He is an absolute legend. His 'Waffenruhe' and 'Wedding' are highlights in my collection. Thank you for letting me know about Natur! I thought it was long out of print! Instantly ordered.
Last edited:
Are you familiar with the work of Michael Schmidt? His last book Natur was published by Mack Books in 2014 and is still available.
I’ve looked at these photographs from "Natur" too, and honestly, they feel a bit like what you might get if a child wandered through the forest with a camera.
Imagine you're on a walk, you see a tree, you particularly like how the light fall on it, so you take a photo. Coming back, you see that tree again, the light has change, and you also particularly like how it falls on it, so again you take the photo. Doing that, you are no longer photographing a moment in time, but the passage of time, and how it has many ways to transform us. That is your intent, so you include both photos in your book, as there is no "best" of the two.
You could even imagine yourself just sitting in front of that tree one day, from dawn to dusk, and photographing it every hour, or every half hour, or every time the light changes in a way that speaks to you — it would be the same tree yet never the same —, and then making an entire book only of these photos. (Since I made the suggestion, of course I'd have no choice but to buy it !)
Having two of the same, yet different, is a great way to draw the viewer in. Viewer has no choice but to stop and look, even if just for differences, not only in the surface of the photo itself, but also in feeling. Viewer becomes more attentive, and that attention is then kept on single images.
I may be wrong — memory fails me — but I think Italian photographer Luigi Ghirri did this a lot.
and the photographer you're thinking of is probably Guido Guidi, not Ghirri.
I don't know how I forgot to include Rafael Bosco Vieira's channel, I subscribe to it and watch it all the time.
Extreme—but fascinating—example of this is the book TTP by Hayahisa Tomiyasu, who spent four year photographing a ping pong table in a park from the window of his Leipzig appartment.
TTP (First edition, Fourth printing)
Winner of the 2018 MACK First Book Award TTP is a series of photographs made by Hayahisa Tomiyasu from the window of his former student apartment in the German city of Leipzig. From his south-facing view we see a 'tischtennisplatte' or ping pong table used for a plethora of purposes – including...mackbooks.co.uk
Between the years of 2004 and 2008 I photographed the country of Venezuela and regime of then president, Hugo Chavez, the predecessor to Maduro. In the early days, I was an invited guest of the regime who provided me access to photograph the power infrastructure of the country and Chavez himself. The strange welcome grew weirder with each trip I made, culminating with the last trip in 2008 when I was arrested by Chavez’ personal security detail as he was speaking on stage at a massive rally in front of me. As they arrested me, Chavez announced that the CIA was planning to assassinate him by posing as journalists. They filmed my arrest and aired it on state tv, proclaiming they had caught an American spy. I was hauled away on motorcycle to the DICIP headquarters where I was interrogated and threatened repeatedly at gun point throughout the night. The next morning they released me and I went back to my hotel. Once there, the phone rang and a voice I didn’t recognize told me I needed to leave Venezuela immediately. My life was in danger. I left that night and have not returned since.
The pictures from my time there became the book, CAPITOLIO, seen here. For me, this book was sort of my farewell to a certain way of working as a photojournalist and a questioning of my notions of objectivity and subjectivity.
Strange to see this place again through the filter of the crazy events of the past days.
but I find the Plossu's technique also particularly captivating: the images are grainy and the colours are ever so slightly off. They remind me of old Provia 400X positives.
Plossu uses the Fresson process for his color prints (a process I'm totally unfamiliar with, to be honest).
The Printing in photography: Interview with Bernard Plossu
Bernard Plossu isn't usually very forthcoming. Each word reveals the coherence of a reasoned worldview, studded by aesthetic references. DK2R had the opportunity to ask him about printing, and his answers extend this central subject of the photographic act.www.thedarkroomrumour.com
Thank you Alex. Just noticed the back cover note mentions this, too. 'Fresson Carbon printing process'. If anyone has more info about this I'd be interested to know more.
You re welcome!Thanks for the info, @nikos79!
Amazon seems to have it scheduled for release in Feb 2026 and is taking pre-orders. Not sure whether to trust that date tbh..
Looks like the Steidl reissue of New Topographics has moved out to June now
We use cookies and similar technologies for the following purposes:
Do you accept cookies and these technologies?
We use cookies and similar technologies for the following purposes:
Do you accept cookies and these technologies?