Individual photographers Books

Book SynopsisIn a world where Photoshop creates the stereotype of perfect and flawless images, Steve Dean Mendes decided to row against the tide and do just the opposite as a photographer. By deciding not to retouch his images and to not use makeup for his models, only using natural light in the studio, Steve Dean Mendes created a safe environment for his protagonists, initiating a process of removing all masks. In this series he worked predominantly with women and attempted, through art, to facilitate the experience for self-discovery and acceptance.His aim? To capture raw and unaltered emotions and to present a story of love, joy, but also of pain, suffering and abandonment. Inspired by the great Flemish Old masters and the Pre-Raphaelite movement, Steve Dean Mendes wanted to show the real human beings behind these protagonists, with all their natural fragility and beauty of their soul.Text in English and Dutch.

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Book SynopsisFor this unique book, photographer Servaas Van Belle scouted every corner of Belgium to find just the right kind of shed, always photographing them in the same perfect lighting conditions. And for Van Belle ‘perfect’ means in a haze of fog. Livestock shelters in meadows and fields are so common in the Belgian landscape and culture that nobody ever pays them any attention. Nonetheless, the countryside offers quite a range of architectural gems. These sheds and barns are the product of man and nature, quietly radiating a poignant if decaying beauty. They come in many shapes and sizes, are constructed from motley materials (often recycled) and exhibit a varied colour palette. Clearly showing the ravages of time, they tell wordless stories that Servaas Van Belle can capture like no other. Features an introduction by Stephan Vanfleteren. Text in English and Dutch.

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Book Synopsis“Janssens’s new photo series 'Lightness' is teeming with contradictions, dualities and ambiguities. Her photos are both unbearably light and unbearably heavy. It opens the door to a series of new ideas on our desire to escape, our lack of a sense of reality, and our superficiality.” – Thijs Demeulemeester With Lightness Frieke Janssens has created a cathartic photo series, tapping into our urge to escape and our individual quest for a sense of purpose and meaning. Her compositions explore the visual dichotomy between weightlessness and gravity, water and air, aesthetics and imperfection. Using the sea and its eternal ebb and flow as a backdrop, the photographer contemplates the universally human. To what extent can we ever know or understand each other? This exclusive numbered and signed leporello is published on the occasion of the exhibition Lightness, which runs at Cultural Centre Scharpoord, Knokke-Heist from 26 March to 12 June 2022. Its publication coincides with ‘Foto Knokke-Heist’. With contributions by Sofie Crabbé, Lize Spit and Thijs Demeulemeester.

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Book SynopsisWerner Mantz (1901-1983) was a prominent architectural and industrial photographer who began his career in the 1920s. His work occupies a unique historical position thanks to his visual language, technical prowess and use of natural light. As one of the most important photographers of the New Building movement, Mantz’s oeuvre bridges the gap between the often-anonymous nature of commissioned photography and the modernist­, artistic avant-garde movements of the interwar years, such as the Bauhaus. In the ­1970s, Mantz was even hailed as the ‘missing link’ in the history of international photography. To date, only thematic selections from Mantz’s wide-ranging oeuvre have been exhibited. This monograph sets the record straight by showcasing, for the very first time, his immense versatility. Werner Mantz – The Perfect Eye contains over 300 predominantly vintage images, ranging from architectural photography, advertising shots and portraits of adults and children, to views of industry and mines, religious subjects, shops, restaurants and interiors, as well as roads, public spaces, landscapes and travel photographs. That Mantz’s oeuvre belongs to the canon of international photography is indisputable. With text contributions by Frits Gierstberg, Stijn Huijts, Huub Smeets, Charlotte Mantz and Clément Mantz. Werner Mantz – The Perfect Eye is the publication accompanying the retrospective exhibition of Werner Mantz at the Bonnefanten in Maastricht from 25 September 2022 to 26 February 2023.

