Best Books 2015
Best Books 2015
Rémi Coignet
2015 Best Books picks from Rémi Coignet.
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By Julián Barón
Self-Published
In 1975, two propaganda books were released in Spain: Los ultimos dias de Franco vistos en TVE and Los primeros dias del rey vistos en TVE, both comprising TV screen shots. On the occasion of the abdication of Juan Carlos in favor of Felipe VI, Julián Barón used a similar format, but turned the propaganda book into a protest book against the scandal-ridden Spanish Monarchy.
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By Daniel Blaufuks
Pierre von Kleist editions
Directly inspired by Cesare Pavese’s diary, Daniel Blaufuks’ last release is a meditation on the beauty and complexity of life: shadow and light, potential violence (knife, toy gun), the beauty of a woman, the simple presence of lemons or of a glass of water on a Lisbon kitchen table.
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By Indra Kumar Jha & Federico Carpani
Self-Published
This book is one of the ugliest, and one of the most beautiful books of the year. One of the ugliest because the images, basic time-stamped snapshots, are devoid of any aesthetic and because it is quite unpleasant to stare death in the face; one of the most beautiful because the photos of the deceased and their families made in Benares by Indra Kumar Jha are brilliantly edited by Federico Carpani and because while it is necessary to stare death in the face, it may not necessarily have to be through any artistic aesthetic strategies.
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By JH Engström
Aperture
Anyone familiar with Engström’s work may find the title Tout va bien either ironic or the reflection of some deep shift in his frame of mind. While inscribed in the artist’s characteristic style, the book however addresses new issues such as fatherhood, or the place of man in nature. Virtuoso editing and sequencing clearly demonstrate a bookmaker at the top of his art.
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By Klara Källström & Thobias Fäldt
B-B-B-Books
The authors, struck by the linguistic gaps between French and English-speakers in Quebec, initiated a reflection about the survival of Amerindian idioms and researched toponyms that had withheld traces of them. They photographed various locations and simply captioned the images with the French and English translations of their names. “Kanata” (Canada) means “Village” in Iroquois.
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By Daniel Mayrit
Riot Books
Daniel Mayrit spotted the faces of the 100 most influential personalities of London on surveillance video recordings. Annotated in ballpoint pen on each portrait are the scandals or conflicts of interest involving the person. The screw-bound book can be disassembled to become an exhibition or a political tool to be handed out in the streets. A 2015 protest book.
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By Christian Patterson
Koenig Books
How to bounce back after a success such as Redheaded Peckerwood? Christian Patterson does it well with his usual tools (found images, staging, straight photos) but this time through his personal story, by taking hold of the 1973 phonebook of his native city, Fond du Lac, WI.
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By Casper Sejersen
MACK
Based on the film script of Lars von Trier’s Nymphomaniac, this book addresses, through stunning editing, such apparently unrelated issues as botanics, religion and sex. The result is remarkably coherent.
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By Carlos Spottorno
PHREE, RM
In black and white, like in a crime novel, Spottorno explores the locations where money and the power it bequeaths are preserved: Switzerland, Luxembourg, or the city of London… The mischievous Spaniard adopts the format of a luxurious promotional booklet for a fictitious private institution coined the WTF Bank.
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By Katja Stuke
Fw: Books
On Chinese National Day, Katja Stuke spent several hours filming in Tiananmen Square, one of the world’s most monitored sites. From that video, she singled out hundreds of portraits of passers by that she related to news clippings found in Hong Kong dealing with the 1989 massacres: a reflection about the visible and the concealed, the authorized and the banned.
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Translated by Frédérique Destribats
Rémi Coignet is editor in chief for
The Eyes magazine. In 2014, he published
Conversations, a collection of his interviews with distinguished photographers (The Eyes Publishing).
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