mydustyartbooks

[mydustyartbooks]

A Series of Disappointments - Stephen Gill

Nobody 2008

These are the betting slips discarded in betting shops in Hackney, London. Some show ruthless rage, while others are carefully folded. They all started as hope, but ended up on the floor of the shop. Together they tell the story of the huge numbers of betting shops in London. In Hackney alone you had at the time (2008) 71 shops. I have lived there and was intrigued by them and the seemingly casualty of gambling. I just never knew how to photograph these closed environments. Gill found a beautiful way of documenting this phenomenon that has an impact on the community.

The book is designed as an exhibition, the pages are folded like an accordion and you can take it out of the cover and hang it up on the holes. After photographing Stephen Gill dissected these little artworks carefully to reveal the failed bets held within, which is written down under the photo’s.

[mydustyartbooks]

Black in White America – Leonard Freed

De Bezig Bij 1968

This book about African American life in the 60’s starts with a picture of a black soldier at the wall of Berlin. Freed writes how they are both American, but how different their lives are and how big the wall is between them – being white and black. This was the start of Freed’s multiyear project about the personal experiences of African Americans amidst the fight for racial equality. He photographed Martin Luther King and the Civil Rights Movement, but also focused on daily live in a segregated America, showing scenes of happiness and grief – weddings, funerals, football practices.

What makes this book special is his diary-like text, spreading tens of pages throughout the book. He writes about the people he meets and conversations he has, with both black and white people. He writes about the white people who are not afraid to share all their racist ideas with him, about the living conditions of cotton pickers, about the role of religion in the black communities, about the civil rights struggles. 

Some are shockingly, openly racist, like in one conversation with a young white lady and an old white lady. They are discussing how black people should not have the right to procreate and that they should be sterilized. He also writes about going to a bar with a white guy, but when they arrive the sign says “members only”. The guy explains this is just another way for white bar owners to turn down black people (in places where segregation was already forbidden). They do not go inside; “Fuck ‘em!”.

The returning theme is racism - micro and macro, institutionalized and personal. Yet this book goes further than just that, it’s more than a book about racism and segregation. It’s a book about identity, the identity of Afro-Americans and the identity of a country. It’s about the struggle for self-actualization in a segregated country, of showcasing and being proud of black culture.

The book I have is the original edition from 1968 and in Dutch. Leonard has lived a big part of his life in Amsterdam and released the book with Dutch publisher De Bezige Bij. It was re-released in 2010. “Black in White America” will remain relevant for it’s documentation of history and for the way that this is done. It goes beyond just photojournalism, with a nuanced narration of African American life during a time of civil rights struggles. A struggle that continues to this day.

See more of Leonard Freeds work here.

[mydustyartbooks]

Malick Sidibé by André Magnin

Scalo Publishers 1998

Malick Sidibé is most known for his studio portraits of the fashionable inhabitants of Bamako, Mali, but he also fervently documented it’s nightlife. This book is a perfect testament for how swinging the 60’s and 70’s were in Bamako. The movements fly of the pages, Malick perfectly captured the sense of freedom found in the music and the dancing.

The book also features a list with club names. Apparently members of each club would identify each other by the way they wore their clothes. Sidibé happily mingled in this night scene, aside from working in his studio. And it was a big success, he would visit 5 different parties in one night sometimes, working till early in the morning.

At night, from midnight to 4 am or 6 am, I went from one party to another. I could go to four different parties. If there were only two, it was like having a rest. But if there were four, you couldn’t miss any. If you were given four invitations, you had to go. You couldn’t miss them. I’d leave one place, I’d take 36 shots here, 36 shots there, and then 36 somewhere else, until the morning. Sometimes I would come back to parties where there had been a lot of people. - Malick Sidibé

The youngsters would impatiently wait for the pictures to be ready, to see themselves dancing with that one girl and proudly show it to their friends. Malick describes how the music and the nightlife brought freedom to the youngsters of Bamako; they could get closer to girls, break social barriers and express themselves.

