Check out the new arrivals on our Tumblr site
Steidlville
Back in Göttingenon this week:
For a better glimpse behind the scenes – and for some excellent recipes, buy this book:
Tobias Zielony: Story/No Story
A few weeks ago at the Fotobook Festival in Kassel, the folks at Schaden showed me their single copy of Story/No Story by Tobias Zielony. The book wasn’t for sale yet, but I knew I had to get my hands on it. Yesterday the book arrived and I was relieved to find it was as great as I’d remembered. The book is made up of thirteen chapters documenting young people in various locations around the globe. Usually photographed at night, the teens are invariably drawn to generic locales like car parks, gas stations and other public spaces. As the book’s title suggests, their is no story. But this, in fact, is the story of so many young people around the world. They gather at night and wait for something to happen. In an interview included in the book, Zielony quotes one girl he photographed who said, “We’re not bored. Boredom is just a word for what we do anyway.”
One might think that thirteen chapters of kids loitering might be, well, boring. But Zielony’s book is almost cinematic. Flipping through the pages, I feel like I’m floating around the world at night. “There’s a latent narrative,” Zielony says in the book’s interview, “It’s in the situations, in the youth’s imaginations. You can’t say that nothing is happening. My photo series disclose this potential narrative.
Self Publish, Be Happy
Recently Received
Dear Lester
Good news. On Sunday I visited Herr Steidl in Germany. After a lot of sturm und drang, he agreed to publish our book this year!
I’m eager to get home and back to work on our manual. But now I’m in Rome. Today on a walk I saw something that made me think of you:
Y’rs,
Cruising by Chad States
Chad States excellent book, Cruising, won 2nd place in the FotoBook Festival book dummy competition. Before some savvy publisher snatches up this excellent title, you can purchase your own copy here.
One Picture Book
Nice little profile of Nazraeli’s One Picture Book series here (including a forthcoming book by Alec Soth).
European Tour
Greetings from Göttingen, Germany – the home of Steidlville (take a Polaroid tour here).
A couple days ago I was in the Netherlands where I have a show of Dog Days Bogotá with the wonderful folks at Fotodok (at the Flatland Gallery). Along the way, I had my portrait made by Koos Breukel. Here is my iphone portrait of Koos in his studio:
Koos gave me a couple of his books. Check them out on our Tumblr site.
One of the pleasures of Steidlville is hanging out with other artists. Tonight Robert Polodori and I broke bread:
Tomorrow I’m headed to Kassel for the Photobook Festival. If you are in town, come to my lecture and say hello. Otherwise, I’ll be in Rome next week for an exhibition of my portraits here.
first published pictures
The other day on our Tumblr site I posted a picture I made in 1995. An Italian curator and criminally insane book collector recently told me he owned a book in which this picture was published. This prestigious volume, Minneapolis/St. Paul: Linked to the Future, was published in 1997. I’d love to know about other photographers with similarly humble beginnings.
