#matej sitar

[theangrybat]

Otvoritev razstave je za mano in rad bi se še enkrat zahvalil vsem, ki so včeraj prišli. Bilo je super. Za vse, ki včeraj niste utegnili - razstava bo odprta do 6. oktobra.

The exhibition was oppened successfully and now you have time till the 6th of October to see it!

[the-new-frame-dot-com]

CLICK THE IMAGE ABOVE TO SEE INSIDE

Matej Sitar - Morning Sun self published (by his own company “The Angry Bat”) 2014

Getting this book posted onto The New Frame is LONG overdue. I received it during a very busy time and haven’t been able to sit down and write much for a while. But finally, it’s here.

This is an interesting book. Its design was kept simple as opposed to his previous book (America, My Way) that had a more playful layout/reading. Morning Sun is cloth-covered, case bound with its title debossed and tipped in cover photo. The design feels very well suited to the project.

Flipping through the pages of Morning Sun gives off a nice calm, contemplative mood, almost meditative. Some of the images bring to mind Rinko Kawauchi’s work and her delicate, ethereal way of shooting the world around her. The reason I find the book so interesting though is even though you get this calm mood throughout the reading, I imagine that the photographer would have felt quite the opposite. The memories, thoughts and visions of the future all colliding in his mind. For him -whether he shows it or keeps it to himself- I imagine all this would have led to quite a hectic train of thought.

It starts off after the title pages with one of my favourite shots in the series, the shot of the basketball hoop hanging from the shed/barn. I love it and Sitar recently explained the significance of the shot in an interview with Augusto Mendoza of Books Are Niceand the photo helps put the rest of the book into perspective.

Knowing a child is coming into his life, the familiar suddenly becomes something different. A basketball hoop where he remembers playing with his brother in law, now becomes a place where he will teach and play with his son. A place where his son may ask for advice. A place that will allow them to bond and remain close as he grows into his teens and beyond. This change in the familiar flows through the book and is matched by the changes in his partner as they prepare for the birth of their son.

I really enjoyed this book. Thanks Matej, all the best to you and your family.

[booksarenice]

"Mornign Sun" by Matej Sitar

A conversation with Matej Sitar about fatherhood and bookmaking. Images of "Morning Sun" can be seen bellow above.

Hi Matej, first of all congratulations on your new born. His name, Valentin, is  very nice and actually my girlfriend's brother also just had a baby and named him Valentin. 

The only text in the book are found in the beginning, two quotes and a dedication. They indicate a sense of direction,  a way to discover yourself. How did you choose these quotes? 

Hi Augusto. Thank you very much for this interview. I am already enjoying the new role as a father.

I have chosen these quotes at the end of the process. The first idea was to have an accompanying text at the end the end of the book. I have written the text by myself and it should be in the form of a handwritten letter, folded and glued into the book. Something very personal that would try to explain my feelings through all of this and it was also a love letter to my wife, since the book is also a homage to her. As it turned out it was just over the top and a little bit pathetic, so I left it out J

The quotes are really meant more for my son and what I think, or better said I hope should guide his life. Exactly like you said, not one way, one destination, but rather a journey and the discovery of himself.

Through the book we see the relationship with your girlfriend. Many women, if not all have pregnant pictures. You approached this differently by focusing on the changes, hoping to understand what will be her new . How did this guide your photographic style? 

You are correct. I really tried to focus on the small changes on a woman’s body during the pregnancy. This was important for me, because it is a really big thing. At least for me it was. As a man I can only stand beside and be perceptive towards it, since I will of course never be able to feel what she feels, the changes her body takes and the fact, that she literally carries a new being. I took all this things for facts before this experience. And during the pregnancy I was just marveling all the time. It is a freaking wonder, the more I thought about it, the more I felt it. Something really special. To tell you the truth, I still am. Every now and then I look at Valentin and cannot believe it that just a little time ago he was totally helpless and now he walks already.

By that I had to find a way to appreciate this and give it justice. Beside all this happy feelings I had also a lot of fears. The fear of the unknown, of life changing for the both of us. For me this part is also important because I never thought it would be all roses and happiness from now on. We had a great relationship and we loved our freedom and the fact that we had time for ourselves and our projects. I knew this would change and I was looking for a way to cope with it.

I am really fortunate to have a very understanding partner, who trusts me when I take her photos and who understands, also because she is a writer, the process and need to create stories, which help us understand and give meaning to the world we live in. You must understand that taking very intimate photos demands a lot of trust, especially when the model isn’t eccentric and wouldn’t post the pictures otherwise. There has to be this silent arrangement that I wouldn’t publish a photo if it weren’t OK with her. Some photos needed more persuading than others, some I have left out myself, although they were great. 