Malick was invited to these parties as assignments. It was a sign of prestige, when he was there. When he arrived he would let his flash go off, as a welcome signal. Then he would try to blend in the background, to take spontaneous shots of people in trance by the music. Himself, he didn’t dance, as he describes in the book. I love this book for that it shows the nightlife side of his photography, including him talking about those times. It shows how important nightlife photography can become after a few decades.

Seydou Keïta is another very important photographer from Mali, known for his studio portraits from the 40’s till the 60’s. Sidibé follows in his footsteps, but with the time the technology changed and carrying arond big plate cameras was not necessary anymore. With his small camera Malick was able to move around quickly and use a flash. By doing this he was able to capture the youth culture and clubbing culture in Malinese society, outside of the more rigid studio portraits.

Malick Sidibé was very important for putting African photography on the map. In 2007 he became the first photographer and first African to receive a Golden Lion Award for Lifetime Achievement at the Venice Biennale.

[mydustyartbooks]

Paloma al Aire - Ricardo Cases

Photovision 2011 (First Edition) 

This humble little book might just be one of my favourite photo books that I own. It tells the story of a region in Spain with a colorful tradition. The male pigeons are painted and have to go after the one female pigeon, the male pigeon that spends most time in her winged company wins. Cases photo’s follow the men rather than the pigeons, as they try to get their possible champion bird out of treetops, bushes and of walls. I love the playfulness of this book, which already starts with the cover; a man peeking out of a hole.

The pigeons are the pride of the man who stay on the ground. They take their hobby very serious and go through great lengths for their birds who, if they win, can give them much prestige in their communities. The bright colours of the birds are a reflection of the owner and how they want to be seen, through their birds. Machismo is a theme that runs through the story, as it is about men; manly pigeons who can chase a lady and manly humans who can win a competition. But I would say almost in an endearing way. These elderly man find a sense of pride in their hobby, it gives them an identity in a world that maybe doesn’t appreciate them as much as when they were young fellows. 

Cases shows these men in the most impossible positions to follow their birds, which gives it a lot of humour, but without making fools out of them. There is something touching about how much the men care about this competition, in an almost childlike way. The colours add to this playful feeling, just like the design of the book. It’s a small spiral bound book with a hole in the cover showing the face of a men in between the flying pigeons. When you open it, the man appears fully. In the book you find drawn arrows and cut-out pigeons. As always the selection and editing of Ricardo Cases is super on point. The photography world noticed this little treasure straight way. The book was first published in 2011 in a limited run and immediately got included in The Photobook Vol. 3 (Martin Parr & Gerry Badger). 

The project is about a game and a play, that’s why the subject fits so well with the execution of it. It’s just one of those books that makes you happy. And sometimes that is the best thing a book can be.

[mydustyartbooks]

Strandbeest: The Dream Machine of Theo Jansen – Lena Herzog

Taschen 2014

By now, most people have seen a Strandbeest before. Theo would say this means their evolution and world domination is going the right way. Lena Herzog was able to capture 7 years of building, testing, failing and succeeding in a touching portrait of the perseverance of one guy on a mission. The mission: for these creatures to be able to survive and reproduce without help. After 30 years this goal is getting closer, the Strandbeesten can now not only walk, but also detect water and store air in their ‘lungs’. This book shows how functionality turns into beauty, helped by the grainy black and white photography of Herzog. Theo’s goal however is not to make something aesthetic, he is solely focused on the laws of evolution.

“People talk about how beautiful my Strandbeests are as they parade down the beach, but you have to understand that I was never interested in beauty as such. I was interested in survival, so everything was based on a consideration of function, on how to make the things function better. The fascinating thing was – here again as with nature, the better the functioning, often, the more beautiful the result.”- Theo Jansen in conversation with Lawrence Weschler

 Theo studied physics and later in his life decided he wanted to become an artist. He became a painter for 7 years, after which he started to develop installations. In the 80’s Theo Jansen was writing columns for Dutch newspaper De Volkskrant, coming up with a million crazy ór genius ideas (depending on how you see it). One day he wrote about rising sea levels and wanting to create an autonomous creature that could help move sand up the dunes to protect our country against the sea. That took him on a journey of more than 30 years.

