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Euan Ross
I like to capture the landscape we live in as stand-alone images, bodies of work, creating narratives as artists books.
I run Biblioscapes where I share my personal collection of photobooks from around the world, covering a variety of subject matters, themes and styles.
Introduction
Welcome to my first On Landscape book review and my thanks to Tim and Charlotte for offering me the opportunity to share some recent acquisitions with you.
A brief background to Biblioscapes. It is a lockdown side project I started back in April 2020 as a way of sharing a selection of the photobooks I own, offering people an opportunity to view the books as flick-through videos.
The website launched in August 2020 and I began recording a weekly podcast in September, discussing selected books with the photographers, artists and publishers who produced them to offer fellow book and photography lovers unique glimpses and insights into the work.
My favourite season for photography is winter and there’s nothing better than waking up to a fresh snowfall or a misty morning of frost on the ground. Within the pandemic times, my ability to travel in Scotland has been limited and the extent of my photography this winter was limited to one day’s dusting of snow in the city centre of Glasgow.
Instead, I have turned to my collection to soak up some winter sun, feel a sense of remoteness and experience the faraway, selecting three books that each capture a unique winter landscape.
Sandrine Elberg – Jokull
Sandrine’s book is a tribute to the glaciers of Iceland which are of huge significance to the country’s identity and imagery, forming an important part of the landscape and one that many of us flock to photograph.
I came across Sandrine’s book Jokull by chance but was immediately drawn to her work; the incredible patterns and shapes made me initially think I was looking at images from another planet.
As someone with a number of books that feature the Icelandic landscape, Sandrine’s book provides a refreshing perspective, offering a different take on the glacial formations.
With a limited edition run of only 100 copies, I appreciate and admire Sandrine’s attention to detail and coherence with the red stitching and the coordinating red centre-fold, the different qualities of paper and the pouch itself.
Gerry Johansson – Antarktis
Twenty years ago Gerry spent two months on the remote continent of Antarctica, armed with a large format camera and a desire and thirst to explore. It is an area I would like to visit, however, it is unlikely to happen anytime in the near future – with cost not Covid-19 being the primary factor.
Extending to over 14million sq km, there are few identifiable objects to provide us with that sense of scale, so as I view the images, I find myself being stopped in my tracks as I try to visualise the scale and imagine the surroundings for myself.
As one would expect with a large format camera, the detail in the photography is magnificent and the tonal range of the images has been beautifully captured.
Eiji Ohashi – Roadside Lights Seasons: Winter
If I could only visit one country time and time again, then Japan would almost certainly be it. I have been very fortunate to visit repeatedly over the past 15 years on holidays with my wife and I never grow tired of spotting the combinations of cultural traditions and technological advancements present within everyday Japanese contemporary life. There are many phenomena I have only ever seen in Japan including vending machines offering hot meals in the middle of nowhere.
Eiji’s work combines my love of the landscape with my fascination for culture, capturing a Japanese symbolic icon within the landscape. The magic is in the juxtaposition between the natural and the technological. The bold man-made machine standing out against Nature’s winter embrace.
The print quality and colour reproduction are both superb, evoking vibrancy and energy without being overpowering or intimidating. With its concertina binding, there is the opportunity to display and view this body of work as a miniature exhibition.
Availability
Beyond Words stocks both Gerry’s book and Eiji’s book while Sandrine’s book is available from her website.