In the Car with R
Two Polish titles have been nominated for American photo-eye magazine’s Best Books of 2012 award. Rafał Milach’s In the Car with R and Jan Lewczyński. Pamięć Obrazu (The Memory of the Image) edited by Wojciech Nowicki are listed among 177 other titles from across the globe
What the jury of the Best Books title strives for is a list different than most. The jury aims to present a diversity that would shed light on corners of the photoworld that may otherwise be missed. The list is assembled also with the knowledge that a certain amount of luck determines what a person happens to see, purchase or seek out during the course of the year. Thus, as photo-eye declares, a book selected by only one person may be no less great than a book selected by numerous people - its fewer appearances may simply be an issue of access or chance.
They start out with recommendations for contributors from the photo-eye Bookstore staff, who are then asked to select up to ten books that they believe are the Best Books of the year. There are only two two simple rules of selection: the books must be published in the current year and the contributor may not select a book that they have played a role in creating. The result is a list of Best Books that contains between 150-200 titles. Although this result is not exactly a tidy top 10, the photo-eye founders of the selection don’t see this as a problem but an asset and a reflection of their goal. As the statement of the photo-eye reveals "we aren't seeking consensus or a ranking. For us, Best Books is about discoveries."
The two titles from Poland have been released by the Czytelnia Sztuki publishing company afilliated with the Art Museum of Gliwice.
Rafał Milach, a young Polish photographer has been picked for the list for this year’s publication of In the Car with R. This photobook documents a journey across Iceland, and it has been assembled by Milach in cooperation with the writer Huldar Breidfjord. The book, designed by Anna Nałęcka, is a development of the project which was pursued by photographers from the Sputnik collective and Icelandic writers and released in 2011 in the group publication entitled (IS)not.
The photos presented in In the Car with R are portraits of people met along the way, landscapes, still life and various hotel room interiors. The images vary in their form and subject, and the entire assemblage is very much like a visual diary of a journey. Milach’s photographs are accomapnied by notes made by Breiðfjörð throughout their journey. The Icelandic writer ponders about the nature of a photographer’s approach, and the essence of his own country, and the possible reason for its people’s fascination with the United States.
Rafał Milach comments:
This story is a personal road diary I have done together with Icelandic writer Huldar Breiðfjörð. We took highway #1 the only road surrounding Iceland and drove 1450km within 10 days. We didn’t care about either the volcanic eruption that took place few weeks earlier or the economical crisis that made Iceland bankrupt. It was a trip of a local with outsider and we both tried to learn of this place on our own. And we both failed coming back with more questions than answers.
In his review of the publication, Marcin Grabowiecki comments
Milach manages to make the down-sides of the entire situation into assets. (…) Both artists have the capacity of doing something extraordinary – of writing about their own struggle with the theme. (…) The book is incredibly inspiring. The read bears more questions rather than giving any ready answers about contemporary Iceland.
In the Car with R was already selected as the winner of the New York Photo Awards 2011 Jury’s Choice Prize, for best overall picture or series. A dummy of the book was also given a Photography Book Now 2011 for the best documentary publication.
Pamięć obrazu (The Memory of the Image) is a monography of the work from Jerzy Lewczyński.
Born in 1924, Lewczynski is a photographer, art critic, and journalist. He is the originator of the concept of 'archeology of photography'. As part of this idea, Lewczyński first began using works by other artists, in a completely innovative way. Lewczynski developed a unique and individual style, characterized by a deeply humanist approach. His works from 1959 (the Closed Presentation series) anticipated conceptual art of the 1970s, and the projects he conducted since the 1970s, the Negatives were very much an omen of postmodernist quotation. Jerzy Lewczyński also conducted research on the history of photography, publishing the first Anthology of Polish Photography 1839-1989, in 1999.
Nearly all of the images in the book come from the archives of the Gliwice museum.
Wojciech Nowicki, the author of the book and its curator, reveals the world of Lewczyński in the form of an essay:
Throughout my talks with Jerzy Lewczyński, I tried to fish a man out this sea of photography and kept on feeling like as I was unable to do so. This man, when asked to talk about himself, spoke only of photographs. He explained everything with more and more cameras, with artistic friendships and exhibitions. And yet, when I searched for the photographer in Lewczyński, it was Lewczyński the man who kept on popping up. A man, who had changed his own life into photography and became an embodiment of this medium: a half-man, half-photo machine.
In the Car with R
Photos: Rafał Milach
Texts: Huldar Breidfjord
Book design: Ania Nałęcka / Tapir Book Design
published in a bilingual version by Czytelnia Sztuki / Muzeum w Gliwicach
Jerzy Lewczyński. Pamięć Obrazu (The Memory of the Image)
Editor: Wojciech Nowicki
Book design: Witold Siemaszkiewicz
Published by Czytelnia Sztuki / Muzeum w Gliwicach
The Czytelnia Sztuki publishing house actively supports photographers and book designers, and this year the company has launched the first edition of a book competition. The winning title is going to be awarded a fully professional release under the Czytelnia Sztuki label in the upcoming year.
Editor: SRS
Source: press release, http://www.czytelniasztuki.pl, fotopolis.pl