03.06.2017  •  Shop NEWS

0
 

'Architecture of an Existential Threat' – Adam Reynolds' documentation of the shelters in Israel, as an illustrated book at Edition Lammerhuber and an exhibition at the Jewish Museum Vienna

In Israel there are more than 1 million public and private bunkers. Israeli law stipulates that every citizen must have access to a shelter. For more than two years, American photographer Adam Reynolds photographed these ‘Doomsday spaces’ over a period of two years in all of their facets, opening a window into the collective mindset of this threatened country. With a text by Danielle Spera, Director of the Jewish Museum in Vienna. The photos are also on display in an exhibition on Judenplatz in Vienna.

Since its foundation in 1948, the state of Israel has felt isolated and under threat from enemies. This collective siege mentality manifests itself with over 1 million public and private shelters, found across the whole country. Israeli law stipulates that every citizen must have access to a shelter that can be sealed in case of an attack with unconventional weapons. The Israelis have integrated these ‘Armageddon rooms’ into their everyday life and ‘transformed’ them into spaces that look like normal dance studios, bars or temples. For many people in Israel who live with a personal history of exile and persecution, these shelters are the architecture of an existential threat – both real and perceived.

Adam Reynolds shot the images over the course of three years, from 2013 to 2015. The photographs offer a broad cultural and geographical typology of the shelter spaces by documenting them on either side of the Green Line, throughout Israel and the Occupied Territories, in an effort to offer the broadest survey possible. They straddle the distinct worlds of fine art and reportage. “Working in a country like Israel it is difficult, if not impossible, to separate art from social reality”, says Adam Reynolds.

ADAM REYNOLDS is a documentary photographer with his focus on the Middle East, he holds a master of fine arts degree in photography and bachelor degrees in journalism and political science from Indiana University, along with a master degree in Islamic and Middle East Studies from Hebrew University. His areas of focus include modern Middle East politics, Islamic studies and photo journalism. This academic background enables him to balance photographic creativity with a journalist’s thematic fidelity. In this way he has produced exceptional documents of the times, which have earned him many awards and are presented in exhibitions.

DR. DANIELLE SPERA has a degree in journalism and political science, 1978 to 2010 journalist, reporter, presenter and editorial adviser at ORF, 1987/88 ORF correspondent in Washington, since 2010 director of the Jewish Museum Vienna, since 2013 university counsellor at MUI, president of ICOM Austria, 1991 and 2007 Romy award winner, 1990 to 2002 lecturer in the Department of Communication, University of Vienna, author of numerous books and articles on contemporary art, Jewish topics and for the magazine NU.


Exhibition:
Arnold Reynolds “Shelter! Architecture of Survival”
Jewish Museum Vienna, Museum Judenplatz, 7 June – 8 October, 2017.

ARCHITECTURE OF AN EXISTENTIAL THREAT
Arnold Reynolds, Danielle Spera
22 x 27.5 cm, 144 pages, 72 photos
German, English, Hebrew
Hardcover, bound in linen,
french fold jacket
ISBN 978-3-903101-29-6, € 39.90

CREDITS
Photographer     Arnold Reynolds

 
EDITION LAMMERHUBER presents Arnold Reynolds „Architecture of an Existential Threat“

EDITION LAMMERHUBER presents Arnold Reynolds „Architecture of an Existential Threat“

 
EDITION LAMMERHUBER presents Arnold Reynolds „Architecture of an Existential Threat“

EDITION LAMMERHUBER presents Arnold Reynolds „Architecture of an Existential Threat“

 
EDITION LAMMERHUBER presents Arnold Reynolds „Architecture of an Existential Threat“

EDITION LAMMERHUBER presents Arnold Reynolds „Architecture of an Existential Threat“

 
EDITION LAMMERHUBER presents Arnold Reynolds „Architecture of an Existential Threat“

EDITION LAMMERHUBER presents Arnold Reynolds „Architecture of an Existential Threat“

 
EDITION LAMMERHUBER presents Arnold Reynolds „Architecture of an Existential Threat“

EDITION LAMMERHUBER presents Arnold Reynolds „Architecture of an Existential Threat“

 
EDITION LAMMERHUBER presents Arnold Reynolds „Architecture of an Existential Threat“

EDITION LAMMERHUBER presents Arnold Reynolds „Architecture of an Existential Threat“

 
EDITION LAMMERHUBER presents Arnold Reynolds „Architecture of an Existential Threat“

EDITION LAMMERHUBER presents Arnold Reynolds „Architecture of an Existential Threat“

 
EDITION LAMMERHUBER presents Arnold Reynolds „Architecture of an Existential Threat“

EDITION LAMMERHUBER presents Arnold Reynolds „Architecture of an Existential Threat“

 
EDITION LAMMERHUBER presents Arnold Reynolds „Architecture of an Existential Threat“

