Art photography has been branded into something untouchable, polished and distant from the viewer. As a photographer I often feel the frustration of not being able to communicate deeper, in a more honest and intimate way with the viewer. During the editing work for a book project I decided to collect all the “mistakes” on a separate sketchbook, all the parts that are usually destroyed during the editing process. The result had a much more deep, honest and personal language than the selected-edited final work.
The black book of Photography is made to be touched, to be discovered page after page. The photographic work almost disappears into a chaotic sketchbook full of colours and materials. Is the book a photo book or something else? Is it photography the central element of the work? What defines a photographic work and it’s representation? Can a photographic book work be something more than just prints in a portfolio series? The viewer has the chance to enter into those questions intimately, examining the structure that have made the object and have turned the photographs into something more complex.
The black book of Photography has 156 hand made pages, here presented in a small selection.
Filippo Zambon 