3. International Photobook Festival - Dummy Awards
Here is a list of the 56 nominated books for the International Photobook Festival’s Dummy Competition. The three prize winners are Werner Amann with “American”, Chad States “Cruising” and Axel Beyer’s “Bebra Curiosa”. Among the winning book dummy’s are a few others I feel deserve a mention.
Torben Höke’s book “Rented Rooms” is poetic narrative of hotel rooms and rentals in India. With it’s muted colour and soft pastel tones “Rented Rooms” invites the audience to view into the intimate spaces of its inhabitants.
“As if nothing happened” a photo book by Berlin based artist Dorothee Deiss, is a lyrical portrait of Berlin; the city, its people and its surroundings. Paired with song texts by Josepha Conrad, Deiss’s book follows a fluid narrative intertwining the lives and stories of her characters.
Regine Petersen’s book, “To Think About Things” is a collection of strange, comical juxtapositions offering an insight into the photographers mind. This book plays into our innate curiosity and brings up questions, such as “why did the photographer choose to pair the photograph of the boy perched on a stoop buried in his book, with the photograph of the bird resting on the table in a pool of sunlight?”.
The last book dummy I’d like to mention is “Homeland” by Serkan Taycan. In this book Taycan shows us a unique portrait of Turkey, his Homeland, while raising the question “what is Homeland?”. Is it where we grew up? Where our parents were born? Photographed and recorded through the lens of a delicate observer, “Homeland” feels like a book of secrets; strange and exotic, yet oddly familiar.
I’ll admit, I didn’t make it through the entire list of 56; but these four book dummy’s caught and held my attention. The photographs, their stories and the impressions they left. Congratulations to all the nominees!