You can definitely find his physics background in the Strandbeesten. He used math equations and algorithms to find the right ratios to make the creature walk. These ratios were determined by his computer by letting different ratios virtually compete with each other, using the law of Darwin to determine the most successful ones. This explains the otherworldly look of the Strandbeesten, he did not look at existing animals to create them but used calculations. Yet, it feels like they are alive and have a soul.

Theo would argue that they are indeed alive and talks about them as such, even having a graveyard for the fallen warriors. He sees wind as their energy source and PVC as their protein. The water bottles are their ‘lungs’ and are there to store energy. Because they kept walking into the sea, he created ‘nerves’ tubes that would sense if they were in water or air, redirecting the course of the Strandbeest. Next step is to make them notice the wind direction, so they can prepare for a storm and survive. Then comes the ultimate challenge of reproduction. Theo believes there must be a way to pass on information and codes with the PVC tubes and in doing so, the Strandbeesten could reproduce.

“The strandbeests have ruled my life. They have become an addiction, a disease, a virus if you like: a virus that has commandeered my body and refuses to leave it. I am their victim: the strandbeests are forcing me to make them. I am not their god, I am their slave. Their happy slave.” - Theo Jansen in conversation with Lawrence Weschler

I love not just the objects, but the whole way of thinking of Theo, because he crosses the lines between art and engineering, like a crazy professor with new inventions. The contrast between technique, mathematics and a dream world is fascinating. It’s also inspiring how he is so deep into the material and continues with such perseverance. This book gives an insight into that. Lena’s grainy black and white photos also add to the feeling of that perseverance, being on a windy beach, with the elements of nature, day in and day out.

[mydustyartbooks]

Atlanta – Michael Schmelling

2010 Chronicle Books

‘Atlanta’ is a careful deconstruction of what has been the most influential centre of Hip-Hop for more than two decades. This book dives deeply into the genre, by giving an overview of many different aspects of the Atlanta hip-hop scene; the cars, studios, parties, movements, lyrics and stripclubs. There are some portraits of big stars, but Michael Schmelling mainly focusses on upcoming youngsters. The book offers us an authentic and multidimensional view on the scene, that bypasses the singular way mass media portrays it.  ‘Atlanta’ shows youngsters with dreams, in improvised studios, that are working hard to become the next star. 

Schmelling breaks down the scene through a lot of detail photo’s. He zooms in on apparently unimportant details (like a can of paint), but in the context of the book they become objects telling us a part of the story. Also the way the photos are paired in this book, is an art in itself. Very bright photos mix without any problem with black and white shots and cut-outs of hands. By combining these different things, this book is not only documenting pop culture, this book is pop culture in itself.

By zooming in on the details, but in various ways, he manages to capture the feeling of this scene. This zooming in on details to document a subculture has influenced many young photographers after him, as it’s a great way of telling a documentary story in a playful way and you can apply it to any subject matter. But I think it especially fits this subject, because of it’s fluid nature. As Michael writes “A year in Atlanta hip-hop is like five years in any other genre”. 

His commercial way of shooting documentary is also an interesting way of documenting a culture. He uses bright colours and big flashes on everyday objects and portrays everyone as an upcoming star. It transgresses traditional forms of documentary photography and makes it into something that fits these times, being more contemporary and exciting.

In the back of the book you can find interviews with some of the biggest ATL stars like Gucci Mane, Andre 3000, Big Boi and Ludacris. The book is extended online, where you can find even more materials like a mixtape, outtakes and videos. I like that he dares to portray all these different aspects of the scene, because in photography we are often taught to ‘not make the subject too broad’. But seeing how playful and fluid the scene is, it would make sense the book is like that too. In Atlanta hip-hop has always been changing and not confined to any expectations of what it should be. Schmelling shows us that sometimes you don’t have to choose one aspect to show the whole. Sometimes more is just more.

 “ I love that there's always another connection to be made, something else to be built upon, reinvestigated, rescanned, rephotographed, remade, a new response, a tangent to follow  - there's always another way of looking at it” - Michael Schmelling interview

[mydustyartbooks]

My Last Day at Seventeen - Doug Dubois

Aperture 2015

We all remember our days between adulthood and childhood, feeling a mix of vulnerability and confidence, spending long summers with friends as our last days at seventeen. Doug Dubois (1960) captured this feeling. He is an American photographer who turned a residency in Ireland into a 5 year project about growing up in a housing estate in a small city at the coast of Ireland. What makes this project special is the playful interchange between documentary photography and fiction. At first I didn’t realise it was not purely documentary, but then some images were just too good to be true (like the kids playing on the walls in front of the houses).

