In 1936, an American ornithologist named James Bond published the definitive taxonomy Birds of the West Indies. Ian Fleming, an active bird-watcher living in Jamaica, appropriated the name for his novel’s lead character. He found it “flat and colourless,” a fitting choice for a character intended to be “anonymous. . . a blunt instrument in the hands of the government.” 
In Field Guide to Birds of the West Indies, Taryn Simon (*1975) casts herself as James Bond (1900–1989) the ornithologist, and identifies, photographs, and classifies all the birds that appear within the twenty-four films of the James Bond franchise. The appearance of many of the birds was unplanned and virtually undetected, operating as background noise for whatever set they happened to fly into. Simon’s ornithological discoveries occupy a liminal space—confined within the fiction of the James Bond universe and yet wholly separate from it. This taxonomy of 331 birds is a precise consideration of a new nature found in an alternate reality.

“Fair to cloudy” is a prognostication regularly made on the evening weather report, promising everything and nothing. Homeland—what is it, and how do you recognize or identify it? Three young photographers travel across the country searching for what is “typically German,” something that is both fascinating and disconcerting to them. On their journey from Husum to Donaueschingen they take a serene and self-ironic look at life in the provinces, with all of its peculiarities and unquestioned traditions, which puts a smile on everyone’s face. This raises the question of whether there might be something of all this in us, too. These amusing photos are accompanied by a foreword by Frank Goosen, who, with no less wit, traces German lives and superficialities in an historical survey from the 1960s to the present day.

DAVID CARREÑO HANSEN (*1978, Madrid), SVEN STOLZENWALD (*1986, Neuss), and CHRISTIAN A. WERNER (*1980, Weimar) met at the Hochschule Hannover, where they were all studying documentary photography. Heiter bis wolkig is their collaborative final exam project. Besides working as freelance photographers, all of them are busy with (social) documentary photography projects. The author FRANK GOOSEN (*1966, Bochum) travels on the lecture circuit all over Germany, generally by train.

EXHIBITION

Freelens Galerie, Hamburg 
June 24–August 12, 2021

Haus der Geschichte, Bonn, U-Bahnstation Heussallee/Museumsmeile
June 28, 2021–Spring 2022

They fascinate us today as they did 500 years ago: elaborate compositions of exotic fruits or platters with oysters, foral arrangements and skulls, exquisitely decorated musical instruments and scientific instruments. Magical things testify to exuberant wealth and hedonism as well as to the enlightened curiosity and religious fervor of the Baroque era. This lavishly illustrated book that even features a pictorial glossary sets the stage for the internationally renowned collection of still lifes housed in Dresden’s Gemäldegalerie (Picture Gallery). Focusing on the dazzling masterpieces of Dutch and Flemish painting, this book examines the genre in all its diverse facets. What meaning, what content, and what function did still lifes have, what allegories and symbols are concealed in their coded messages? How did the artists take the game of optical illusion to extremes? More than 70 still lifes from the Dresden collection by painters such as Cornelis de Heem, Abraham Mignon, Rachel Ruysch, and Frans Snyders provide a unique insight into the golden age of this magical genre.

Jean-Luc Mylayne (born in 1946) has spent his life projecting himself into the world to photograph “the bird” in rural settings where he invests weeks, sometimes months, to achieve the composition he seeks. The Fondation Vincent van Gogh Arles presents an ensemble of thirty-nine works, created between 1979 and 2008, organized into nine chapters according to their relationship to light and to location, and playing from the start on the gradual invasion of the azure blue sky. Printed as a single original, each photograph is silent about the place it was taken, but in stating its dates, underlines the length of time needed to gain access to the other that is the bird. The bird is not the photograph’s only object: it is the pretext and the witness.

EXHIBITIONS

Fondation Vincent van Gogh Arles
17.11.2018–10.2.2019

Aargauer Kunsthaus, Aarau
18.5.–11.8.2019

Long Museum, Shanghai
30.8. – 9.5.2019

Kestner Gesellschaft Hannover
6.3.–10.5.2020

A visual dialogue about bodies and how they are perceived in media has been undertaken by the Female Photographers Org collective. As the group’s first publication, The Body Issue addresses the depiction of bodies and the perception of them; at the same time, it also launches a series of photo books. Founded in 2018, Female Photographers Org will regularly publish photography books devoted to issues, while also organizing companion exhibitions under its own direction. The goal is to increase the visibility of female photographers, since women are still underrepresented in the art world. Female Photographers Org is aiming to change this situation and calls upon women to reinforce their positions collectively. The Body Issue also invites guest artists to publish their work in the collective’s books, so that they can literally experience solidarity among women.

