SUBSCRIPTION SERIES #4 by Christian Patterson, Alessandra Sanguinetti, Raymond Meeks and Wolfgang Tillmans

アメリカ・オークランドを拠点とするインディペンデント出版社「TBW BOOKS」が毎年4人の写真家をキュレーションし、同じフォーマットでそれぞれの作品集を1セットにまとめて発行しているシリーズ「Subscription Series」の第4弾。今回はクリスチャン・パターソン（Christian Patterson）やアレッサンドラ・サンギネッティ（Alessandra Sanguinetti）、レイモンド・ミーク（Raymond Meeks）、ヴォルフガング・ティルマンス（Wolfgang Tillmans）を迎え、これまでのソフトカバーだったフォーマットを一新し、それぞれダストジャケット付きハードカバー仕様でそれぞれの作品集を制作。

クリスチャン・パターソン「BOTTOM OF THE LAKE」
前作「Redheaded Peckerwood」で注目を集めたクリスチャン・パターソン（Christian Patterson）は、個性的な視点と抑えたスタイルで紡ぐビジュアルストーリーを発展させ続けている。本作では米ウィスコンシン州の故郷の街に戻り、いかにも作者らしい冷たくダークな世界観を描き出した。この作品は「ANNUAL SERIES」の一部として出版された後さらに大きく広がり、2015年にはウォルター・ケーニッヒから同タイトルの作品集が出版されている。

アレッサンドラ・サンギネッティ「SORRY, WELCOME」
アレッサンドラ・サンギネッティ（Alessandra Sanguinetti）は、この作品で創造性に溢れた写真家であることを証明した前作から離れ、自分自身の人生を垣間見せてくれた。作者は一歩引いたところから2012年の冬の日々を見つめ続ける。新しい恋愛が人と人との距離を縮め、彼女の娘に新しい姉ができたことを私達は知る。新しい家族に捧げられた鋭くも優しい、愛に溢れた作品。

レイモンド・ミークス「ERASURE」
レイモンド・ミークス（Raymond Meeks）は、引っ越してきたばかりの東海岸の街を自転車で巡ってこの作品を制作した。殺伐とした風景の中を移動しながら、グーグルストリートビューの客観性とロバート・フランクのような好奇心いっぱいの感性が入り混じるスタイルで撮った写真には、喪失感とあこがれが同時ににじみ出ている。意図的に露出オーバーで撮影することで生まれる霧がかかったような効果を使って、作者は見るに堪えない、醜いと感じるものを文字通り消し去る。暗室で加工したことで、心をかき乱すのにどこまでも美しい、実に作者らしい作品が出来上がった。

ヴォルフガング・ティルマンス「UTOQUAI」
「ANNUAL SERIES #4」を締めくくるのは、チューリッヒの浴場の名をタイトルに冠したヴォルフガング・ティルマンス（Wolfgang Tillmans）の作品。全編を通じて 1人のミューズをつぶさに見つめていく。耳や目、膝のクローズアップがこれほどまでに面白く、1人のアーティストが撮ったものであることがはっきり分かることは珍しいが、作者はそれをやってのけた。写真を通じて人の身体を見直してみると、今この時代に世界で最も傑出したアーティストの手によるイメージを見ることの意味が改めて実感される。

TBW books is pleased to announce Subscription Series #4. Artist chosen this year to participate include Christian Patterson, Alessandra Sanguinetti, Raymond Meeks and Wolfgang Tillmans. All four artist in this years series are highly acclaimed and recognized for their artistic visions they offer the art world. Each participating artist has created a unique and thoughtful book exclusively for TBW Books. This year the books have increased in size and structure from previous years. The new format is 9x11 in. and are encased in a hardcover with heavyweight french folded dust jacket. The books new design, both challenge conventional coffee table formats while still maintaining a unique look and feel that TBW has become known for. Each title contains a unique edition number stamped into every book.

BOOK #1
Christian Patterson, Bottom of the Lake
With Bottom of the Lake, Christian Patterson revisits his hometown of Fond du Lac, Wisconsin (French for "Bottom of the Lake") and weaves together visual threads related to the town's iconography, climate and culture.
Christian Patterson lives in Brooklyn, New York. His monograph, Redheaded Peckerwood, was published by MACK in 2011 to international critical acclaim, nominated for the 2012 Kraszna-Krausz Book Awards and won the prestigious 2012 Recontres d’Arles Author Book Award. He was awarded a John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship in 2013.

BOOK #2
Alessandra Sanguinetti, Sorry, Welcome
Sorry, Welcome is a glimpse into the artists life the way it looked throughout the winter of 2012/13. Sanguinetti shot over a short period of time in which she took a step back and became a voyeur of her own life. The images were made in and around her home in San Francisco Ca. and explores dynamics between the union of two unique families.
Alessandra Sanguinetti lives and works in San Francisco and Buenosa Aires. She has published two books with Nazraeli Press: On the Sixth Day and The Adventures of Guille and Belinda and the Enigmatic Meaning of their Dreams. She is a recipient of a John Simon Guggenheim fellowship, a Recontres de Arles Discovery Award, a Hasslblad and a Robert Gardner Fellowship.

BOOK #3
Raymond Meeks, Erasure
Erasure signals a transition from photographic narratives centered on collaboration with Meeks’ immediate family toward an outward gaze; making order of the unfamiliar surroundings of his new home in Providence R.I. Using printing techniques of both over exposing and laying a "base fog" to the image surface, Meeks is literally masking what he deems "the painful and ugly" in his view of the world. This method of darkroom-photoshop creates a truly unsettling yet beautifully unique book.
Raymond Meeks currently resides and works in Providence, Rhode Island. His documenting of family and place have been at the cornerstone of his work and in publications with Nazraeli Press, as well as self-published artist books under his imprint, Dumbsaint.

BOOK #4
Wolfgang Tillmans, Utoquai
Tillmans closes out the subscription with his book Utoquai that is both classically his own while still pushing the language of photography forward, something that has become synonymous with his name. With Utoquai, Tillmans focuses on a single subject and openly presents his ongoing friendship and unrequited love in a way that is compelling, adventurous and vulnerable in equal measures.
Wolfgang Tillmans is a German artist who lives and works in London and Berlin. He was first recognized in the early 1990s for his affecting and unconventional images of friends and other young people in his social circle. Since then Tillmans’ subject matter has broadened combining portraits, still-lifes and landscapes with abstract and sculptural photographic works hung in carefully considered wall installations. This fusion of different photographic practices and a continuous production of artist books is spurred by his personal experiences of life and a strong political engagement. He won the Turner prize in 2000.