Matej Sitar – America My Way – PhotoBook Journal

Tucked away inside the deceivably simple folding cover is an interesting and complex set of overlapping photobooks. The entirety focuses on selected moments of a road-trip journey, which in this case Sitar’s subject is the Pacific coast of the United States.

Interior and three books – America, My Way

The three interior photobooks have a shared text but vary in regard to the photographic plates, where some of the images and text are repeated and common to all three book copies. To help illustrate, I have included examples below of the two alternative layouts; unique or shared.

I find that this is an interesting way to explore the differences in that can occur when experiencing a road trip amongst friends. It seems that whenever we gather after one of these events, regardless of length or duration, there are those things seen uniquely and others experienced as a group. The repeated photographs represent those events that for whatever reason are seared into the shared memory and become a common touch point.

Likewise, this is a very nice narrative on the aspects of memory and its preservation. The photographs that vary are a reflection of our individuality in looking and seeing, as well as how memory will change events over time.

Another alternative in reading these books is offed by Sitar as “to show the vast amount of possibilities that a journey can offer.” These books can be read singularly or as a group to create a triptych that increases the complexity of this narrative.

As a book object, it is rather complex and layered. The outer folding cover, with the essay by James A. Reeves printed on the interior side, is complete with a magnetic closure. The three interior stiff-cover photobooks are four-color offset printing with saddle stitch binding.

Douglas Stockdale for The PhotoBook

Note: getting the color balance correct for the book interiors was very vexing this time, so just know that all of the books have the same off-white color of paper for each of the three books. I will take the credit for not getting the color corrected. Please limit your use of poison darts to just three.