FEMALE PHOTOGRAPHERS ORG is a democratically organized collective founded in 2018 by KIRSTEN BECKEN and VERONIKA FAUSTMANN. Since then, more than twenty female photographers have joined its ranks. The Body Issue, the first volume in this series, has been funded by a Kickstarter campaign.
 
THE PHOTOGRAPHERS
Bex Day, Haley Morris-Cafiero, Katharina Bosse, Maggie Steber, Meklit Fekadu, Jennifer Greenburg, Jocelyn Lee, Lilly Urbat, Kirsten Becken, Claudia Holzinger, Jessica Barthel, Caro Siegl, Oriana Layendecker, Nora Lowinsky, Hanna Mattes, Veronika Faustmann, Katya Abedian, Paula Winkler, Marzena Skubatz, Qiana Mestrich

GUEST ARTISTS
Brandy Eve Allen, Brittney Cathey-Adams, Mary Chen, Tamara Dean, Yushi Li, Dita Pepe, Lotte van Raalte, Laurie Simmons, Chanell Stone

From wildlife topographies to the ecosystem services of marine and Alpine fauna, 2010 – 2020. Nicole Schuck’s filigree drawings stem from in-depth research in and into the animals’ habitats. The book traces her investigation of the deep-rooted connection between animals and humans, ecosystems, the value of wildlife, nature conservation and economics. Analyses by experts from a broad range of disciplines – art history, biology, bioeconomics, marine biology and philosophy – provide a deeper understanding of her works from the past decade. Valued Animals not only showcases Schuck’s artistic practice, but also aims to contribute to the current debate on nature conservation that is more relevant than ever before. By linking her work with perspectives from other academic and scientific disciplines,  the subject is released from otherwise hermetic milieus such as nature conservation, politics, economics and biology and opened up for a broader discussion that is long overdue.

The photo book Like Birds by photographer Sven Jacobsen takes us back to a carefree time of youthful self-awareness, to a summer full of adventure. In their immediacy, a timeless dimension develops in his photographs of youngsters experimenting; exuberantly jumping into the water; clambering around on fences, poles, and dunes; being silly; kissing; skateboarding; or simply lying in the tall grass. In this way, the lakes, dunes, or apartments depicted become places in a collective memory. The spherical landscapes captured in this way—the snapshots of free youth with its beauty, its chaos, its silence, and its loudness—quickly develop a narrative pull. What looks like a light-hearted summer snapshot on the surface may suddenly touch deeper layers of the subconscious.  

SVEN JACOBSEN (*1969) began working as a freelance photographer in 1999 after studying architecture. He is known for his campaigns for major clients such as BMW, Nikon, and Coca-Cola, as well as for his editorials for magazines such as Rolling Stone, Vanity Fair, and Interview.

Comprising forty works from the early Modern period to the present, the sculpture collection of Geneva collector Simon Spierer has no equal in the world. The "Forest of Sculptures" cultivated by Spierer over the past several decades includes works by outstanding international sculptors of the twentieth century, such as Constantin Brancusi, Alberto Giacometti, Hans (Jean) Arp, Max Ernst, Henry Moore, Lucio Fontana, Louise Bourgeois, Barbara Hepworth, Germaine Richier, Max Bill, Julio González, Isamu Noguchi, Daniel Spoerri, and Tony Cragg. In terms of form and subject, the collection focuses on the stele and the torso, featuring such icons of art history as González's Daphné of 1937, Brancusi's Bird in Space of 1941, Arp's Idols of 1950, and Giacometti's Small Bust of Diego on a Column of 1952. This book presents the precious treasures of the collection, which the collector donated to the Hessisches Landesmuseum Darmstadt in early 2005.

This initial monograph features the multifarious oeuvre of Martin Gostner. The Austrian-born artist has become known for his cotton wool works, but has steered clear of being restricted to this material. In his installations, Gostner frequently deals with the topic of remembrance. For him the "softness", also a characteristic of his cotton wool works, stands for pliability, the historical imprecision of the writing of official history as well as of personal memories. Erinnerung weich (Memory Soft) from 1998 consists of 98 hanging lamps, among other objects, each one for each year of the passing 20th century. With the cables and electrical parts having been removed, the lamps are no longer capable of shedding light - not even in the sense of enlightenment. The corresponding video piece 20th Century Boy shows an octopus in an aquarium squeezing through a tight glass cylinder in a short loop 98 times in a row. Each time, a date (from 1900 to 1998) appears on its body, followed by the title of an important work of art from that year. For Gostner, the 20th Century Boy, indefatigable and adaptable, stands as a metaphor for the figure of the modern artist. The artist: Martin Gostner, born 1957 in Innsbruck. From 1979-1983 Akademie der bildenen Künste in Vienna. Numerous solo and group exhibitions Europe-wide. Lives and works in Innsbruck.

