered and comes with an original print tucked in the back. The book has obviously been produced to the highest standards (printed in China, though). In an age of an ever widening flood of publications I think this is the future of photobook publishing: small editions showing superb craftsmanship in photography, book design and printing. Meek's work is definitely interesting and in a way similar to Smith conjures up the spirit of the early days of photography. This book is a very large volume (42 x 29, roughly) and the layout echoes Masao Yamamoto's "é" (also with Nazraeli). It's extreme in its use of white space around the pictures. I am not sure I like it. This is a book that needs some time to sink in.

• Robert Frank/"The Americans": Frank published the original version of his seminal book just 50 years ago and Steidl published a commemorative version. It's a must have in every photobook library. I am not sure it is the best introduction to Frank's work, though. Personally I think it is a bit uneven. Some of the pictures have lost a little of their freshness, I find. But Steidl did a great job in reprinting this work in a very handsome and handy volume (just 21 cm wide).

• Joakim Eskildsen/"The Roma Journeys": an impressive piece of work (over 400 pages!) of a still young Finnish photographer, student of Pentti Sammalaahti. Eskildsen has travelled around Europe, Russia and India to retrace the Roma people's whereabouts. It's a mix of largely colour and some panoramic black-and-white. For once the colours put the B&W in the shadow. They glow with such earthy force and celestial delicacy that it makes one want to go on looking for ever (all taken on film! Pentax 6x7). Maybe it's too beautiful. Just as one can indulge in just the rich sound of a symphony orchestra without really listening to a piece of music, the surface opulence detracts from the deeper substance of the images. Or maybe not. It's definitely a feast to the eyes. Eskildsen's website is recommended as it allows to retrace this photographer's development from its earliest beginnings. Very good and very honest. I look forward to spending more time with this book.

• Marc Wendelski/"Nage Libre": another book from a young, Belgian photographer. This is a very fine book that would warrant a more extensive discussion. It's a varied collection of pictures - portraits, a mix of urban landscapes -  taken at different locales. The approach straddles new topography, Düsseldorf school and the surrealists. The simplicity comes from the uniformity in format (all square), a very clever use of colour palette (a clinical whitish-greyish dominates throughout the book) and very often very simple, precise compositions. 

Three portraits

Three portraits of the kids, on vacation. Pictures of Emma taken with the Noctilux wide open. Photo of Witold with the Zeiss 85/1.4 on the Contax RTSIII. Adox 100 film. 

The arrow

This is a great picture taken by my son Witold. I threw him the challenge of capturing a picture of a dart in mid-air. It is a shot that would be very difficult to take on film. You might shoot a whole roll without having an idea of whether you really succeeded in capturing the image as intended. This was done with the 5D and a manual (!) Zeiss 85/1.4 wide open (!). I love the blurry contours of the tree in the background and the cruel definiteness of the arrow hurling towards its inevitable, static, zero-kinetic-energy goal. 

Finally on photo-eye

I got a mail today from Marko Hehl who sighted my Capitals book in the webshop of photo-eye, probably the most prominent photo book store in the world. That's really very cool! They even added a very nice "booktease" to give customers an idea what they will get.

I sent photo-eye an inspection copy ages ago and corresponded with their store manager Melanie McWorther. But the interaction was erratic and we never seemed quite able to close the deal. So now the book is finally online (in addition to Kowasa and via topophotography.eu of course). 

Distribution of the Capitals book requires constant attention. Last week I was able to leave a few copies at Limerick, a very nice bookshop in Ghent. With the Réponses Photo review a few orders have come in via the website. But I still have hundreds of copies in stock ...

Mongolia revisited

I put together another small Viewbook presentation. This is a small set of images from Mongolia, taken in 2002-2003. It was my very first photographic project, at the very start of what proves to be an enduring obsession. Went through all the negs and rescanned those that I consider still worthwhile. It's not a big harvest but then again. I think the colour works well in this series. I started this series with a Canon EF-M and a standard zoom as my only camera but switched to the Contax Aria and 25mm and 135mm primes. Reala in the box throughout.

Viewbook

A first experiment in working with Viewbook. Makes it easy to upload presentations of pictures to the blog, for example. Looks pretty neat!

Feline slumber

A restful moment during the holidays, cat on lap. One of the few worthwhile images to come out of the 5D, with the Planar 50/1.4 wide open.  

Pic

The Pic de Midi du Bigorre is a veritable feat of engineering. The cable car swoops daringly to a wonderful vista over the whole Pyrenees-chain at almost 3000m. On clear nights one is supposed to be able to see the Biarritz lighthouse at the Atlantic coast to the West and the lights of Barcelona on the Mediterranean shores to the East: 400 km apart, 1% of the circumference of the Earth. The summit of the Pic is completely occupied by a extensive complex of astronomical observatories: a wonderfully playful ensemble of cupolas and antennas. 

We drove down in sunny weather to the Pyrenees but as we approached the mountains, the weather turned and we were up at the Col de Tourmalet in a spectacularly dense mist. Down in La Mongie we couldn't even find the cable car station. Eventually we managed to go up.  The effect of breaking through the cloud cover around 2500m to see the observatory gleaming on the summit like Klingor's castle was breathtaking. On the summit we had the most enchanting vista over an endless "mer de nuages" stretching tens of kilometers away. Only the highest peaksof the chain were visible.

This picture was taken whilst waiting for the cable car down. It is taken with the XPan and cropped to a 2:3 ratio.  

Holiday triptych

Rather less colourful than the Swedish batch from the previous posting, this holiday triptych ...

Boreal light

Colourful bunch, this contactsheet resulting from my visit to the Tällberg Forum, end of June. It's not great photography but I find the set to have an attractive, somewhat dreamy atmosphere. Boreal light really has something very special.