Photobooks of 2019: Amanda Ling-Ning Lo
Gift by Mari Katayama
The first book by Mari Katayama, which is both a retrospective and a portfolio of her evolution as an artist. The book includes the series she made before and after she gave birth to her daughter, which marked a significant transition in her life as both an artist and an individual. She creates objects and takes photographs as a physical kind of action, using her own body as a living sculpture to give a presentation of the situations and circumstances she encountered in society.
Because… by Sophie Calle
Marvelous presentation of the photograph and how its language interacts when a reader opens the page of words and the action of revealing the image that is being covered underneath the folded page.
Farewell Photography by Daido Moriyama
From the reprint series published by Getsuyo-sha in Japan, with consistent format and size. ‘Japan, A Photo Theater’, ‘Light & Shadow’, ‘Hunter’ are the other three published titles from the series. Adopted the spread page size from the original version and printed with varnish, the readers can see the frame of the original spread page. The varnish parts yellow as it gets aged, thus to echo the original vintage feeling.
Ash by Muge
The format of the book developed from the artistic concept of ‘Ash’ with three parts of the book that are stacked on top of each other, forming a staircase design with images of a pine tree symbolized the growth of images in time flows. The states of objects reflected through the glossy varnish, matte varnish or special color varnish, which presents the diverse situation of natural spaces and their transient changes.
No No No No Good Club by Etang Chen
The photobook by the Taiwanese photographer Etang Chen of his snapshots from ordinary life. Some images seem absurd, unpleasant, relaxing, ironic and some depict the impotent situations in daily life. Those are what he sees from his private life, but at some points also speak out the universal facts of the young generation nowadays, like the fragment of lives as pieces for a jigsaw puzzle that is not limited to the life experiences shared by Taiwanese young.
Goze Asahigraph Reprint by Shoko Hashimoto
A reprint of ‘Goze’ photographed by Shoko Hashimoto that were originally published in Asahi Graph, a Japanese weekly pictorial magazine in 1970 and 1973, with English translation of the articles about the journey of Goze – the blind female musicians who toured and performed in the rural areas along the Sea of Japan.
What I Am Doing by Eiko Yamazawa
The exhibition catalog of the renowned Japanese photographer Eiko Yamazawa (1899-1995) to accompany the retrospective exhibitions at the Nishinomiyashi Otani Memorial Museum and Tokyo Photographic Art Museum. Mainly featuring her color and monochrome abstract works from the series of ‘What I Am Doing’ in the 1970s and 80s, as well as the works from her representative photobook “Far and Near” published in 1962.
Amanda Ling-Ning Lo is director of intermediArt, a creative agency engaged in photobook design, editing and art management. Co-director of Nitesha, an online art and photography bookstore and publisher, the first publishing project is the complete reprint edition Provoke in 2018. She also works as a project manager and bookshop manager for Kyotographie, an International Photography Festival in Kyoto.
Images: top – Farewell Photography by Daido Moriyama, below – Ash by Muge
