Hans Eijkelboom: Paris-New York-Shanghai
Hans Eijkelboom (Photographer), Martin Parr (Photographer), Tony GodfreyBooks.org participates in affiliate programs including Bookshop.org and the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program. We may earn a commission from qualifying purchases made through links on this page, at no additional cost to you.
Overview
Dutch conceptual artist Hans Eijkelboom's work is very much in line with the deadpan, seemingly mechanistic note-taking of Ed Ruscha and Hans-Peter Feldman. In Paris-New York-Shanghai, Eijkelboom creates a witty comparative study of three major contemporary metropolises, each selected for having been the cultural capital of its time--Paris during the nineteenth century; New York, the twentieth; and Shanghai, the twenty-first.This uniquely bound three-volume accordion-folded set opens up to allow the reader not only to view each city individually, but also to compare simultaneously the three photographic studies of each metropolis and its citizens. The large-format cityscapes with the identifying quirks of each city and the snapshot-style grids of their inhabitants soon reveal how similar one city is to another today. For example, Eijkelboom's grids of mothers carrying their infants in Baby Bjorns, or men wearing striped polo shirts highlight the ubiquity of many of our most intimate possessions. As Eijkelboom writes, "Globalization, combined with the desire of cities for visually spectacular elements, is leading to the appearance everywhere of city centers that look the same and where identical products are sold." With an introduction by Martin Parr.Synopsis
Introduction by Martin Parr. Essay by Tony Godfrey.
Raymond Bial - Library Journal
Cleverly bound into a single volume, this three-book, accordion-folded set profiles the street life of the three titular cities, all world cultural capitals of their times: 19th-century Paris, 20th-century New York, and 21st-century Shanghai. While the book's concept, design, and packaging are distinctive, to say the least, its great strengths are the candid, intimately close portraits of the cities' residents. This is not simply street photography but people watching at its finest: Dutch conceptual artist Eijkelboom captures the essence of individuals in a glimpse, then arranges similarly composed or themed images (e.g., of denizens wearing horizontally striped shirts) into a snapshot-style grid, with eight photos to a page. The viewer is thus invited not only to study each image but also to compare multiple photographs by place and activity. British documentary photographer Martin Parr likens the artist to an anthropologist in his introduction, while conceptual artist Tony Godfrey offers a thoughtful essay-both contributions are tucked in an envelope glued to the inside cover of this uniquely designed and fascinating book. Highly recommended for photography and art collections in public and academic libraries.
Editorials
Library Journal
Cleverly bound into a single volume, this three-book, accordion-folded set profiles the street life of the three titular cities, all world cultural capitals of their times: 19th-century Paris, 20th-century New York, and 21st-century Shanghai. While the book's concept, design, and packaging are distinctive, to say the least, its great strengths are the candid, intimately close portraits of the cities' residents. This is not simply street photography but people watching at its finest: Dutch conceptual artist Eijkelboom captures the essence of individuals in a glimpse, then arranges similarly composed or themed images (e.g., of denizens wearing horizontally striped shirts) into a snapshot-style grid, with eight photos to a page. The viewer is thus invited not only to study each image but also to compare multiple photographs by place and activity. British documentary photographer Martin Parr likens the artist to an anthropologist in his introduction, while conceptual artist Tony Godfrey offers a thoughtful essay-both contributions are tucked in an envelope glued to the inside cover of this uniquely designed and fascinating book. Highly recommended for photography and art collections in public and academic libraries.
—Raymond Bial