The emergent cities in the Gulf region and conflict-ridden countries in the Middle and Near East are engaging issues in media coverage. The Western eye is influenced by extreme images from these areas. The publication counteracts their manipulative aesthetics in works that reveal a more complex approach to examining social conditions. Common Grounds makes reference to the scientific model of grounding, the assumption that there is a common space of knowledge between partners in communication that facilitates successful dialogue.  This public space constitutes the subject of the works being presented, which point out subjective narrative styles beyond collective historiography. In Christian Palestinian Archive (CPA), for instance, Dor Guez arranges archival material that documents personal stories by Palestinians of the Christian faith from the first half of the twentieth century.

Die vorgestellten Künstler (Auswahl)/Artists featured (selection): Abbas Akhavan, DAAR, Parastou Forouhar, Babak Golkar, Dor Guez, Joana Hadjithomas and Khalil Joreige, Hazem Harb, Susan Hefuna, Bouchra Khalili, Sophia Al Maria, Ahmed Mater, Nasser Al Salem

Exhibition: Museum Villa Stuck, Munich, 12.2.–17.5.2015

In her work, the American artist Roni Horn centres on the material presence of the world that surrounds us. One of her current "works in progress", begun in 1990, is an encyclopedia of Iceland, intended as a description of the island´s unique characteristics. In "PI", a photographic sequence with 45 pieces that is the latest product of Horn´s extended stays in Iceland, she succeeds in weaving everyday motifs into a subjective portrait of the island on the arctic circle: fiction and reality meet when reproductions from TV and video recordings are intersparsed with photographs of marine formations, stuffed animals, birds´ feathers, interior spaces and faces. The outcome is a string of impressions left by a place - all equal in value and importance -, something that is perhaps comparable to the search for a trail that draws ever closer circles around the specific identity of a place. This book, produced in close co-operation with the artist, includes color reproductions of all photographs of the room installation "PI". The introductory texts serve to put Roni Horn´s photographic sequence into the context of her oeuvre and the American art tradition. (English edition out of print ISBN 3- 7757-0912-6)

The desire to fly is as old as humanity itself. Icarus dreamed of it, Leonardo da Vinci became one of the first to invent and build flying machines, and for half a century, people have been flying into outer space. Finnish photographer Janne Lehtinen (*1970 in Karhula) has also dreamed of defying gravity. In his series Sacred Bird, he constantly presents himself with a peculiar flying machine, just about to take off into the air like a bird. Yet considering the simplicity of the makeshift machine, the young man's attempts seem as absurd as they are stirring. Lehtinen's father is a famous Finnish glider pilot, and so the photographs are not just an homage to the myth of flying and the Finnish landscape, but can also be interpreted as an autobiographical investigation. The Sacred Bird series, which Lehtinen worked on for several years, is presented for the first time in this volume. Exhibition schedule: Le Château d'Eau, Toulouse, May 25-July 3, 2005

British photographer Stuart Franklin (*1956, London), a member of Magnum Photos, received the World Press Photo Award in 1989 and worked on many stories for National Geographic. He also holds a doctorate degree in geography which continuously impacts his work. His photography is concerned with landscape and ecology, exploring different concepts of landscape photography and the associations the term evokes. For his latest photo book, Franklin explores the idea of images as analogies: he traces how time and landscape interact, how the human influence shapes it, and where landscape and art meet. Investigating the photograph as a means of visual metaphor, he finds faces and familiar figures in twisted trees, rocks, clouds, and photographed fossils, gardens, and sculptures. The book presents black-and-white images from France, Portugal, Spain, Oman, Turkey, and Malta—landscape photography a whole new twist!

This limited special edition of 99 copies includes an original print each.

Kemang Wa Lehulere was born in 1984 and lives in Cape Town and Johannesburg. He is perceived as one of the most important representatives of a new generation of South African artists who work in all different kinds of genres and media in order to develop new artistic perspectives and narrative modes, as well as new forms of political action. Wa Lehulere’s drawings combine allusions to the apartheid era in his home country and found pictorial material, personal memories, and texts. His work echoes how traces of racism and injustice are often blurred and ignored, revealing the gap between individual biography and official historiography.
In the spring of 2017, the Deutsche Bank KunstHalle presents Kemang Wa Lehulere as Deutsche Bank’s “Artist of the Year” in his first comprehensive institutional exhibition in Europe which is impressively documented in this volume.