Since 2015 Charlotte Dumas has studied the Japanese island of Yonaguni and the critically-endangered breed of native horses that roam freely across it. A tragic part of the island’s past comes through in her characteristically intimate films and photos. In round glass objects, ballet shoes, or a horse’s girth cloth, a special blue colour recurs to link Japanese nature, the island’s horses, and three young girls, whose spirited independence brings a new energy to Yonaguni.
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- Ao 青
- Charlotte Dumas
- Fw:Books
- 2021
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- Anima
- Charlotte Dumas
- Mart. Spruijt bv, Amsterdam
- 2012
Anima features the caisson horses of Arlington National Cemetery in the United States. This is the national burial ground where U.S. service members are buried, and is located outside the country’s capital city of Washington, D.C.
These animals are among the few left to perform a duty for mankind that dates back centuries. No longer used in warfare as such, they now have the sole and exclusive privelege of accompanying soldiers to their final resting place.
Dumas photographed these horses when their working day was done, as they were falling asleep in front of her eyes and camera. The horses not only convey their vulnerability at rest, but also reflect a falling, the losing of consciousness. Dumas: “As I spent time with them at night I felt this was maybe one of the most intimate and private moments to witness: the gap between wakefulness and slumber, a space for dreaming and reverie.”→more -
- Day is Done
- Charlotte Dumas
- Self published
- 2005
A cinematic photograph of Rome’s horse-mounted troops in ceremonial dress at night graces the cover of this artist’s book. Inside, a series of photographs show the martial steeds in their stables, preparing for a nocturnal respite.
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- Stay
- Charlotte Dumas
- 916Press
- 2016
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- The Widest Prairies
- Charlotte Dumas
- Oodee
- 2013
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- Work Horse
- Charlotte Dumas
- The Ice Plant
- 2015
In November 2014 Charlotte Dumas began photographing the eight native horse breeds of Japan. Once necessary for farming and transportation, most of these indigenous breeds have lost their practical purpose and have declined in number. Mostly confined to small islands, the horses have never been able to migrate, and their future existence is now uncertain. In some cases, these near-mythical animals have become symbolic of their place, like the Yonaguni horse, which — together with the world’s largest moth and the marlin — is depicted on the manhole covers of this remote island. Each breed seems to unlock a history of its location and a story about the people who share its territory. This limited artist book, documenting Dumas’ project to date, portrays horses from the islands of Yonaguni, Miyakojima, Nagano and Hokkaido.
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- Pferde & Autos
- Clara Bahlsen
- Self published
- 2012
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- Girl Plays with Snake
- Clare Strand
- MACK
- 2016
Girl Plays with Snake by Clare Strand comprises images sourced from the darkest recesses of the artist’s extensive archive. The project continues Strand’s decades-long engagement with the scrapbooks, magazines and photographs that she has drawn together since her mid-teens. In this iteration of Strand’s ongoing research and reflection, women and girls are pictured holding, playing with and gazing fondly at snakes. Key to understanding the intention of the imagery is the inclusion of original accompanying text attached to the reverse, revealing stories of the bizarre and the erotic, alongside Myth and Credo.
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- Animal Farm
- Daniel Naudé
- Prestel Publishing
- 2012
For years Daniel Naudé has traversed South Africa’s countryside recording his travels as a way of understanding South Africa and its complexities. Among his most arresting subjects are animals, and the collection of images in this book is as beautiful as it is intriguing. The penetrating stare of a feral Africanis dog; the regal dignity of enormous horned cattle; farmers bottle-feeding a lamb, clutching a young donkey, or stolidly leading their goats to pasture—all are photographed against the backdrop of South Africa’s rolling hills, grasslands, and seashore. As Naudé’s muted colors contrast with the animals’ stark silhouettes, viewers are compelled to share his intrepid curiosity about the nature of human dominion over animals, and about how the histories of all living things are intertwined and indivisible.
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- Sightings of the Sacred
- Daniel Naudé
- Prestel Publishing
- 2016
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- Villa Horsá
- Davida Nemeroff
- Golden Spike Press
- 2016
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- A Song of Life
- Diana Michener
- Steidl
- 2018
A Song of Life presents Diana Michener’s most recent body of work, poignant photographs of animals that for the artist have become close to self-portraits.
Michener began photographing animals unexpectedly during a trip to India in 2006 where, intimidated by the chaos of the street, she wandered into a zoo and turned her lens to its rhinoceros, elephants and gazelles. Haunted by the resulting images of confinement, Michener became increasingly obsessed with them and decided to expand the project, first at the menagerie at Paris’ Jardin des Plants and later in various zoos throughout Europe and the USA. During her visit to each zoo, Michener remained silent and still for hours in front of the cages, almost in communion with these creatures who take on a close to mythical dignity in her photos.
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- Novogen
- Dániel Szalai
- The Eriskay Connection
- 2021
Novogen is a project focusing on the eponymous breed of chickens that was developed in order to use its eggs in the production of pharmaceutical products such as medicines and vaccines. Through the investigation of the industrialised farming of the Novogen White Light chicken, Dániel Szalai (HU) intends to articulate questions and dilemmas regarding technology and man’s relation to nature.
The core of the book is formed by an extensive series of portraits of individual chickens besides photographs documenting the environment of the production facilities and the process of vaccine production. The images are supplemented by a reflective text by philosopher Fahim Amir, a selection of extracts from the management guide of the Novogen White Light and the marketing materials of the company that produces them.
Besides posing questions about our understanding of the natural, Szalai believes that the way these chickens are ‘conceptualised’ can be a metaphor for human positions in the job market, or in the political domain.
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- Animals That Saw Me: Volume Two
- Ed Panar
- The Ice Plant
- 2016
Animals That Saw Me: Volume Two pairs a new collection of photographs from the observational wanderings of Ed Panar with an original essay on “being seen” by speculative realist philosopher Timothy Morton. Extending the project Panar began in 2011 with Animals That Saw Me: Volume One, this ‘sequel’ draws from recent work and newly discovered gems from his vast back catalogue to depict a series of brief, shared encounters with various (non-human) species — mammal, reptile, bird, insect — as they seem to behold the (human) photographer. Edited for the viewer’s maximum delight, the pictures embody a whimsical concept with surprisingly complex ramifications under the surface. Why do we distinguish between “us” and “them,” and what exists in the space between these distinctions? What does it mean to make “eye contact” with another species? What does the presence of a camera add to this phenomenon? Channeling the thoughtful humor, wonder and peculiar engagement with the world that made Panar’s first volume an instant hit, this volume revisits and digs deeper into the question: “Why do we assume that it’s only us who does the looking?”
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- Animals That Saw Me: Volume One
- Ed Panar
- The Ice Plant
- 2011
Roaming the natural and urban world with a camera for over 16 years, often alone, on foot, keeping a low profile, Ed Panar has repeatedly been caught in the act of photography—not by other people, but by a random assortment of familiar animals: cows, cats, frogs, dogs, turtles, deer, geese…you name it. The animal sees Ed, and Ed sees the animal; an unspoken communication passes between them. If he’s lucky, the moment is captured on film, catalogued, tagged for future reference. In Animals That Saw Me: Volume One Panar brings together the first collection of his most surprising and unexpected encounters with ordinary fauna—a brief, deadpan field study of the uncanny moment of recognition between species. What exactly have the animals seen? The pictures are a reminder that we must appear as strange and exotic to them as they do to us.
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