The second image we see in the book, the one of the basketball hoop. I love this image. The rough, heavy roof suppressing the old wooden cottage yet, balanced with a soft sense of tranquility of the orange basketball hoop. Can you tell me more about this image?

I took this picture at my brother in law’s. It is a very serene place, the last house on a mountain pasture; right after the house a large forest begins. This is the tranquility that you can almost sense in the picture. I wanted to open the book with this one, because it also conveys a feeling of suspense. Something or maybe someone who is not there yet, but one can already imagine how it will be with him around.

It definitely has this subconscious meaning of expectance. At the time of photographing I already knew it is going to be a boy and later on when sequencing he was there already. All this and the fact that I am a former basketball player contributed to the meaning this photo has for the book and for me. I think the picture sums it up real nicely. Although it is an empty picture it doesn’t feel that way.  You know what I mean? One can almost hear children in the background; see the playing although it is not in the frame.  At least I can. 

There are images in the book, which give me the sense of the child already being there. One is the colorful clothes pins scattered on the floor and the other is of the fishpond. Did you have a similar idea while editing these images? 

Exactly, you are right about that. This was the idea when editing. In the case of the picture with the cloth pins it was even before the editing. As it happened I told my wife not to touch them or to remove them and I ran to get my camera to have that picture taken. At that moment I imagined, that this sort of chaos would be common in our new life with the kid and how right I was. I can see now that I wasn’t mistaken. It is unbelievable how everything can be such a great toy. The best are the ones that weren’t bought, the ones that are just lying around in every household.

Now that your son is born, if you can pick one image for him, which would it be? 

This is a hard task and I don’t think I could pick just one image. They all mean something to me, they all bear stories, but they can best function in a narration line. If it has to be one it is the one with the basketball hoop. 

I always like to know about the book making process. Morning Sun is perfectly printed. It's bound in premium purple cloth, with a tipped image and a blind deboss tittle. The end pages are cropped image of water drops on the windshield. Your first book, America My Way, has a very unusual design. With Morning Sun, you took a traditional photo book layout.

I think that the design should be just the icing on the cake to the book and it shouldn’t overpower the idea behind the book. Of course the design could function also as the most important part, a concept that holds everything in place, but that really depends on the pictures. America, my way was different because the whole thing was also an object. With the 3 booklets that could also be viewed simultaneously it called for a special box to fit them all in and with the folding it gives one extra dimension to it. First you have to unfold the box, then open and construct the 3 books to make a unified story. 

My main focus with Morning sun was telling the story, this poem of mine in a simple, emphatic way. To concentrate on the flow of the pictures and try not to make too much, that would drive the attention of the viewer away from the story. For me it was important, that the viewer tries to feel the pictures. What I mean by feel is that he sinks into them, into the setting, the detail and the mod. To completely let go and by this finds his/her own experiences that relate to the photos. The rhythm was of the uttermost importance and because of this I decided to have different sized and differently positioned photos. This way I tried to achieve a rhythmical diversity, which should help the viewer to fall into my rhythm of storytelling. Of course this happens on a subconscious level of the viewer. This is a really important part of the design, the layout. A mean to better, persuasively tell the story.   

The cover should give the viewer the feeling of intimacy, fragility and beauty. By these criteria I have chosen the cover photo, the color and the haptic of the linen and the embossed title typography. 

Before printing your first book did you have any prior knowledge about the printing process?

No, before the first self published book, which was America, my way, I had very limited knowledge of the book making process. Now, for the second book it was a lot easier already. One gets to know the printing process and the printer – I worked with the same printer as for America – the paper stock is not that frightening anymore, because you can at least sense the direction that you want to go in terms of the look and feel.

For me this time the most difficult part was finding a good binder. Sadly I came to the conclusion, that there aren’t those many left, at least in Slovenia. In the process of creating the book I changed 3 binders. I gave them the task to create a dummy for me that should be the exact same size and look of the final book. One would imagine that the dummy would look perfect, but that wasn’t the case. I thought that it can’t be a good sign, if even the dummy looks bad, what will it look like, when they have to bind 500 books!

A really good part in having my blog (theangrybat.tumblr.com) is that I get to know a lot of different books. I can only say thanks’ again for the generosity of the artists and publishers. It is a privilege and a treat and I have widened my horizons in terms of book making and creativity for sure. It is just unbelievable to see, how a good photobook can also look like. 

