Photobooks of 2023: Terri Weifenbach

Japanese Photography Magazines 1880s - 1980s by Kaneko Ryūichi, Toda Masako, Ivan Vartanian, Goliga

This is the tome of the emergence of Japanese photography. Ivan Vartanian’s labor of love is indispensable for its factual historical significance. Japan’s culture of photography was expressed and honed primarily through magazines, widely seen and including critical thought, curation and writings (and photographs of course). This tome is heavily illustrated and includes the texts of the expert historians of Japanese photography, Todo Masako and Kaneko Ryūichi, and makes clear Vartanian’s deep understanding of the significance of Japanese photography in the history of photography at large.

The Order of Things by Nicholas Faure, Edition Patrick Frey

This book should be boring. At that it failed. These full bleed images are both abstracts existing on the surface of the page as a painting does on canvas and tied to their subject of ornamental gardens. Well sequenced, each turn of the page is a new discovery, both formal and informational. An essay at the back of the book illuminates a history of plant migration, an addition that rounds out one’s view of the book. This is an exciting visually complex and confrontational experience.


Naked Rose by Miyako Ishiuchi, Super Labo

Ishiuchi began photographing these roses as an assignment about perfume. But how she saw them did not fit the expected. They are her vocabulary, beautiful but not typically so. It follows as her books, particularly award winning APARTMENT, are similar with close observations and familiarity. She is intimate with these roses and shows us what she sees and knows.


The Oldest Thing by Ruth Van Beek, Van Zoetendaal

Delivered as a simple, concise and small block of 511 pages drawn from Ruth van Beek’s archive of source material. Here they all become essential in a complex woven sequence that if you’re careful and give slow attention reveals amazing nuance, emotional and visual, like the best handmade lace. This is anything but a simple book.


The Inhabitants by Raymond Meeks and George Weld, Mack

Meeks takes us to and through the places most of us avoid. These are forgotten places, with discarded objects that become calligraphic warnings for those that have no choice but to be there. Is the darkness a comfort when you have no home?

What to remember about photography is that images, when at their peak, also call forth the unnamable. This is Ray Meeks’ strength and with George Weld’s enigmatic writings they circle this, peering into darkness and illuminating terrors.

Terri Weifenbach, photographer, was born in New York City. She now lives and works in Burgundy, France. Her most recent book is Cloud Physics published by Atelier EXB, Paris. She received the Guggenheim fellowship in 2015. 


Images:
top - The Order of Things by Nicholas Faure, Edition Patrick Frey
below - Japanese Photography Magazines 1880s - 1980s by Kaneko Ryūichi, Toda Masako, Ivan Vartanian, Goliga