Crossing Over. [last day/this too shall pass]

Crossing Over. By Yanina Shevchenko. The Velvet Cell, 2013. 24 pp., illustrated throughout, 16,5x24cm. Limited edition of 300 copies. Images from here.

Book description:

"In March 2012 Yanina Shevchenko travelled from one end of Russia to the other and back again on the trans-siberian railway in a bid to discover for herself the true nature of her homeland.

In the space of two weeks she spent a total of twelve days onboard, mingling with her fellow travellers and watching the Russian landscape unfold itself from her carriage window.

Born in Volgograd of Russian-Belorussian descent, Yanina was motivated to unearth what 'Russianess' meant and whether it existed as a single entity from one end of the motherland to the other. What she encountered and discovered about Russia, and thus about herself, is documented in her book of writings and photography 'Crossing Over'."

Mandala. [today is joy]

Mandala. By Bill Armstrong, introduction by Katherine Ware. Philadelphia Museum of Art, 2008. 44 pp., illustrated throughout, 9x9". Images from here.

Book description:

" 'The Mandalas are meant to be meditative pieces - glimpses into a space of pure color, beyond our focus, beyond our ken. Their essential purpose is to create a sense of transcendence, of radiance, of pure joy', Bill Armstrong writes about this series. 'Through abstraction, simplification and blur, I hope to create a context for the exploration of broad spiritual themes that, rather than relying on a codified system, remains open and invites the viewer’s personal interpretation'.

Like other portfolios in his series Infinity, Armstrong’s mandalas are made from collages he creates and then photographs with the camera’s focusing ring set on infinity. He then creates chromogenic prints from the resultant negatives.

By taking an out-of-focus photograph, the artist concentrates not on detailed form and subject but on the rich, saturated colors that shift and pulsate in relation to one another, inviting an inquiry into the interconnectedness of all things.

Published on the occasion of the exhibition Photo Mandalas: Bill Armstrong and Milan Fano Blatny. Curated by Kathrine Ware. Julien Levy Gallery, Philadelphia Museum of Art, September 6, 2008 - January, 2009."

Me with the silence in your home after you passed away (Odengatan, Stockholm, Sweden).

Me with the silence in your home after you passed away (Odengatan, Stockholm, Sweden).

MoMA’s Share Your Silence sound map.

MoMA: Share Your Silence on soundcloud.

MoMA: There Will Never Be Silence: Scoring John Cage’s 4’33”
Exhibition: October 12, 2013 - June 22, 2014.

Hiroshi Sugimoto.

Hiroshi Sugimoto. By Hiroshi Sugimoto. Essays by David Elliott, Kerry Brougher and Hiroshi Sugimoto. Hatje Cantz, 2005. 368 pp., illustrated throughout, 26,5x27,8cm. Images from here.

Book description:

"The spectacular series by Japanese photographer Hiroshi Sugimoto (*1948 in Tokyo) are characterized by matchless clarity and presence.

His works are always an absolute embodiment of his chosen visual motif, reduced to its essence.

Our exquisite monograph is the first to feature works selected from all of the series produced to date - including, of course, his most famous: Sugimoto's celebrated portraits of wax figures seem to face up to their living audiences; his 'Seascapes' show us nothing less than a person's first conscious view of the ocean; the extremely long exposures of 'Theaters' elevate the white, luminescent cinema screen, transforming it into a magical image of an altar; and the fascinating 'Dioramas' - photographs of scientific display cases - allow us to travel with the artist far into the past to observe extinct animal species or the daily life of early man."

Rest in peace Philip Seymour Hoffman

Philip Seymour Hoffman.

Heartbreaking. And such a great, great loss of talent. (read, read)

Driven Snow.

Driven Snow. By Andy Mattern. Andy Mattern, 2013. 50 pp., illustrated throughout, 5,25x8,25". Edition of 100 copies.

Book description:

"During the Minnesota winter, grit and snow gradually accumulate in the wheel wells of moving cars. Layer upon layer, these materials fuse into icy formations, conforming to the contours of the host vehicle.

Regular snowfall and the persistent cold encourage these parasitic travelers to grow so dense and large that they interfere with steering. But as the season wears on, they inevitably dislodge or are kicked off vehicles into streets, driveways, and parking lots where they are crushed or eventually melted.

These photographs represent a collection of 22 of these objects found in the winter of 2010-2011, the fifth snowiest on record."

Today

© SE.

Today (strange happenings out the window).

Between the Shell.

Between the Shell. By Paul Salveson. MACK, 2013. 76 pp., illustrated throughout, 19x26cm. Images from here.

Book description:

"Paul Salveson’s photographs were born in New York and Virginia between 2006 and 2011.

Constructing images in domestic environments from items found in arm’s reach, the results are absurdist constructions in which commonplace objects are jocosely rendered in polychromatic puzzles.

Salveson describes his photographic process as 'unfolding like a private performance in an empty house, or after everyone falls asleep... my engagement emerges from a perspective that precedes familiarity, disregarding the functions and cultural associations that objects are assigned. I try to process my surroundings with an alien mind.' "

Happy New Year

Source.

Wishing you peace, light and serenity for the new year ahead.

2014 marks two hundred years of peace in Sweden - remarkable and thought-worthy in many respects (and with what influence one might ponder)...

