A poetic artist's book of found photographs from the early to mid-20th century, sequenced thematically Photographer and bookseller Melissa Catanese has been editing the vast photography collection of Peter J. Cohen, a celebrated trove of more than 20,000 vernacular and found anonymous photographs from the early to mid-twentieth century. Gathered from flea markets, dealers and Ebay, these prints have been acquired, exhibited and included in a range of major museum publications. In organizing the archive into a series of thematic catalogues, she has pursued an alternate reading of the collection, drifting away from simple typology into something more personal, intuitive and openly poetic. Her magical new artist's book, Dive Dark Dream Slow, is rooted in the mystery and delight of the "found" image and the "snapshot" aesthetic, but pushes beyond the nostalgic surface of these pictures and reimagines them as luminous transmissions of anxious sensuality. Through a series of abandoned visual clues, from the sepia-infused shadow of a little girl running along a beach to silhouettes of a group of distant figures pausing upon a steep and snowy hill, a dreamlike journey is evoked. Like an album of pop songs about a girl (or a civilization) hovering on the verge of transformation, the book cycles through overlapping themes and counter-themes--moon and ocean; violence and tenderness; innocence and experience; masks and nakedness--that sparkle with deep psychic longing and apocalyptic comedy.
Reviews
While journeying through the strange world of found imagery is an increasingly prevalent mode of photobook-making, Catanese has created a magical experience through deft image selection and sequencing. Poetic and cohesive, the book leads the viewer effortlessly through shifts in themes, which include innocence and experience as well as masks and revelation. The book is at once funny and moving, individual and universal. * The Photobook Review *



Book Information
ISBN 9780982365373
Author Melissa Catanese
Format Hardback
Page Count 88
Imprint The Ice Plant
Publisher The Ice Plant