Although the format suggests it, many photobooks have structurally not a lot in common with a novel. They often lack basic structural elements, they lack something that even resembles a story-arc(a beginning? a middle? an end?) – instead, they more often resemble a musical piece. They have Rhythm, they have recurring motifs, a basic theme, variations; they are governed by moments of silence, followed by a swelling of sound, a Coda to pick up and fade out themes…
Only after discovering Ray Metzker’s “Unknown Territory” in a tiny bookshop in Frankfurt, I found out that the publisher, Roland Angst had unexpectedly died in 2022. This book was one of the last he finished – it was printed in a numbered edition of only 333 copies, it’s beautifully printed: The beauty of the offset-print is that blacks are actually blacks, and not some muddy shade of grey. There are not a lot of books he managed to produce in the short run of his “Only Photography” edition, and they all look fabulous
The white unifom of a sailor a bright arabesque on the darkened background, a woman descending the stairs caressed by a ray of light (compared to the tenderness of his treatment of light&shadow, Trent Parke’s Monument almost looks heavy handed… – this is photography that is close to the Jazz of the late 50ies: Cool, as in Miles Davis “Birth of the Cool”, understated, but with bright flashes of trumpet, the calculated emotions of Bill Evans’ “Undercurrent”… – and its these pictures that keep you up at night, their perfect compositions lingering like an after-image…
This is city photography. The main actor here is the city itself: He lowers is camera to photograph the blotches of paint of the road markings and finds in these marks the gestures of an abstract expressionism. Roland Angst uses these images to give the edit its rhythm – the withdrawn Layout has diptychs or driptychs of these markings, leading us through this book like the flaneur Metzker who is drifting through the streets of Philadelphia…
This is a wonderful book, lushly produced and I am so sorry, that Roland Angst’s production ended so tragically early. I would have loved to see him take on more artists of the calibre of Ray Metzker.
Ray Metzker, Unknown, https://only-photography.com/publikationen/unknown/
Roland Angst, Only Photography, https://only-photography.com/
Miles Davis, “Birth of the Cool”, https://tidal.com/browse/album/57339947?u
Bill Evans, Undercurrent, https://tidal.com/browse/album/153017?u
Trent Parke, Monument, https://www.stanleybarker.co.uk/products/monument