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"I became familiar with the work of Vincent Delbrouck (V.D.) when I picked up his first monograph, Beyond History: Havana 1998-2006. This 2009 publication showed a raw and honest portrayal of life in Cuba. Beyond History didn’t have an overarching narrative that was shoved down your throat, nor did it over-romanticize contemporary Cuban life or culture. Instead, Delbrouck’s photographs were raw, personal, humble, and most importantly, honest. These characteristics have become emblematic of the artist’s work and it is apparent in his most recent publication, Catalogue.
In Catalogue, V.D. has created a book unlike anything he has done before. A combination of straight photographs, installation shots, and altered images, this book contains photographs from multiple bodies of work. From Cuba to the Himalayas and everything in between, this book is as close as you can get to a comprehensive catalog of V.D.’s photographic career. The only peculiarity is that the photographs are not in chronological order — in fact, they are not in any order at all.
Every copy of Catalogue is a unique publication. The layout and the page order of each book were randomly selected before they were bound. Because of this, every book is drastically different from every other book in the same edition. While many other photographers will work diligently with a publisher to finalize the perfect photographic sequence, V.D. chose to leave this aspect of the photobook up to chance. Described as an “anti-poem” this book fully embraces the chaos and unpredictability that is a constant in the artist’s creative process as well as in life itself.
Containing a Xerox style print, printed on glossy magazine paper, and signed with his iconic red marker, this book is designed to be engaged with. Catalogue urges you to read and revisit its pages. The images are beautiful and disparate, and much like a beat poem, the book can require multiple readings to fully digest. Whether you’ve been following V.D. for years, or are just being introduced to his work, this book has something for you. Printed in an edition of 480 copies Catalogue is random, chaotic, and often messy — but so is life, and like life, this book is truly beautiful."—Forrest Soper
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Forrest Soper is a photographer and artist based out of Santa Fe, New Mexico. A graduate of the Santa Fe University of Art and Design, he also has previously worked at Bostick & Sullivan. Forrest is the Editor of photo-eye Blog.
http://forrestsoper.com/
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Forrest Soper is a photographer and artist based out of Santa Fe, New Mexico. A graduate of the Santa Fe University of Art and Design, he also has previously worked at Bostick & Sullivan. Forrest is the Editor of photo-eye Blog.
http://forrestsoper.com/