Recently my work was presented at MoMa PS1. Saul Robbins - photographer, curator and Adjunct Professor of Photography at ICP - was giving a speech about three books by young photographers during NY Art Book Fair : Charlotte Zellerhoff's Day in day out, Stephen K. Shuster's Kelly and emptybottles of mine.
As you might be familliar with my emptybottles you should have a look at stories revealed by Charlotte and Stephen - all three projects are our first publications and are based on a strongly personal perspective.
Many thanks to Saul, Charlotte and Stephen for leting me publish their efforts :)
Day in day out
photographs Charlotte Zellerhoff
words Saul Robbins
Charlotte Zellerhoff’s Day in day out is a small
diary made mostly after breaking up with her last boyfriend. The images are
somber, quiet, introspective, and extremely lonely. Absorbed by the sadness and
depression she must have felt after their separation, each image instills
Charlotte’s isolation and loneliness as paramount to her post-relationship
experience of day-by-day existence. The flat in Berlin that Charlotte once
shared with her ex-boyfriend is examined and expressed with subtle, monotone shades
of imagery, implying an extremely slow passage of time and a capacity for
self-reflection that is painful to contain. When we are allowed to glance
outside, there is little reprieve from Charlotte’s anguish. What sunshine is
captured offers little warmth, the security of home feels uncomfortably deceptive,
and the trauma of ending a close, loving relationship haunts us with claustrophobic
intensity.
Kelly
photographs Stephen K. Shuster
words Saul Robbins
Kelly, by Stephen
K. Schuster, reflects back upon his two-year relationship with Kelly, a young
woman as comfortable in front of his camera as any artist could hope for. At
first glance Stephen’s book appears as a repository of rich experiences and
deeply felt love, a memory book culled from thousands of tender glances and
subtle observations made during his incessant image making. The examples of
intimacy and closeness here are elegant in their softness, the quality of
contact and distance, and the beauty of light that rests between these two, all
while chronicling a story now finished. Looking closer, there are hints of independence
and distance, signifying perhaps reservations between the artist and his muse.
These subvert viewers’ desires for longevity, rendering our expectations and
the appearance of a lovely young romance obsolete. Kelly is an elegy, revealing
something less obvious from a distance, about a time once precious and
sacrosanct. Perhaps, in a gesture of great trust, we have been exposed to the unconscious
sensitivity of the artist that preceded their breakup.
