Did you ever see the remarkable 1959 episode of The Twilight Zone called “Midnight Sun?” It starts out to be about a young woman painter in a city experiencing an unforeseen and unfortunate proximity to the sun…or, maybe not?
New York has been one of the cities feeling like this lately, and the ICP Library was a de facto “cooling center” Friday for the interested photobibliophiles. At midday there was nary a seat in the house.
I have been tweeting “summer reads” of the photobook canon, but wanted to offer some relief to those of you seeking an antidote to the 100 degree weather. I thought of the way that Rod Serling did it in 1959…turning to the reverse.
Here are some visual refreshments…hopefully bibliographic equivalents of a lemon gelato. I am glad that these are three of my favorite artists, hands down [mittens off].
Lynn Davis Iceberg. Ice, Edwynn Houk Gallery, 2001.
Thomas Flechtner. Snow, Lars Muller, 2002. ISBN: 3907078497
Lars Tunbjork. Vinter, co-published by Steidl and Moderna Museet, Stockholm, 2007. ISBN: 978-3-86521-497-3 [YouTube video]
Hints if you are querying our online catalog:
The word “snow” is ambiguous. It is used as a metaphor and is also a proper name.
The word “winter” is ambiguous for much the same reasons. Actually, “cold” does pretty well, since it takes in titles, and also the Library of Congress Subject Heading “Photography – Cold weather conditions.” Other words like “glaciers” also bear fruit [frozen, of course].
For more chilly scenes of winter, ride on the world-wide-web-way-back machine to Alec Soth’s blog posts related to snow of 2006.
I hope that you can turn down your A/C while you review this post, and enjoy the counter-balance that great photo-books can provide to hot summer days…and your carbon footprint.
Monsters & Madonnas 