Spending a few hours on Blurb.com this morning trawling through their lovely books I found this one..
It's a great little collection of empty chairs, and it's great to see the photographer taking a critical view at the images rather than just saying.. here's some chairs, i like chairs.
It's making me a little dissapointed that I didn't spend the time perfecting my description of my book (which I ended up not including, so that there are ONLY photographs in my book), and the cover which I really should have made better. But, there is still time, I am viewing my book as a test since the last time I ordered a Blurb book I made, half of the images were so dark that it was next to impossible to determine what they actually were. So, we shall see. In the meantime while I'm mulling this over, it's been great to look at some other collections people have. Strange collections like this one. I've touched on the idea before in my earlier works about 'hoarding', I'm a hoarder/collector of various strange things, (my latest obsession seems to be anything owl related...?) So I really like the idea that the process of photographing is another way of collecting, collecting moments/memories/emotions etc.
Anyway, here's what he said about his book, I may buy it...
"I'm not exactly sure what got me started photographing chairs, but over the years they've become a common subject for my camera. So much so in fact that many people know me as "that guy that shoots chairs." The style and composition of my chair photos are similar to that of other inanimate subjects I photograph, yet chair photos often evoke a much stronger and often emotional reaction from viewers.
This stronger reaction could be attributed to chairs being a uniquely human object in design and therefore more easily personified than other subjects. This leads to chairs grouped together being seen as interacting socially. A chair left alone against a wall is often described as being lonely. For me what often catches my attention is that the chair in my viewfinder is probably where it was left by it's last occupant. This creates a mystery as to who was sitting there and what were they doing--reading, thinking, smoking, or just waiting. In that sense the photo can be seen as a portrait without the person or perhaps even a stage minus the actors. In this way of seeing, what is not present in the photo is just as important as what was left for the camera to find."
This stronger reaction could be attributed to chairs being a uniquely human object in design and therefore more easily personified than other subjects. This leads to chairs grouped together being seen as interacting socially. A chair left alone against a wall is often described as being lonely. For me what often catches my attention is that the chair in my viewfinder is probably where it was left by it's last occupant. This creates a mystery as to who was sitting there and what were they doing--reading, thinking, smoking, or just waiting. In that sense the photo can be seen as a portrait without the person or perhaps even a stage minus the actors. In this way of seeing, what is not present in the photo is just as important as what was left for the camera to find."
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