After reading an interview with Dubois though, I now realize almost all pictures are posed and orchestrated. The setting is natural, but the rest is stylized. This brings up the issue of portrait photography and how much it actually says about a subject. I like that he plays with that idea. We are all playing roles in our lives and furthermore when we are being portrayed. Maybe even more so at those vulnerable years as an adolescent. So what then is a ‘real’ portrait? In a way every type of portrait is only a fragment of reality, showing one side of someone and then getting further contextualized by the framework of the viewer. Doug:

“While the photographs may seem so direct, honest and real, they only offer up what the viewer is able and willing to project into them. I know this sounds a little preachy, but the people I know in Russell Heights, especially the handful or more I’ve come to know as friends, are quite distinct from their photographs. (..) To get back to your question – I could be cynical and say that the “real” in the photograph is all smoke and mirrors and not be far from the truth. But in the end it all comes down to a faith that I can make and combine images in a way that doesn’t betray the trust given to me by the people in the photographs. If I can do that with honesty and a faith in my own sense of truth, the smoke and mirrors don’t matter much at all.” - Interview with Doug at Lensculture

In a way, we project our nostalgic feelings about being in those final years of childhood and adolescence onto the subjects in the photo’s. It feels familiar and at the same time like a world far away, a fantasy, where anything is possible with the aesthetics of this Ireland coast town as a background. These aesthetics might have even influenced Kendrick Lamar to stand on a light pole in his video “Alright”, like Dubois’ his shot of a kid in a pole. 

What I also like about this project is the collaborative aspect. Dubois started giving a workshop to a few youngsters who were interested in photography, and that’s how he got a connection with the kids of the neighbourhood. After each visit he would bring his prints back and sometimes discussed with his subjects how to evolve the project. Another thing that illustrates this is the occasional comic strip in the book, with the main characters and the photographer talking about life and photography. It’s a welcome extra layer, discussing the role of photography and what it means to be portrayed.

For me this project shows that transparency doesn’t take away the magic of photography. Maybe it even adds to it, by recognizing all the layers to go into a single image.

[mydustyartbooks]

Martin Parr

Contrasto 2002

Martin Parr is one of the most well known photographers from the UK. He is best known for his bizarre, highly saturated pictures of contemporary culture, growing tourism and consumption in Great Britain. This book shows an overview of his work, from the 70’s until the 00’s. I have to admit, when I first saw his work as a teenager, I thought it was mostly aesthetic and funny. I liked it, but I only grew to love it when I realized all the social themes he manages to talk about. His work shows that documentary photography can possess things like irony and humor, yet still say something important about our world.

His work traces modernization over a couple of decades. Consumption and tourism are big themes in his work, with most pictures in his book showing how people eat and how they leasure. That is not a coincidence, tourism blew up tremendously in those decades, as did fast food. A nice example of this are the portraits of Russians eating in a MacDonald’s in Moscow. It’s weird to look back into time for 30 years and see how much our world has changed since then. But in some ways it also hasn’t. Looking at these pictures now, in 2020, you can trace a lot of it back (forward?) to our modern mass culture. It has only gotten bigger, badder and more complex due to digitalization.

When Martin Parr came out with his colour work in the 70′s, it was quite provocative. He brought a new flavor to documentary photography, with his hypercolours and focus on the ordinary. Of course he is not alone in this tradition. If you look at some of his work, you can for example see a connection with the work of William Eggleston from around the same time. But what sets Martin Parr apart is a raw edge, of not being afraid to provoke by photographing people in their un-finest moments. 

"With photography, I like to create fiction out of reality. I try and do this by taking society's natural prejudice and giving this a twist" - Martin Parr (source)

I find Parr’s work inspiring, because he looks where a lot of photographers (including me) forget to look; in the most ordinary things. Couples going out for diner, the type of snacks eaten at the beach, people in their cars. But not just that, he manages to create surreal imagery out of this ordinary. In a way he opens our eyes to see new things in the world we think we already know.

