MACK Publications
In our independent bookshop we have lots of photo books from the publisher MACK, here is a closer look at three of the new additions to our ever growing shop.
Girl Plays with Snake, Clare Strand, £30.00
The artist behind this clean cut scrap book containing found photographs of snakes is British conceptual artist Clare Strand. Strand has an interest in found photography and the shape-shifting nature photographs can have depending on their context. In an interview with i-D magazine the artist reveled the inspiration for the book came from her daughter who came home from school one day declaring that she had held a snake. Strand turned to her archive of found photographs and selected ones that featured women and yes, you guessed it, snakes. The book features bizarre photographs of amusing situations, one of my favorites is of a woman hanging out of a car window posing happily with a snake. As stated on the artists website, Clare Strand would like to make it very clear that she is not a lover of snakes.
ZZYZX, Gregory Halpern, £35.00
Taking its title from the town of Zzyzx in California, Gregory Halpern’s collection of photographs taken around Los Angeles evokes a sense of a dystopian future. When selecting images for the book Halpern trawled through an estimated thousand rolls of film, all which were shot between 2008 and 2015. The result a carefully curated selection of individual photographs that form a liner story in which we follow on a journey from east to west California.
Provisional Arrangement, Martin Kollar, £25.00
Martin Kollar was the first winner if the Prix Elysée in 2015, with his £55,000 prize he put half of it towards the production of his project Provisional Arrangement. The Slovakian artist grew up during the communist era under the slogan “With the Soviet Union for all Eternity”, like many of his generation the provisional ruled the everyday. As seen though his practise Kollar is interested with the temporary world in which he now exists, and how he is constantly adapting himself to endless variations. Provisional Arrangement has no supporting text, the reader is expected to form their own narratives and own paths of possibilities.
Spend £50 or more on MACK books and receive a free goodie bag that contains a MACK sketchbook and a MACK catalogue.
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Written by Holly Christopher
