Book of the Week: A Pick by Ying Ang

Book of the Week Book of the Week: A Pick by Ying Ang Ying Ang selects Prophet by Geert Goiris as Book of the Week.

The Prophet. By Geert Goiris.
Roma Publications, 2015.

This week's Book of the Week pick comes from Ying Ang who has selected Prophet by Geert Goiris from Roma Publications.

"Prophet begins with what appears to me as an ode to Sisyphus. A boulder, dark and discarded, a symbol of futility and toil, wrapped up in a posthumous reckoning. Our characters are for the most part solitary, embarked on their own micro journeys through the mountains and the snow. The sun appears once at the behest of two lovers, a moment of redemption in the midst of an eternal night.

This book serves as a visual metaphor for a constant hum of low level anxiety with a shriek of nervous laughter, a muffled moan, a gasp, a sigh. There are moments of such tension in certain photographs, strategically and rhythmically placed throughout the book; I felt my heart leap periodically as if timed to a metronome. The double gauge shotgun of a man dousing himself in the smoke of three cigarettes and a swathe of scorched earth, a crumpled arthropod awash in magenta and an icy green hued snowdrift pushed hard up against a darkened road. Geert's book is an aria of estrangement, linked through a wintery nightscape and startlingly confronting portraits. I approach the Prophet in wonder and discomfort in equal measure.

Recommended soundtrack:
Gnossienes 1 - 2 (1890): No. 1 by Erik Satie"—Ying Ang

Purchase Book

The Prophet. By Geert Goiris. Roma Publications, 2015.

The Prophet. By Geert Goiris. Roma Publications, 2015.

Based between Melbourne, Singapore and New York, Ying Ang is a photographer of social and contemporary issues. She graduated as valedictorian for the 2009-2010 class of Documentary Photography and Photojournalism at The International Centre of Photography, with a full portfolio acquired for the permanent collection of the Sagamihara City Museum in Japan and was a participant in the Reflexions Masterclass of 2011-2013.

Ying has lived and worked extensively in Asia, Africa, Australia and North America, having pursued post-graduate studies in Political Science with a background in Biotechnology and Communications. She most recently published her first major monograph, Gold Coast, which has since won the New York Photo Festival and Encontros Da Imagem book prize for 2014 and was a finalist for Australian Photobook of the Year. Gold Coast was also listed by Flak Photo, Lensculture, Voices of Photography, Mark Power / Magnum Photos, Asia Pacific Photobook Archive and Self Publish Be Happy in their top photobooks of 2014. Ying is currently a part of the teaching faculty at The International Centre of Photography in New York and the Photography Studies College in Melbourne, Australia.


See more Book of the Week picks