Tuesday, November 29, 2011

Bookish

Marc Olivier 2011


I love the materiality of books, and I don't think I'm alone in that. Far from disappearing from our lives, books are being used more and more for things other than reading. In fact, I've devoted a pinboard on Pinterest to that topic.

One of my favorite photographers, Abelardo Morell, has done a stunning series on books. When I took some of my old books off the shelf and photographed them on Saturday, it was very much inspired by him. I like the abstraction of the pages above (the book is a 19th century history of Paris I bought a long time ago in Seattle).

Marc Olivier, 2011
 You can see the same books in this totemic stack topped with an 18th century collection of Rousseau's rantings against theater. The shot was done with natural light. I set the stack of books on a table by the front door for side lighting and then used a light reflector to bounce back some fill, which ended up giving the halo-like glow. The final photo below shows a rip in the last page through which you see the title Lettre à d'Alembert. It was a happy accident to find that little window into the book's contents. I sent about 11 book photos to the company that distributes my work commercially, but I don't know if it will fall within their needs. Four of my dictionary page photo prints are being distributed (although they are not all of the same ones in my post). Going for commercial viability is an interesting exercise and is often not compatible with what you would send to a gallery. In my opinion, the artist who best straddles those two worlds is Michael Kenna. I find his work very inspiring but I don't do landscapes. Yet.

Marc Olivier, 2011


3 comments:

Unknown said...

Absolutely stunning images.

Anonymous said...

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So, don't bother with the weepers.
You already had your RONNIE REEPERS.
Try and RESIST these headlines:
NALLOC.
ACTEL.
NUNGETTE.
GUFFIN.
And the fact you all used TOBIE TEEN.

Caitlyn Judith said...

These are incredible. I would love to have the first one hanging on my wall! And I agree about Michael Kenna. I fell in love with his work after going to his exhibit in Paris.