Guide to Unique Photography

Sommaire

• Talking photography books

  I think that one can hardly overestimate the impact of a powerful photo book, even in a time when a large part of the world has access to mass media such as television and internet. A good book has a face – it’s a cherished object, an artefact that gives enjoyment without needing to be plugged in or have its batteries changed. It is entirely conceivable that right now a young Chinese collector is searching for Dutch photo books from the 1950s or 1960s by Van der Elsken, Van der Keuken, Sannes or Oorthuys.

  par Han Schoonhoven
• Empty Bottles

  Dutchmen Thijs groot Wassink (1981) and Ruben Lundgren (1983) both graduated from the photography department of the Utrecht School of the Arts in the summer of 2005. Since then they’ve been working together as the photographers duo WassinkLundgren. Empty Bottles takes a concentrated look at the daily ritual of China’s refuse collectors.

• Yadda, yadda, yadda.

  Born in the Netherlands, Jacqueline Hassink (1966) has mapped the economic globalization of our society in a precise, almost scientific way in a mixture of documentary photgraphy and conceptual art.

  par Pim Milo
• Diy

  Fotospeed's Do-It-Yourself kits are ideal for everyone who's not afraid of experimenting. Small kits that emable you to make prints at home using a refined printing process. For instance, the techniques available are Bromoil, Cyanotype, Gum Bichromate, Salt Printing and Argyrotype. I’ll be using the latter to print brown, sepia-coloured pictures.

  par Gregor Servais
• Parr

  Martin Parr, one of the world’s most passionate collectors and an authority on photo books, took the time to answer GUP’s burning questions.

  par Peter Bas Mensink , Yannick Bouillis
• Finding Thoughts

  Dutch photographer Cuny Janssen’s (1975) portraits of children and young people offer a fresh perspective on both the medium and method of photographic portraiture. Janssen’s work has taken her to locations including Norway, Macedonia, Iran, India and the UK. Her interest in the medium of books began in 2002 with a publication of images of children and young people in India.

• The book that makes your heart beat

  The picture on the cover is inviting. A boy offers the reader – or rather the viewer, since this is a photo book with only occasional pieces of writing – two flowers with outstretched arms. Two daisies, clearly visible because the photographer brings them into focus. ‘For you,’ the boy seems to be telling the viewer.

  par Merel Bem
• Let me in !

  Three hundred pages of photos from the archives of Peruvian-born Mario Testino (1954), featuring backstage and unstaged moments from photo shoots, fill this hardcover edition. The book also includes an intro by Vanity Fair Fashion Director Michael Roberts and a foreword by Nicole Kidman.

• 17

  Sombre-looking boys. Throughout the entire book. Doesn’t really cheer you up. But it’s intriguing stuff. What is this young, post-WWII generation thinking? ‘I believe that the appreciation of the book, besides its considerable photographic qualities, will be strongly influenced by the vision you have of today’s youth.