Book of the Week: A Pick by Sybren Kuiper

Ametsuchi by Rinko Kawauchi

This week's Book of the Week pick comes from designer Sybren Kuiper who has selected Rinko Kawauchi's Ametsuchi from Aperture.

"Most photo books I know deal with real things. Raw realities, shocking discoveries or strange phenomenas. Books that help me discover the world around me.

"Far fewer books transcend reality and if they do, it is often hard to tell why. Even if the photo’s are not fuzzy or unclear and the subject matter is down to earth and realistic, they keep eluding easy descriptions and snappy taglines. Because they speak to the heart and not to the mind, they help me discover something about myself, before they let me discover something about the world.

"Ametsuchi by Rinko Kawauchi is such a book. The initial subject matter is pretty realistic; the controlled burning of fields for agricultural purposes. But… in the book (designed by one of my favorite designers Hans Gremmen) the formidable and destructive force of fire, the repetition of pictures, the surprises in the edit and the brilliant use of negatives on the inside of the semi-Japanese bound pages, did just that, it opened my heart before it opened my mind." -- Sybren Kuiper

Read the review of Ametsuchi by Adam Bell

from Ametsuchi by Rinko Kawauchi

Sybren Kuiper, who works under the moniker of “-SYB-“, is a graphic designer based in The Hague in the Netherlands. In addition to his work for commercial clients and theater, he has been specialising in photo-book design for almost ten years. His aim is to narrate the photography as an integrated whole, rather than as a series of individual images. He designs and has designed books for Vivianne Sassen, Cuny Janssen, Valerio Spada, Florian van Roekel and many more.

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