Garage Stills & Fringe Nature
Cityscapes + Birdmen
Cityscapes + Birdmen
Cityscapes + Birdmen
Cityscapes + Birdmen
Cityscapes + Birdmen
Cityscapes + Birdmen
Cityscapes + Birdmen
Cityscapes + Birdmen
Cityscapes + Birdmen
Cityscapes + Birdmen
Cityscapes + Birdmen
Cityscapes + Birdmen
Cityscapes + Birdmen
Upcoming in 2023
Garage Stills & Fringe Nature
by Jacquie Maria Wessels
Published by Ludion, Brussels, Belgium.
For this project, Wessels has traveled the world, chasing her fascination for the wondrous universe of traditional garages. In striking garages in, say, Cambodia, Cuba or Japan, she creates poetic still lifes on the spot with the intriguing and personal objects she finds there. It are the shapes and colors of those mysterious objects that draw her attention. Wessels then turns her camera outside: in the immediate vicinity of the garages, she is struck by the nature that endures in the harsh, industrial landscapes on the outskirts of the cities. In some cases, rampant nature even takes over and overgrows the garages.
Wessels' analogue photographs are painterly images with a surprising color palette and lighting. At the same time, they bear witness to a disappearing, predominantly male world that is gradually being supplanted by new, sterile technologies.
Xavier Cannonne wrote the introductory essay. He is director of the Musée de la Photographie de Charleroi in Belgium.
Info:
Jacquie Maria Wessels - Garage Stills & Fringe Nature - Introduction by Xavier Canonne - 176 pp - 31 x 23,5 cm - Hardcover - English – 978-94-9303-984-1
Cityscapes + Birdmen
by Jacquie Maria Wessels
Book Designed and Published by
Voetnoot Publishers, Antwerp, Belgium
Between 2006 and 2009 Jacquie Maria Wessels made portraits, in Suriname and the Netherlands, of many macho Surinamese men who were obsessed with their little songbirds. The ‘caged bird’ is the leading actor in songbird contests. In this ‘most popular sport in Suriname’ men from all segments of the population come together amiably, in peaceful combat over which bird sings the best and who wins the first prize.
After the independence of Suriname in 1975 this pastime came to the Netherlands along with the Surinamers. Both in Suriname and in the Netherlands the contests are held very early on Sunday mornings: in Paramaribo on Independence Square, over to the Suriname River, and in the Netherlands on lawns in parks, especially designated for this, in Amsterdam, The Hague and other cities. Stereotypical male attributes such as clothing, cars and motorcycles play an important role in this lifestyle too, but in the photographs by Jacquie Maria Wessels the men reveal another side of themselves.
In Paramaribo Jacquie Maria Wessels also photographed city scenes, dominated by the typically Surinamese wall paintings: hand-painted advertisements containing hyper-realistic depictions of tools, soup cans, oatmeal, hot dogs and other products, along with exhortations like ‘Do your best in school’...
CITYSCAPES + BIRDMEN includes a selection of 160 photos in full colour, taken from both of these projects.
Suriname expert Michiel van Kempen provides a very personal account of his Sunday morning trip to see ‘the men with their birdcages’ on Independence Square in Paramaribo, and in passing offers a fascinating impression of Suriname’s booming capital.
CITYSCAPES + BIRDMEN has been published in two different covers, the contents of both books are identical. When ordering you will receive one of the two.
Photography Jacquie Maria Wessels - Text [Ned/Eng] Michiel van Kempen - Bonded/Hardcover - 22x24cm - 204 pages/160 full colour photo's - Voetnoot Publishers - ISBN 978-90-78068-662 - Price: € 29.00
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Book Designed and Published by Voetnoot Publishers, Antwerp, Belgium