Claire's Book Stand II (II)

The idea of Claire's Book Stand had been to have a gathering in a small park, but the weather brought rain. Instead, then, the prints, books, and magazines were shown at the Freunde von Freunden apartment – with tea and fruit being served in the kitchen. Of this afternoon, I most remember the words and the light: conversations with Claire, Jordan, and Anne, and the spare between-the-rains-light, turning the place into a stage against the windows. The visual conversations, too, between the magic photographs by Mary, Anne, Jordan, and many others.

environments

i've been part of the publishing world for over fifteen years now, in one way or another, and it's fair to say that books touch me in a way very few other objects can. so when i heard olga bennett was going to make a book, when i finally ordered a copy and received it in the post, and then sat down at breakfast to leaf through the pages for the first time, i was very excited. the book is a small format, roughly the size of both my hands placed one above the other. it is printed on matte paper and carries olga's subtle and atmospheric photographs so well. often the depth of field is shallow, you can feel the ambient light of the room, often you can make out the colours and contours of objects in the background, which makes these images even more enigmatic.

olga portrayed the working spaces of various artists for her project, and i love reading the small texts, in which these creative people describe themselves, their work, their relationship to their environments.

my favourite quotes from the short introduction by sarah caldwell:

"perhaps the more that you look at these ordinary places, the more you can find the extraordinary about each person within them."

"their attitudes evoke the human capacity for change, reinvention and openness to new things."

sarah is closing with a most beautiful quote from sainte-beuve, volupté, 1834
"... let the image float inside you; pass lightly; the slightest idea of it will suffice for you."

find olga's blog here, her portfolio here, and if you are curious now, you can order a copy of environments here.

p.s.: pictures showing my living room and olga's book on my table.

corner view: books

when i was little, i used to feel guilty for not loving my dolls and furry animals quite as much as my books. i also liked to read adult's books. i read so much, in fact, that a family friend felt she had to have a word with me: "so much reading can't be good for your health, kristina." i remember that scene quite vividly - i was lying on my tummy on the carpet and was reading a three-volume-edition of some novel, completely oblivious to everything around me. that friend seriously worried about me. to no avail, as it turns out - i've gone on to uni to study literature and other book-related things and have been working in the world of publishing ever since. mark me down as a hopeless case.

p.s.: the picture spread is from one of my favourite photo books ever - family. photographers photograph their families by phaidon. caption reads: susan andrews, lois, 1996-2002. those little photo monographs are from the phaidon 55 series. and finally that vintage book, 1x1 des guten tons by gertrud oheim is a 1950s book on etiquette that i loved as a child and have bought second-hand some years ago. makes me laugh. and says a lot about the changes in western societies.

take a look at other corner views via jane's spain daily.

why people photograph

well, if you could see my sofa. most of the time, i'm sitting on the right side of it and on the left, well, i pile up magazines, books, diaries, postcards, things that inspire me. they stay there until guests come round, when i clear it all up and it all begins all over again... in the mornings, i try to sit down with my coffee and read a little bit before i start work, sometimes i have books that keep me company for a good while. one of my inspiring reads recently is why people photograph by robert adams. it's a loose collection of essays written by adams for various publications on various topics. some of them gripped me more than others, but i love the way he speaks very plainly about being a photographer, there's no pretension or self-importance, it's all very honest and down-to-earth, sometimes suprisingly so. i really recommend it.

in his essay on teaching, adams refers to harry callahan, who not only left an amazing body of work as a photographer but also taught photography for many decades. i'll just have to share that quote with you:

"i really didn't have that much to teach. i didn't even believe in it. i felt so strongly that everybody had to find their own way. and nobody can teach you your own way . . . in terms of art, the only real answer that i know of is to do it. if you don't do it, you don't know what might happen."

p.s.: obviously, i don't want to put down teaching, i think it's one of the greatest things ever. but you know what i mean, right? 

corner view: 7:45

well, i better admit it straight away - i'm cheating this time. i was working in the bookshop last weekend alongside my regular translation work and forgot to take the pictures at the set time, despite my enthusiasm for jane's idea. but luckily i happen to have pictures of the things i did.

friday, 7:45 pm, sunday, 7:45 pm

friday - working at my favourite café, revising a text

sunday - at the same café, having a drink with a friend after working in the bookshop. catching-up time!

saturday, 7:45 pm

working late in the bookshop, a busy day  

to see more corner views, visit jane!

 

monday again

had a busy weekend in  a good way. am helping out in one of berlin's most beautiful bookshops in the museum of contemporary art for a few weeks. and although that means working saturday and sunday, i had a really good time. what a dream to be in the middle of floor-to-ceiling bookshelves all day, right? apart from the selection of books on art, photography, architecture and design, which is quite awe-inspiring, there are also loads of great artists' postcards (this one here is by david shrigley) and other goodies that are either useful in a beautiful way or completely useless but a lot of fun anyway. i like this presentation of rubber bands. the book is a photo book on roadside diners in the U.S. and features a picture of an (untouched by the hands of a food-stylist) dish coupled with a portrait of people working there. nice one!

also went voting for the european parliament on sunday morning. the polling station was in an old school building in my neighbourhood. i think the old sign saying 'walhllokal' (polling station) they put up there must have been from the 1950s. and despite the awful rain that morning and the fact that i had to cycle to work in that weather, those signs made me smile. loved the faded colours on the walls and the crumbling plaster as well. i think it must have been a corridor they opened for polling day that's otherwise not in use at that school (everything else is quite newly refurbished).

hope your weekend was inspiring, too!

reading

these past few days were so full of people i met, and things i saw - there was friday night with lots of gallery openings across town, saturday with a beautiful cycling tour to sacrow and today some fresh asparagus lunch with a friend and more art events. i'll really have to make some time to post pictures and tell you all about it.

in the meantime, i'm happy to curl up on the sofa with a nice glass of wine and read my new book: as you can see, i put it on the floor to take a photo of the cover. riga, my cat, was there in a second and was immediately convinced - she loves it. i actually had to pry it from her to keep reading. i'm talking about a homemade life. stories and recipes from my kitchen table by molly wizenberg (of orangette blog fame). such a good read - funny and at the same time sad, and inspiring, too. she is so right to say that food is above all about memories, about the people we share it with, the stories that go with it. i highly recommend. both, the book and the blog.

gymnastics

spring is in the air and i remembered this vintage book i had sitting on my shelves somewhere. when i finally found it i was so delighted with it - a shame these days so few publishers work with two-colour line illustrations, it just works so well.

sadly, i have to admit my personal fitness regime has so far been limited to lifting the book and turning the pages...

p.s.: the book is from 1973, a special edition issued by one of the oldest german women's magazines, 'brigitte'. long out of print but available on abebooks.