THE PHOTOBOOK

The Photobook from a readers perspective
Heidi Bale Amundsen
PHD candidate in art history/esthetics at UiO.
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ANTHROPOS
Javier Barrios + William Løwe Stormdal
Artist + graphic designer
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Paneldialog w/moderator Espen Kjelling
Book signings by Javier Barrios after the talks.

For decades, the photobook has broken barriers, both around the physical design and the way the audience receives and reads them. Innovative production, new forms of distribution channels and self-publishing are topics that will be discussed in this talk. How has the photobook paved new ways for artists and has new forms of collaboration changed the physical design and presentation of the book?

Heidi Bale Amundsen introduces the evening by talking about photobooks and reading. First, she shall talk about the institutionalization of the photobook around 1970. That moment is the condition for today’s conception of the photobook as a particular kind of work, as well as for a contemporary photobook practice defined by self-conscious exploration of what it means to read photographs in books. Second, she shall turn to a selection of photobook examples from the period after, and discuss what kind of experience these books produce. At this point, she shall demonstrate how contemporary photobooks allow for liberated processes of re-reading that challenge conventional conceptions of a work’s meaning as an organic unity.

Behind the photobook ANTHROPOS is the artist Javier Barrios and designer and publisher William Løwe Stormdal. The book is an artistic elaboration on the theme of human influence on geology and ecosystems. We will hear about how artist, designer and publisher have worked with this project.

The talks will be held in Norwegian.