What projects are you currently working on?

I am currently working on 3 book projects and some new series. Slowly I am getting into the new rhythm, the one with job and child. It was a little bit hard to find time for photography, because I am not the kind of photographer who always has his camera with him. I need my time and I go out deliberately to take pictures with a project in mind. I have a few new ideas and there are the Horizons and Unfinished sympathy series, all with a large format 4x5 camera that I had to put on hold for a little while, which are now being revoke.  I can’t wait to see where it will lead me!

For more on Matej Sitar, his book and his blog follow this this link.

[booksarenice]

[theangrybat]

The review to today's book on the blog. The review was published in the new issue of Witty Mag. Enjoy! http://theangrybat.tumblr.com/post/101074859211/ruben-brulat-sharing-paths-author Ruben Brulat's book Sharing paths starts as a straightforward travel journal. Cruising through landscapes, encounters with people and cultures. Suddenly the story and the mood changes. A blank page with just the place and the name of a person. You turn the page and you are looking into a magnificent large format landscape photograph void of every human trace. After looking at it carefully there's the surprise in the form of a naked body, small, tiny in all its fragility. In some pictures it is so small and hidden that the viewer would barely notice it, if he didn't know it is there. The sheer beauty of the landscape, wild and foreign looking is enough to take your breath away. I call them »nakedramas« because they appear so three dimensional. Into this comes the psychological part of vulnerability of the naked body thrown into this landmass. Ruben has been exploring these vulnerability in all his previous series, also with him as the subject. What I love about Ruben's book, among other things, is the narration and sequencing. This kind of rhythmic interplay of travel photos and «nakedramas« continues throughout the book. By doing so Ruben successfully managed to escape the danger of monotony. Also the reader can get a chance to better understand the distance, time and the difficulties in such a journey. Also what it means to get a stranger to pose for you in the middle of nowhere, to put away his or her shame, to make a decision based solely on trust. An amazing undertaking. In the middle of the book is a nice essay from one of his models, a traveler he met in Japan who later posed for him on a Japanese volcano. This and Ruben's words make it clear how bold, courageous and poetic his photography is. One of my personal highlight from last year.

[theangrybat]

[theangrybat]

I am very proud that my book found it's way also to Japan. Thanks to Takayuki Kobayashi it is now also available at flotsam books. Yeah! http://www.flotsambooks.com/SHOP/PH01743.html

[theangrybat]

Conversation about Morning sun with photographer Klaus Pichler

A short conversation about Morning sun with Klaus Pichler a photographer whose work I deeply respect and am a fan of. We had this on Facebook. I really liked his words about my book and asked him if I can share it and he was up for it. Here it is in German, as it was originally. KP: Gefällt mir sehr gut! Ich mag es, dass es so subjektiv ist und du so viele Bilder als Metaphern für den Zustand des 'gemeinsam schwanger seins' gefunden hast. Da ist eine Ebene drinnen, die ganz feinfühlig und behutsam funktioniert. Gratulation dazu [...] das funktioniert wirklich sehr gut. Ich habe mir auch gedacht, dass man viele Bilder auch 'hören' kann, dass also die Bilder so sind, dass sie (zumindest für mich) mit Geräuschen verbunden sind, die wiederum auf die emotionalen Zustände passen. Echt eine runde Sache. MS: das hast du wirklich schön formuliert. Für mich hatt die Story von Anfang an wie ein Gedicht ausgeschaut, so habe ich es auch editiert und ich finde es super, das du dieses Gefühl übermitelt bekamst. Es war schwiereg da es sich ja um ein sehr Persönliches Thema handelt und man weiss, das die Person die es anschaut nicht deine gefühle Teilen kann, du aber doch willst, das es rüberkommt und für den Betrachter interesant ist. KP: Das kann ich mir vorstellen. Etwas subjektives ist immer schwierig, wenn man es anderen Leuten vermitteln will. Andererseits ist man für seine eigene Situation und für sein Leben der beste 'Experte', weil man es auch emotional direkt miterlebt [...] witzig finde ich übrigens, dass dein Buch dort aufhört, wo das Buch von Phil Toledano beginnt - das wurde ja auch sehr oft diskutiert in letzter Zeit. Bei deinem Buch finde ich die Empathie, die sich von vorne bis hinten durchzieht, so super. The book: http://www.theangrybat.com/#morning-sun Klaus's site: http://kpic.at/ His fantastic book just the two of us will be on the blog in september.