French photographer Alexandre Morvan links the Japanese cherry blossoms with daily life during the pandemic and the dark worlds of dystopian anime. The photographs in Cherry Trees – recently published by Kehrer Verlag as a compact coffee table book – were taken in the spring of 2020 in Japan.

Spring, the time of cherry blossoms, symbolically represents the transience and fragility of life – and in 2020, this moment coincided with the outbreak of the Covid pandemic. Alexandre Morvan captures the invisible threat of the virus to daily life. Over the course of his work, he began to recognize parallels between the surreal situation of daily life and the dystopian worlds of anime and Japanese TV series that he had watched as a teenager. Some of these works turned out to be visionary, as they had already addressed major ecological and humanitarian crises. This book deals with the idea of transmission – not only the transmission of a virus, but also of fictional worlds from the past into our present reality.

From the foreword by Iizawa Kōtarō, photo critic and photography historian: "Nevertheless, it was evident that these photographs were captured through the gaze of a foreigner — in other words, a stranger. This is not to be perceived in a negative sense. (...) When you find yourself in an unfamiliar place, anything and everything that meets your eyes appears tinged with a fresh brilliance. This wonder and subtle sense of discomfort likely work well to imbue photographs taken by strangers with a character different from those taken by photographers living in that locality. (...) Japanese society is on the verge of a period of great change in the wake of the COVID-19 crisis. Furthermore, that future is by no means bright but is enveloped in thick fog. In this situation, boys and girls are probably asking “Where are we?” and “Where are we going?” with their whole being. Morvan is engaging with those questions and is trying to find answers through his photographs."

From the foreword by Julien Bouvard, Professor of Japanese Studies at Jean Moulin University Lyon : "The elements of daily life presented here are all traces of the passage of time. They themselves echo the period when the photographs were taken: spring and the cherry trees so typical of Japan, whose pink hues are a sign of resilience in the face of disasters of all kinds, even global pandemics. If hope is perceptible in these photographs from an anxious period, it is resolutely found on the side of plants, omnipresent, surviving despite the cracked concrete, indifferent to viruses from the human species."

Alexandre Morvan Cherry Trees
Kehrer Verlag
16.5 x 22 cm, 128 pages, 108 color images
kehrerverlag.com
 
27.11.2024 show complete article

James Carroll passed away in early April 2024. This book, which he was able to oversee through completion, now serves as a homage to his life’s work. ‘The Lives of Others’ is a retrospective of one of America’s great street photographers, presenting many previously unpublished works from a career spanning more than four decades.

The photographs of James Carroll (1940–2024) comprise a collection of historical Americana. Driven by a need to preserve memories of his own experiences and those of others, as well as by what curator and author Sean Corcoran describes as "his yearning to see, to know, and to understand," Carroll explored the transience of human life and relationships.

The images take us from a documentary perspective into a more subjective realm, where the author, through serendipitous encounters, imagines new scenarios while simultaneously offering commentary on the American landscape.

“I think what we see and choose to photograph is more a reflection of our inner state. My work reflects the strivings of a certain kind of American photographer: a yearning for the road, a need for connection, and the search for home.” James Carroll.

‘The Lives of Others’ by James Carroll
Artist: James Carroll
Editor: Régina Monfort
Texts: James Carroll, Sean Corcoran
Design: Francesca Richer
Cloth hardcover with tipped-in plate
24 x 22 cm, 192 pages, 123 duotone illustrations
ISBN 978-3-96900-150-9
€ 50,00 / US$ 58.00
06.11.2024 show complete article

Photographer Kristin Schnell moved from the bustling city of Berlin to the countryside in northern Germany, where she lives in a remote house with a large garden surrounded by nature. The dramatic extent to which bird populations are declining due to industrial agriculture became a daily reality for Kristin Schnell. She began to engage intensively with the issue and processed her impressions by setting up a photography studio in her aviary and capturing the interplay of colors, forms, sunlight, wind and bird movements in their artificial habitat. The idea for the impressive and profound photo book ‘Of Cages and Feathers’ was born.

Appearing now as a photo book at Kehrer Publishing is the photography project by Kristin Schnell. She photographed birds in captivity as a symbol of the cage that humans tend to put themselves in. Her photos have been widely published and exhibited internationally. Themes explored in ‘Of Cages and Feathers’ include freedom, isolation and the relationship between humans and animals.

For the titles of her images, Kristin Schnell chose song titles from jazz legend Charlie Parker. The result is a set of vibrant and form-rich images that also reflect the social structure of the birds, in which the photographer sees parallels with humans.

Birds are a symbol of freedom but often kept in captivity. Living behind bars, they only have the chance usually to catch but a glimpse of the outside world. Reflections in the window panes mimic the sun, serving as a substitute. A symbol for Kristin that even in the darkest of times, there is always a ray of hope to hold on to.

“In my garden, I have a large outdoor aviary for mistreated birds. There, these birds have the opportunity to live a somewhat natural life, despite being behind bars. They can socialize with other partners and fly long distances. Through observation, I’ve learned a lot about them and noticed many parallels to us humans. The vibrant array of colors in my garden inspires me to envision an abstract and artificial world of birds behind bars.” Kristin Schnell.

“In first looking at Kristin Schnell’s stunning ode to the natural world, told through color, form, and bird, it took me a minute to understand the process of creating art in collaboration with a living creature. Inspired by the beauty of stained glass she experienced as a child in church windows, she developed a sensitivity to the movement of the sun, the changing color casts, and ideas of chance and spirituality. Her work is, in fact, an altar of sorts, devoted to the beauty and fragility of the avian world, accompanied by colorful sets that she builds and paints herself.” Aline Smithson.

Kristin Schnell - Of Cages and Feathers
Kehrer Publishing, texts by Hans Pfeifer
Design by Jana Neff, Juno Hamburg
Hardcover, 24 × 32 cm, 128 pages, 71 color illustrations
ISBN 978-3-96900-180-6, € 48.00
 
09.10.2024 show complete article