God Jul, Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays!

Source.

A corpse for Christmas [and other covers]

Source, source, source.

Stargazing at Sokcho.

Stargazing at Sokcho. By Boomoon. Nazraeli Press, 2006. 24 pp., illustrated throughout, 32,5x42,5cm. Images from here.

Book description:

"'Stargazing' is a record of hours enchanted by the night sky more than a literary approach to the starts.

Constellations are continuously moving but they are permanent indicators of time and season fort everything on earth.

Boomoon was often absorbed in gazing stars anywhere he found a clear night sky. He composed a monumental 'Stargazing' measuring 250x840cm with 60 images shot in various places in Korea, Europe and North Africa.

'Stargazing at Sokcho' published by Nazraeli Press (Tuscon, 2006) contains 19 early works of the series."

The Weather and a Place to Live.

The Weather and a Place to Live. Photographs of the Suburban West. By Steven B. Smith, essay by Maria Morris Hambourg. Duke University Press, 2005. 128 pp., illustrated throughout, 10x9". Images from here.

Book description:

"In compelling, often stunning black-and-white photographs, 'The Weather and a Place to Live' portrays the manmade landscape of the western United States.

Here we come face to face with the surreal intersection of the American appetite for suburban development and the resistant, rolling, arid country of the desert West. Steven B. Smith’s extraordinary photographs take us into the contemporary reality of sprawling suburbs reconfiguring what was once vast, unpopulated territory.

With arresting concision and an unblinking eye, Smith shows how a new frontier is being won, and suggests too how it may be lost in its very emergence."

The Question of Hope.

The Question of Hope. By Robert Adams. Nazraeli Press in association with Portland Art Museum, 2013. 56 pp., illustrated throughout, 8,5x9,5". Images from here.

Book description:

"The question of hope is especially urgent because of environmental threats.

One such peril, deforestation, is the subject of the first half of this book, where pictures of it suggest a war zone.

The subject of the second half of the book, light on the sea, might initially seem disconnected from the first, but in combination they have about them what Samuel Johnson once called "the stability of truth", in this case a recognizable balance of harsh facts and dateless, mysterious consolation.

Robert Adams has studied both elements - our failed stewardship and the promise implied by beauty - across much of the American West. He has over the years also photographed them near where he lives on the Oregon coast, and it is this local caring that gives 'The Question of Hope' much of its intensity."

Prayers in an American Church.

Prayers in an American Church. By Robert Adams. Nazraeli Press, 2012. 40 pp., illustrated throughout, 6x9". Limited edition of 1000 copies. Images from here.

Book description:

" 'Each of us welcomes quiet. As a private person, a citizen, and a photographer, these are some of the words I find myself remembering and repeating'. —— (Robert Adams)

This small volume, with just 12 quoted prayers and 17 photographs by the artist, is among the most personal of Robert Adams’s books.

'It is an old man’s book', he says, 'and reflects my conviction that art and religion come from the same sense of dependence'.

Rest in Peace Nelson Mandela

Nelson Mandela.

Today we mourn a great loss for humanity, an enduring peace symbol.

Down These Mean Streets.

Down These Mean Streets. By Will Steacy. b. frank books, 2012. 112 pp., illustrated throughout, 9,5x12". Edition of 400 copies. Images from here.

Book description:

"Amidst the noise and rhetoric of the 2012 US presidential campaign comes a sobering visual account of politics, capitalism, social priorities and the collapse of the American Dream.

b.frank books presents 'Down These Mean Streets', the first monograph by the Philadelphia-raised, artist and writer, Will Steacy.

In combining his own celebrated photographs of America’s inner cities with journal entries, maps, and a preponderance of text and imagery from newspapers and magazines, Steacy presents an imposing collage depicting the downward spiral of the American economy in which 30 years of misguided economic policies have transferred a nation’s wealth and power to a privileged few at the expense of the middle and working class.

Rich with iconic imagery of American culture layered with carefully edited clippings from national and regional media, he presents the portrait of a changing nation struggling to adapt to a 21st Century post-industrialist global economy."

The House That Burns Every Day.

The House That Burns Every Day. By Marina Gadonneix. Text by Christian Milovanoff. RVB Books, 2012. 32 pp., illustrated throughout, 28x35cm. Edition of 900 copies.

Book description:

"Marina Gadonneix’s work weaves a complex link between documentary and fiction through photographs of places given over to temporary neglect.

'The House That Burns Everyday' recalls a fable whose story, in ashes, would no longer reach us.

Marina Gadonneix has chosen to haunt a dummy house used by firemen to become familiar with fire and fighting it. In short, a room of fiction. Fire has raged, soon it will flare up again.

In this interstice, Gadonneix collects these artificial ruins. From a distance, the spectator can cope with the worst. The worst, in this work, is always yet to come."

Alla helgons dag

Image source.

Family is very important to me, and this is an important day.

"In Western Christian theology, the day commemorates all those who have attained the beatific vision in Heaven. It is a national holiday in many historically Catholic countries.

[...]

Other Christian traditions define, remember and respond to the saints in different ways."

In many European countries, including Sweden, the tradition is to light candles and visit the graves of deceased relatives.

Read more here or here for example.

Quote from here.

River Phoenix

River Phoenix reading.

I can't believe it - 20 years ago...