Omen: Phantasmagoria at the Farm Security Administration (1935-1944). León Muñoz Santini, Jorge Panchoaga. Gato Negro Ediciones

Posted in history, photography, politics on March 21st, 2023
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Chasing the ghost, the traces of oblivion, and the echoes of what was and no longer is, the book “Omen” is a revision and reframing of the fraction of the photographic archive of the Farm Security Administration (1935-1944) hosted at the New York Public Library. That program—perhaps there is no need to add—was one of the milestones of modern documentary photography, instrumental on the constructing an hegemonic narrative; one mainly about triumph against adversity, division, and catastrophe in the recent history of the United States.

But by stressing the gaze over that monumental set of images, and scrutinizing at the corners of the pictures, at the backgrounds and details—in the secondary characters, in what should not be there, that which appears by chance, accident or error— it is possible to discover a different narrative, one that is thicker, murkier, more troubled, complex, contemporary and contradictory. Both a shatter and an apex: a premonition of the genealogical continuity of the many (tumultuous, visible and invisible, thunderous and silent) systemic violence that make up the face of American society.

A book that serves as a mirror of the distressing reality of the United States in our days, and, a the same time, as a device for reflection on the way historical and documentary photography is read and understood, taking the editorial eye to its ultimate consequences.

Photographs by Russell Lee, Dorothea Lange, Ben Shahn, Walker Evans, Carl Mydans, Arthur Rothstein, Gordon Parks, Jack Delano

Excavations at the Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Division of Art, Prints and Photographs of the New York Public Library

Concept and selection by León Muñoz Santini, Jorge Panchoaga
Edition by Pablo Ortiz Monasterio

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Amaneceres Domésticos / Domestic Dawns. Carmen Espegel, Andrés Cánovas, José María de Lapuerta (Eds.). Ediciones Asimétricas

Posted in history, illustration, interior, lifestyle, photography on March 14th, 2023
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“Amaneceres Domésticos. Temas de vivienda colectiva en la Europa del siglo XXI” presenta, a partir de obras construidas, los temas principales que van modelando la vivienda colectiva europea en el siglo XXI. A través de una serie de conceptos, ejemplificados con proyectos construidos, sus editores, Carmen Espegel, Andrés Cánovas y José María de Lapuerta, proponen un lugar de reflexión y debate sobre el presente y el futuro de los espacios que habitamos. A través de 28 ejemplos paradigmáticos de vivienda construida organizados en torno a siete categorías: Conciencia climática, Recargas activas, Cuidados domésticos, Nueva gestión, Contextos urbanos, Vivir y compartir e Identidades icónicas, más un epílogo COVID se muestran los conceptos fundamentales de la nueva habitabilidad que se están desarrollando en la vivienda colectiva de la Europa de principios del siglo XXI, propiciando de este modo un debate que permita continuar avanzando en este sentido.

Textos de Carmen Espegel, Andrés Cánovas, José María de Lapuerta, Eduardo Prieto, Almudena Ribot, Hilde Heynen, Marina Otero Verzier, Elli Mosayebi, Amparo Lasén, Uriel Fogué y Javier Echeverría
Diseño: gráfica futura
Traducción: Noemí Gª Millán y Mike Lumber
Edición: Fundación ICO, Ministerio de Transportes, Movilidad y Agenda Urbana (MITMA) y Ediciones Asimétricas

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