EDITION LAMMERHUBER presents Arnold Reynolds „Architecture of an Existential Threat“

 
EDITION LAMMERHUBER presents Arnold Reynolds „Architecture of an Existential Threat“

EDITION LAMMERHUBER presents Arnold Reynolds „Architecture of an Existential Threat“

 
EDITION LAMMERHUBER presents Arnold Reynolds „Architecture of an Existential Threat“

EDITION LAMMERHUBER presents Arnold Reynolds „Architecture of an Existential Threat“

 
EDITION LAMMERHUBER presents Arnold Reynolds „Architecture of an Existential Threat“

EDITION LAMMERHUBER presents Arnold Reynolds „Architecture of an Existential Threat“

 
EDITION LAMMERHUBER presents Arnold Reynolds „Architecture of an Existential Threat“

EDITION LAMMERHUBER presents Arnold Reynolds „Architecture of an Existential Threat“

 
EDITION LAMMERHUBER presents Arnold Reynolds „Architecture of an Existential Threat“

EDITION LAMMERHUBER presents Arnold Reynolds „Architecture of an Existential Threat“

 



About EDITION LAMMERHUBER
IT’S ALL ABOUT PASSION ...

Dear fans of beautiful and sophisticated books,

“An extraordinary publisher, dedicated to little known themes, who presents them with courage and high quality, without descending into stereotypes.” This is how the jury of the FEP European Book Prize of the Year Awards argued their choice of Edition Lammerhuber for Best Publisher 2017, an accolade also awarded to the publisher from Baden bei Wien in the preceding competitions in 2013 and 2015 of this biennial event.

Present on the book market for more than seven years, with a steadily growing programme, we have worked our way to the top – internationally. Your are best at what you love doing. And we love books, we love photography. The photobook is the ideal medium to combine these loves. Photography documents the world in a very particular way and shapes human memory like no other medium does. Our ambition is twofold: We want to publish books with fascinating themes from art and science, with excellent photography, sophisticated texts and brilliant authors, but, most of all, we want to make books that have something to say, books that transport important themes into the heart of society. For us, a book charged with emotional photography is a point of reference for communication that reverberates far beyond the number of sold copies. We believe that we can  make a real impact with a book. For us, a book is not just a commodity but an incomparable cultural technique.

Edition Lammerhuber wants to be the publisher for writer-photographers, for whom seeing is a vocation and whose ways of seeing the world is a process of insights. A process they are capable of transforming into the immediacy of a photograph, a creative act, initiated and completed within seconds or split seconds. As in the motto of Hungarian photographic artist László Moholy-Nagy, who declared, “Photography is there to make the visible visible.” Edition Lammerhuber strives to be home to the best ‘cyclops’ of our time, legends and new talents alike.  

And how does an Edition Lammerhuber book come about? The theme must be important to us, the photography captivate us, there must be something special, magical, in the pictures. Once a decision has been made to publish, the photographer visits us at our publishing house. We go through the photographic material, determine the format of the book, think about a setting to suit the theme. This is when the almost magical process of designing and layouting starts. It usually takes about a week for the concept to be completed to the point where the work of everyone involved can be browsed on-screen, then it passes on to the next steps in the production.

Our declared aim is to approach a perfect book through a passionate creative process. Craft aspects are an essential part of it and of our publishing philosophy. All production steps up to the printing are done in our house. Our own experts produce the prepress. We really care about the reproduction quality of the photographs, the feel of the printed papers and the quality of the binding. We check every single printing form.

So it is hardly surprising that some reviewers call the books of Edition Lammerhuber pieces of art emanating from a ‘book chamber of marvels’ and that nearly all titles gather awards, including those of the Art Directors Club New York, the Deutsche Fotobuchpreis, the Pictures of the Year International (POYI) Awards, USA, the Visa d’or, France, the FEP European Book Prize of the Year Awards or the World Press Photo. Today our books are available in more than 170 countries, usually published in two, sometimes three, languages.

Exceptional photography is not only found in the books of Edition Lammerhuber but also in a photo competition jointly initiated in Vienna in 2013 by Edition Lammerhuber and the Photographische Gesellschaft. Under the general heading What Does Peace Look Like? , the Alfred Fried Photography Award, worth 10 000 euros, chooses the peace image of the year. Participation in the award has exploded in recent years, confirming the status of photography as a medium for transporting essential socio-political themes. From 2017, a separate competition for the peace image of the year is open to children up to the age of 14.

At the biennial LUMIX Festival in Hannover, the Lammerhuber Photography Award for young photo journalists is presented, with a prize money of 5000 euros. Photography and the photobook are an essential, defining, medium for society and for our publishing house. This is why we believe it is important to encourage young photographic talent.

We would be honoured to see our books available from your bookshops and libraries.

Yours
Silvia Lammerhuber and Lois Lammerhuber
Publisher