15.06.2015  •  Shop NEWS

0
 

Edition Lammerhuber presents the book WHITE EBONY and exhibition in Brussels for the 'First International Albinism Awareness Day' on 13 June, 2015

“While we continue to receive shocking reports of killings and attacks against persons with albinism, Patricia Willocq’s photographs send a message of hope and encouragement for all those who work to improve their lives,” said Flavia Pansieri, UN Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights. After accepting two historic resolutions concerning the protection of persons with albinism, on 19 November, 2014, the UN General Assembly proclaimed 13 June, 2015 the ‘First International Albinism Awareness Day’.

WHITE EBONY presents engaging and empathetic pictures, which impressively document the courage and will to survive of a stigmatized minority in the Democratic Republic of Congo. A skin tone variant marks people here more than elsewhere out as misfits: very white skin, unusually light hair color, blue or green eyes. This congenital metabolic disease is called albinism, which leads to a deficiency in melanin production. People with albinism (PWA) do not have dark pigments in skin, hair or the iris and often are visually impaired and need special protection from the sun. Most of all, they suffer from social stigmatization and are up against superstition that they possess supernatural powers or are some form of immortal spirit.

So it is little short of a miracle how courageously and confidently that the PWA of Kinshasa try to overcome their role as outsiders. Lead by the famous Congolese albino wrestler, Mwimba Texas, they demand to be treated with respect. In her photographs Patricia Willocq managed to capture this astounding development: "This book is a testimony to hope, courage, love and success to give them the dignity they deserve ".

PATRICIA WILLOCQ is a freelance photographer born in 1980 in the Congo. Amongst the assignments around the world, she dedicates time to support the work of associations and NGOs fighting in the field of human rights. White Ebony has won an honorable mention at the Unicef Photo of the Year Award 2013 and has been exhibited by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. Patricia Willocq endeavors to avoid miserabilism and her work is associated with projects that promote tolerance and dignity.

WHITE EBONY I BLANC ÉBÈNE I WEISSES EBENHOLZ
24 x 30 cm, 180 pages, 96 photos, hardcover, ISBN 978-3-901753-87-9, € 59.00

Photo exhibition WHITE EBONY
13 – 27 July, 2015, Halles St Gery, Brussels, Belgium
09 – 30 October, 2015, Maison de la Laïcité, La Louvière, Belgium
13 –12 November, 2015, Maison du Hainaut, Charleroi, Belgium

CREDITS
Art Director     Lois Lammerhuber
Location     Congo; Africa
Photographer     Patricia Willocq
free1title     White Ebony

 
EDITION LAMMERHUBER - WHITE EBONY

EDITION LAMMERHUBER - WHITE EBONY

 
EDITION LAMMERHUBER - WHITE EBONY

EDITION LAMMERHUBER - WHITE EBONY

 
EDITION LAMMERHUBER - WHITE EBONY

EDITION LAMMERHUBER - WHITE EBONY

 
EDITION LAMMERHUBER - WHITE EBONY

EDITION LAMMERHUBER - WHITE EBONY

 
EDITION LAMMERHUBER - WHITE EBONY

EDITION LAMMERHUBER - WHITE EBONY

 
EDITION LAMMERHUBER - WHITE EBONY

EDITION LAMMERHUBER - WHITE EBONY

 
EDITION LAMMERHUBER - WHITE EBONY

EDITION LAMMERHUBER - WHITE EBONY

 
EDITION LAMMERHUBER - WHITE EBONY

EDITION LAMMERHUBER - WHITE EBONY

 
EDITION LAMMERHUBER - WHITE EBONY

EDITION LAMMERHUBER - WHITE EBONY

 



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