~♫welcome to the coorner ♬♪ ~ 🙂
In the spirit of ICP Library’s “Je est un autre: The Vernacular in Photo Books” show, THE zine corner will do this post about Pierre Le Hors and Tuomas Korpijaakko‘s mysterious zine BLOTTER, published by the even more elusive New York based NOWORK.
This zine is big and black, and contains high quality reproductions of varying quality mug shots on newsprint. The decay of the images, when visible, is a beautiful wash on texture on a sometimes soft portrait. It situates the images in time, in a way that the faces and clothing of the subjects wouldn’t necessarily. Reading into the reproduced decay is further complicated by the decay each individual copy of the zine exhibits, as the newsprint is variously folded, unfolded, creased, and crumpled (I’m sure you’re now imagining me manhandling our copy which I am NOT doing). Another element of decay is the shade of black on each page varying in depth, which will also change over time.
Striking zine BLOTTER is available to view at the ICP Library upon request, as we have it stored in our rare section. Just ask the nice person at the front desk to fetch it for you 😉
Till next time,
Your good TA, Caleb
Monsters & Madonnas 