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Book SynopsisIn Instanton, photographer and filmmaker Anton Corbijn presents a series of images, most of which have never been published previously. Corbijn gained his fame and reputation with his portraits of famous figures including Nick Cave, Tom Waits, The Rolling Stones, Marlene Dumas, Gerhard Richter, Clint Eastwood, Kate Moss and a host of other influential musicians, artists, filmmakers, models and designers. But over the years, Corbijn has also captured a wealth of intriguing images on his mobile phone. Instanton brings together a wide selection of these snapshots from his private life, as well as shots taken whilst travelling, recording ‘the profane and the profound’.

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Book SynopsisIntriguing self-portraits, desolate landscapes and vibrant colours: the Dutch-Croatian artist Sanja Marušić (b. 1991) creates new worlds with her images. She travels to the four corners of the globe, but just as easily she uses her own living room as a backdrop. Recurring themes are escapism, the relationship between man and nature, motherhood, and finding the balance in human relationships. Marušić’s artistic practice is guided by her love of experimenting with shapes, colours and layers. Photography is the starting point for each work, but she then uses a variety of analogue and digital techniques, sometimes changing the image in such a way that it seems as if we are looking at a painting. The performances (staged by the artist herself), the creation of a set using handmade props, and the manual post-processing are just as important as the photo itself. The stories she tells through her photography and films touch on her personal life; for example, the series Eutierria (2019) depicts her honeymoon, Before You (2020) documents her pregnancy, and Sasha and Sanja (ongoing) deals with her motherhood. With a text contribution by author Selin Kuşçu.

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Book Synopsis

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Book Synopsis

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Book Synopsis

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Book Synopsis

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Book Synopsis

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Book Synopsis

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Book SynopsisIn Setting the Stage: North Korea photographer Eddo Hartmann shows the North Korean regime's ambitions to build the ultimate socialist city and to mould the people living in that city to their ideals. Hartmann is one of very few Western photographers who has been allowed almost full access to the country. This publication is the result of many years of research and four visits to Pyongyang. After the total destruction of Pyongyang during the Korean War (1950-53), the government took its chance to rebuild the capital from scratch and to turn it into the perfect setting for their propaganda. Pyongyang was to become the city in which every North Korean could experience true modern socialism. The buildings were to be the utopian background against which the inhabitants could live their daily lives. Pyongyang was to immortalise the socialist revolution. Eddo Hartmann had the exceptional opportunity to photograph this architecture of artificiality. In a series of evocative images, he captures the forced and almost surreal character of North Korean ambition. In a very personal and original style, Hartmann focuses on the individual.

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Book SynopsisTakis Tloupas was born in Thessaly, grandson of a coppersmith and son of a carpenter, and lived and worked there, in Larisa. He followed the profession of his father, and woodcarving brought him a comfortable living; until a trip to Palaios Pandeleimonas with the Mountaineering Club introduced Takis to photography. The club president was a keen amateur photographer who showed Takis his camera and how it worked. When Takis returned to Larisa he bought his first camera, and took his first photographs—of his sister, Avyi. During a trip to Paris in 1952, Takis made the decision to change his profession and on his return to Greece, he bought a Vespa scooter and began his journeys around Greece. He undertook commissions from the Forestry Inspectorate, the Mechanical Agriculture Department and the Red Cross. In 1960 the Vespa was replaced by a Deux Chevaux, and he continued to travel the whole of Greece, taking over 30,000 photographs of what he saw on his travels, of people and their lives. But it was Larisa that he photographed most as time went by, the city in which he was born and lived. This book is much more than an album of fine photographs. It demonstrates how Takis viewed nature and men through his cameras lens and provides us with the images of a world that the rest of us have not learned to see. 574 black and white photographs.Table of ContentsPublisher’s note Takis Tloupas remembered A few words about Takis Tloupas by Lena Gouryioti and Angelos Delivorrias The art of photography and Takis Tloupas Takis Tloupas, the photographer in quest of the truth of Nature and Man THE ENVIRONMENT NATURE BUILT ENVIRONMENT PEOPLE THE HUMAN FIGURE DAILY LIFE AND TASKS THE MARKET – PROFESSIONS ON THE MOVE MOMENTS IN MONASTERIES SOCIAL LIFE LIST OF PHOTOGRAPHS

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