FotoGrafia di Roma XI: Work - PhotoBook Exhibition

photographs copyright of photographers and publishers

FOTOGRAFIA Festival Internazionale di Roma XI Edition: Work

The theme of Work for XI FotoGrafia di Roma is complex and multi-faceted subject, which I attempted to broadly explore in my selection of contemporary PhotoBooks for this exhibition. This theme is also ambiguous and illusive, which can be as much about one does as well as what one is doing.

I want to create the opportunity for those attending this exhibition to investigate the contemporary aspects and explore the rich narratives as to what constitutes work, as seen by a diverse range of creative photographers in conjunction with their book designers and publishers who support these endeavors. As a result, I selected what I hope is an interesting mix in the various ways photographers using the PhotoBook as a medium investigate this conceptual theme. The PhotoBooks continue to add yet another layer and dimension to the Festival’s theme, as the PhotoBook object is also the actual work of a photographer, book designer, printer and publisher.

In addition to the PhotoBooks being present as a physical object, I am complementing these with a concurrent exhibition of interior double-page spreads re-photographed by the photographers. Thus the physical book would be present for viewing as well as be surrounded in a sea of interior photographs that should create a reference to the other.

In my investigation of this conceptual theme, I find an undercurrent of identity interwoven in many of these PhotoBooks, posing a quintessential question; are we defined by work, or does work define us?

The photographers and their PhotoBooks that will be in the exhibition, in alphabetic order, are:

Pierre Bessard – Behind China’s Growth

Julie Blackmon – Domestic Vacations

Paul Flyod Blake – Personal Best

Andrew Buurman – Allotments

Michal Chelbin – The Black Eye

Chris Coekin – The Altogether

Clayton Cotterell – Unarmed

Marco Delogu – The Thirty Assassins

Charlotte Dumas – Al Lavoro!

Andy Freeberg – Guardians

Thijs Heslenfeld – Men at Work

Sarah Hobbs – Small Problems in Living

Henry Horenstein – SHOW

Rob Hornstra – Sochi Singers

Pieter Hugo – Permanent Error

Ron Jude – Lick Creek Line

Chris Killip – Seacoal

Gina LeVay – Sandhogs

Janne Lehtinen – Night Shift (not available)

Rania Matar – A Girl in her Room

Kendall Messick – The Projectionist

Darin Mickey – Stuff I Gotta Remember Not to Forget

Cristina de Middel (Puch) – The Afronauts

Bertil Nilsson – Undisclosed

Andreas Oetker-Kast – manpower

Louie Palu – Cage Call

Lina Pallotta – Piedras Negras

Christian Patterson – Redheaded Peckerwood

Dana Popa – Not Natasha

Nina Poppe – ama

Florian von Roekel – How Terry Likes His Coffee

Ken Schles – Oculus

Martin Schoeller – Female Bodybuilders  (not available)

David Schulz – Lone Wolf

Melissa Shook – My Suffok Downs

Lars Tunbjork – Office

I will be posting information on most of these PhotoBooks leading up to the exhibition in September.

As to the PhotoBook exhibition:

dates: September 20 through October 28, 2012

venue: MACRO Testaccio, Piazza Orazio Giustiniana 4, Roma

Best regards, Douglas Stockdale

Curator, 2012 FotoGrafia di Roma PhotoBook exhibition

Note: the photobook exhibition is now scheduled for a Southern California one-night pop up exhibit at the Irvine Fine Art Center on October 18th, more information here.