Plain + Fancy.

Plain + Fancy. Photographs by Nicholas Gottlund. Nicholas Gottlund, 2009. 16 pp., black & white illustrations throughout, 7x11".

'Plain + Fancy' - a book by American photographer Nicholas Gottlund - concerns itself with the concept of animism.

Animism is a "philosophical, religious or spiritual idea that souls or spirits exist not only in humans and animals but also in plants, rocks, natural phenomena such as thunder, geographic features such as mountains or rivers, or other entities of the natural environment, a proposition also known as hylozoism in philosophy".

'Plain + Fancy' "present objects (oak leaves, a rug, tools, antlers, a cut branch from a spice bush) which may seem to have an inherent spirit or almost palpable sense of history.

The photographs are shot with a strong flash (and most in daylight) to lend an almost overdone visual depiction of a spirit."

The two quotes are from the publisher's description.