[mydustyartbooks]

Jaring - Cor Jaring Nieuw Amsterdam 2009

Cor Jaring (1936-2013) was a Dutch photographer who closely followed the hippie and provo movement in the 60’s and 70′s in Amsterdam. He is and has always been of great inspiration to me. I clearly remember when I got his overview book Jaring from my father about 10 years ago, he immediately flipped through the book and pointed out a bunch of exotic looking people that he knew from that turbulent period. I say this, because it shows how much Jaring’s work tells us about a certain time and place; anybody who lived through the sixties and seventies in Amsterdam will recognise many of the scenes in these pictures. The Happenings around Het Lieverdje, the squatter riots, the flowerpower movement starring guys in dresses and naked woman with flowers in their hair, the infamous weed boat.

Jaring was a man from the streets, he always wandered around looking for new adventures to photograph. He didn’t just take pictures, but took part in the moment and the movement. In the late 60′s he was part of the Provo’s and actively participated in the happenings. He even had a special Magische Pershelm. The Provo’s were an artivistic movement that helped transform Dutch culture, but also a movement that only existed for a few years. That he was able to photograph these special years from an insider perspective, is exactly what makes his pictures irreplaceable.

His most mysterious (and my favourite) body of work is about the Insect Sect. This was a group of people who noticed ‘the little amount of butterflies still left’ and decided to form a movement in ‘68 that playfully raised questions about the way society dealt with environmental issues. They did performances like the Butterfly Opera and a First Frog Expedition. Cor Jaring was a member of this Insect Sect and captured every single moment of it. Because of the absurd scenes, the pictures seem bizarre and theatrical.

He is a great inspiration to me for being in the middle of everything, for capturing the true spirit of a particular time in his raw black and white images. Like he says in an interview, the most important thing you can do as a photographer, is to reflect on and registrate the spirit of a time for future generations. Well, I think Cor Jaring did a pretty damn good job.

All his archive can be found on his website: www.corjaring.nl

[mydustyartbooks]

Philip’s Dream Factory

“Africa Inside” Noorderlicht Photofestival 2000

Ghanaian Philip Kwame Apagya has an interesting and contemporary take on the traditional West African portraiture. Next to the stylish and classic black and white portraits of Sibide and Kaita, Philip almost reminds me of an African version of Terry Richardson with his use of bright colours and heavy flash.

Philip was born in Ghana in 1958 and graduated in photojournalism at the Ghana Institute of Journalism. He worked in his father’s photo studio and later opened his own studio in 1982.  Since then hundreds of Africans have had their picture taken against one of his large, painted tableaux. His subjects pose in front of brightly painted scenes dotted with expensive electronics, international flights and faux careers (just to name a few). The Room Divider is his most popular background, it’s a living room filled with desirable products. Every year Philip brings out a new one incorporating the latest technical equipment.

These pictures are more than just eye candy, there is a sociological aspect to them as well. In Africa, a photo studio is a place where your dreams can come true for a moment, being portrayed is a way to achieve immortality. Philip portrayed these people with the things they desire the most in life. The photographs represent how these people would like to see themselves and looking at them in that way these colourful portraits may also be regarded as being representative for a certain era in the Ghanaian society. The images also emphasise how the unavailability of commodities merely heightens their appeal.

Philip’s photographs started some discussions in the Western world about what they tell us about the consumerism of the modern African people. In the end I don’t think Philip’s work is too politically driven, what he wants to do is give these people their dreams. Just for a minute, but for eternity on the picture. In a way he created a dream factory in his studio.

[mydustyartbooks]

Seacoal - Chris Killip

Steidl 2011

Chris Killip (1946) is a photographer from the UK who is well known and respected for documenting life in the 80’s under Thatcher’s Britain. “Seacoal” is about a community living and collecting coal on a beach in Northern England in the early 80’s. This book has always had my heart, with it’s gritty black and white pictures that show so much movement and energy, it feels like you are right there on the beach with them. Even without knowing the full story you can feel the photographer is there in the images, not on the side-lines, not being voyeuristic, but completely present. When you hear the full story you will understand why.

