me studio

last friday i had a long, inspiring lunch with mister syb who shared some of his work with me and very generously left an enormous pile of photo books behind… the result of the past two years work…

a very impressive and inspiring result i should add, alongside new books for ‘carla van de puttelaar’ and ‘viviane sassen’ amongst many others was the above title ‘series’ for (previously unknown to me) mexican photographer ‘enrique mentinides’ with heartbreaking stories that have been sublimely edited by ‘syb’ into the narrative form

if anything, his latest crop of work demonstrates that he, as a book designer, has long passed the stage of being merely the ‘assembler’ of information to actively playing the part of a conductor, as it were, steering the music and creating a coherent and unique composition from the existing elements: picture & word, at his disposition

he has perhaps even assumed the role of co-author, albeit one who clearly aims to magnify or dramatise the material he is given to greater effect; rather than intending to create his own new tune…

i will post more detailed reviews on some of the books soon, but there is so much to write about that it may take a while… meanwhile ‘syb’ has thankfully promised to update his own spartan website in the near future… i’ll keep you posted and many thanks to ‘syb’ for the inspiring gifts

according to his website, the man who chases ‘supercells’ and ‘motherships’ to shoot them with his large panormama camera is a farmers son called ‘kevin erskine’ who hails from sharpsburg, illinois… in fact what not many people know is that he is a pseudonym of local photographer erik hijweege who spent the last six years chasing clouds

the first book of erskines storm portraits is being published this month and will be presented at his exhibition in ‘witzenhausen’ gallery next saturday 3pm, in amsterdam