Reflex #5: Family Photography

Reflex #5.

Reflex #5 features edits of a found photograph, along with a quote from Bourdieu, giving a sociological perspective on the function of family photography:

“[…] solemnizing and immortalizing the high points of family life, […] reinforcing the integration of the family group by reasserting the sense that it has both of itself and of its unity. […] [T]he need for photographs and the need to take photographs […] are felt all the more intensely the more integrated the group and the more the group is captured at a moment of its highest integration.”

Bourdieu: Photography: A Middle-Brow Art, 1990, p. 19.

Printed and available for sale at Hamburg’s nachladen.

Reflex #4: Photosynthesis

Reflex #4.

“Photosynthesis (/ˌfoʊtəˈsɪnθəsɪs/ FOH-tə-SINTH-ə-sis) is a system of biological processes by which photosynthetic organisms, such as most plants, algae, and cyanobacteria, convert light energy, typically from sunlight, into the chemical energy necessary to fuel their activities.” (Wikipedia, 14.03.2024)

Reflex #4 continues explorations of turning monochrome photos into color images via Riso-printing: Synthesising multi-layer colour images from one black-and-white negative.

Reflex #4, page 1.

Printed and available for sale at the nachladen.

Reflex #2: Geschichte in Farbe [History in Colour]

Reflex #2.

Reflex #2 offers an approach to the Deutsch-Ostafrika-Gedächtnismal (German East Africa memorial) in Aumühle, Schleswig-Holstein. This issue explores the addition of colour to my usual monochrome photos, making full use of the multi-layered Riso printing process.

Reflex #2, pages 2 and 3.

Printed and available for sale at the nachladen.

Reflex reborn

Reflex, new #1.

Reflex is back: In handy DIN A6 format, folded without staples or glue from a single side A3 risograph print, to yield six pages. This first issue contains three photos illustrating the technique of rephotography.

Printed and for sale at nachladen.

Contrasting with reflex’ former incarnation containing 36 photos (published quarterly), the reduced scope of the new form of six pages, allowing either the printing of three horizontal photos or six vertical ones, not only makes the publication more accessible to the viewer, it also makes printing much more economical. Perhaps most important, the brevity allows me to speedily pursue and publish photographic ideas, allowing for new explorations of form, content and approach, to be published in regular intervals.

Shapeshifting

reflex 08, showing the new cover design/process.

Alongside other tectonic shifts happening around the world at the moment, reflex is now produced differently, i.e. using the services of Norderstedt’s Books on Demand GmbH. This is in lieu of printing my photos with a laser printer and binding them by hand into little booklets, which is how it worked until now.

While many appreciated the handmade quality of the old booklets, perhaps their shape somewhat distracted from the content of the photos. If some part of my process could be considered to be handcraft it would be the development of the films. More important, the recent arrival of our baby made it necessary to decide how to allot the sparse time available for photo work. Long story short: handstitching booklets did not make the cut.

(The back issues will continue to be available as handmade booklets from the nachladen, as long as they last.)

As usual, reflex 08 is available from the glorious nachladen as of now.