Chris spend years trying to get access to this community, but every time he set up his camera at the beach, they would harass him and even physically threaten him. Every time he got chased away, he swore he would never come back again. But something kept pulling him back in. After 8 years of trying he finally got access, when after an attack and a dramatic fall in the sand he decided to confront these man in their favourite pub. When he told them who he was and why he was there, they didn’t believe him. They thought of him as a government spy, or at least an unwanted intruder. Then a guy walked into the bar who recognized him from years before during another shoot and validated his identity to the rest. This man was the key to Killip’s access, as he was an important member of the community. Sometimes a lucky event can help, as the result of karma or persistence. Or both.

Chris then lived for 14 months on a caravan on the beach to make this project. His endurance and passion amazes me and I think it’s precisely that which you can sense in his photo’s. It’s not about his ego, he was just genuinely attracted to something that didn’t feel the same way about him. In a time when I feel like a lot of photographers are making projects with ego or a quick success as a motivation, Chris Killip is a breath of fresh air from the past. I always enjoy going through this book so much.

“I was just trying to understand then that no matter what you did, you inevitably had a political position. How declared it was was up to you, but it was going to be inherent in the work, and it was something you should think about as a maker. I never worried about my position in the art world. I thought time and history would ultimately judge me, that my job was to get on with it, to make the work and to make it wholeheartedly from what had informed me.” – Chris Killip interview from his website

This project is extra special because this industry disappeared not long after. Killip managed to document the lives of people in a time and a place that will never be like that again. This for me proves the importance of photography. It accesses emotions through a visual language that goes much deeper than words can. Now this community and their visual language is preserved until the end of time. Or at least for as long our books will survive.  

[mydustyartbooks]

Cholombianos - Amanda Watkins

Trilce Editions 2015

This book is about Cholombianos, a colorful subculture from the north of Mexico that expresses itself in oversized clothing, distinctive hairstyles and handmade scapulars hanging around their necks that tell you where they are from and where they belong. Amanda Watkins (England) is a fashion designer turned photographer, who for four years has travelled between London and Monterrey, documenting them.

Watkins was working in Monterrey teaching classes in fashion, when she found out about this subculture. In the weekdays she was teaching and in the weekends she was going to the downtown of Monterrey to shoot these (mainly) teenagers. She was interested in them from a fashion point of view; how they embodied street culture and experimented with their looks. Much to the social disapproval of others in society. The Cholombianos are all about pride, looking fresh and music. The name comes from merging the words Cholo and Colombia. Colombia is where Cumbia music comes from, which is the heart of this subculture. Parties are a place to show of your dancing skills and your look.   U might have seen the Cholombianos before, as they are known through their portraits by Stefan Ruiz.  He approached the subject in quite a different way though, through stylized, isolated studio portraits, focussing mainly on the hairstyles. Watkins however, shows us the context in which these styles prevail. She dived deeply into the different aspects of the fashion and the social context. Together with the amazing design of this book, it gives a full picture of this subculture.  The design of the book is done by Oscar Reyes. The book brings the Cholombiano culture alive. I like how it transgresses ‘traditional’ photobooks, by making collages, scribbling notes and drawings. There are also little booklets inside the book. The photography is not especially aesthetic, it’s mostly snapshots of people on the streets and at parties. This different approach to photography is I think due to Watkins’ background. Because of it, it feels very real and straightforward. 

There are layers of meanings to be found though, e.g. in the expression of the clothing which carry a lot of symbolism (for example references to the Virgin Mary). The book also features a lot of explanatory texts and interviews with people from the scene. The characters pose however they feel good posing, Watkins doesn’t guide them to stand a certain way. They are presenting themselves in their own way. I like this type of collaborative photography, making the subject as important as the photographer. 

If you looking for the Cholombianos now, you will not find them. The scene disappeared as cartel violence grew in Monterrey and a lot of the cultural spaces had to close down. They were also unjustly seen as a threat and singled out by the police for their look, which made them hide their distinctive hair styles and clothes. So we are left with this document, that managed to capture this subculture in such an extensive way, it will live on forever. Amanda herself has continued to live in Mexico, continuing her career in the fashion industry.