China Memories
Marco Paoluzzo
The Colors of Growth
Andreas Seibert
Rasen Kaigan
Lieko Shiga
Davos
Joel Tettamanti
Photographer Marco Paoluzzo first
became interested in China decades
ago, however for political reasons the
passionate world traveller refused to
visit the country until 1998. It was at
this time that two friends invited him
to collaborate on a book about Shanghai. He quickly became fascinated
by the land, and it was here that he
also went on to meet his now wife
Feifei. He has since returned to
China almost every year, and each
time he has made new discoveries.
This book is the fruit of his numerous
exploratory journeys taken at random
throughout the Chinese countryside.
It is the photographer’s personal travel log, documenting China’s leap
from the Maoist era into the 21st
century and cap turing life in China in
all its simultaneous complexity and
simplicity.
While China’s spectacular growth
has brought much prosperity, it has
also brought serious damage to the
environment. For photographer Andreas Seibert, the present state of
the Huai River is a clear example of
these problems. Indeed several
stretches of the river have become
so seriously polluted with toxic waste
that people have been advised not to
even touch the water.
Seibert has travelled along this river
from source to mouth in order to record how a stretch of water, which
has sprung up from amidst unspoiled
nature can change into such a large
and poisonous river. The pictures taken on his travels present China’s
poverty-stricken hinterlands, generally forgotten in discussions of
China, showing the people who live
on and near the river in a habitat on
the brink of destruction.
Rasen Kaigan is a monumental tome
of a book – a dark, visceral journey
into the hallucinogenic world of Japanese photographer Lieko Shiga.
Focused loosely around day-to-day
activities in the Kitakama area, we
are led into a dense, kaleidoscopic
frenzy. Beaches are plagued with
crop circle scars. Frozen prawns become spinning Catherine wheels. Figures enter the fold in a dream-like
trance. Twists and turns abound –
the unexpected is to be thoroughly
expected and nothing is beyond limits. Through an intense saturation
of the colours, a piercing flash or the
deep, impenetrable blacks, everyday
scenes are invariably transformed
into something far more sinister. As
such, an extended series of flash-lit
rocks becomes mesmerisingly ambiguous, our sense of scale completely
fractured. Shiga has created a vast,
brooding, psychedelic universe,
which has an irresistible pull.
Joël Tettamanti (*1977) is one of
Switzerland’s most celebrated young
photographers. Educated at the
Ecole Cantonale d’Art de Lausanne,
Tettamanti has exhibited his works in
galleries in cities around the world,
including New York, London, Paris,
Zurich and São Paulo, and has published his photographs in esteemed
magazines such as Wallpaper, Icon,
Domus and Vogue.
In 2007, Tettamanti was commissioned to produce a series of photographs of Davos, one of the most beautiful and exclusive skiing resorts in
the world as well as the site of the
annual World Economic Forum’s
summit of global leaders. This volume gathers together many of these
photographs along with several previously unpublished images, providing a unique perspective on the
mountain city that reveals its empty
valleys and underlying infrastructure.
ISBN 978-3-7165-1694-2
ISBN 978-3-03778-295-8
ISBN 978-4-90354-592-9
ISBN 978-3-85881-5298-8
216 pages
272 pages
280 pages
136 pages
Published 2011
Published 2013
Published 2013
Published 2009