Last month, renowned Swedish photographer J.H. Engström was awarded the Goldene Letter first prize in the Stiftung Buchkunst Best Book Design From All Over the World competition, the Frankfurt-based art foundation’s annual review.  His book La résidence was selected by an independent international jury from a pool of 540 photo books from 31 countries. They call it “a fascinating, eye-opening book – interaction without anything having to be plugged in.”

La résidence is comprised of 29 snapshot-like triptych gatefolds interspersed with his typically restrained pictorials on borderless double-page spreads and brief bursts of diary comments. The selection committee writes:

Nothing dramatic takes place, no lessons are being taught – but as each sequence elicits greater curiosity, for the spectator, browsing and folding his or her way through the pages, a personal individual story emerges, like the pieces of a jigsaw puzzle.

Engström has been featured in an interview with Anders Petersen in Aperture issue 198. Aperture Foundation also presents a limited edition print and portfolio.

The haunting, painterly print “CDG/ JHE #41, 2006,” originally featured in Aperture magazine issue 190, shows his efforts at capturing the atmosphere and ambiance of Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris, where much of his childhood was spent, and which he calls a “fantasy landscape”. The series from which it comes, CDG/JHE, “provides an almost abstract definition of the existential homelessness and displacement that is at the heart of J.H. Engström’s work—the source of its tenderness and beauty, as well as its power to unsettle,” writes Martin Jaeggi in his commentary for Aperture.

Three other untitled prints are available as part of the Trying to Dance Portfolio, a selection from the series which comprises a photojournalistic ‘diary’ of his life: landscapes, still-lives, self-portraits, and snapshots of friends produce a loose narrative, recording not only the artist’s individual experiences, but a sensitive and provocative engagement with the world at large.

Engström’s tendency to utilize small moments in the construction of wide-reaching narratives is recurring in much of his work.

Artist Gerald Slota and Work Scholars, Photo by Elina Ruka

Anders Petersen install at Marvelli gallery, Photo by Elina Ruka

It is a great privlege to hear about a great photograph from the photographer himself. This past week Aperture Work Scholars had the opportunity to meet artists and gallerists at several new exhibitions in Chelsea.

The tour began with an artist led walkthrough of Gerald Slota’s recent collaboration with playwright Neil LaBute at Ricco Maresca gallery before continuing on to artist Marco Breuer’s show at Von Lintel gallery, concluding with a sneak-peak of Anders Petersen’s new exhibition at Marvelli gallery.

A new exhibit of works by artist Gerald Slota, who was featured in Aperture issue 196 , Home Sweet Home was created through correspondence with celebrated playwright, screenwriter and movie director Neil LaBute. The series, on view at Ricco Maresca gallery, explores ‘the sordid family secret’ at times verging on black humor. Slota’s charasmatic story-telling brought the exhibit to life. During a Q&A session we discovered the importance of experimentation in Gerald’s image making process.

At Von Lintel gallery we met the gallery co-director Dana Greenidge who gave us a detailed tour of Marco Breuer’s exhibit. Marco Breuer’s monograph Early Recordings was published by Aperture and showcased a survey of the artist’s conceptually driven work. His new exhibit Nature of the Pencil combines photographic elements with performative writings and drawings.

A sneak-peak of City Diary by Anders Petersen, who was featured on the cover of Aperture issue 198, on view at Marvelli gallery which had yet to open to the public at the time of our tour, revealed a marvelous black-and-white photographic journey through the honest and passionate human relations depicted in Petersen’s work. The photographer himself greeted us briefly before rushing away to finish installing the show.

This Work Scholar post is by Elina Ruka who currently interns for both the Sales and Limited-Edition Photographs Departments.

Elina is a recent graduate of Ecoles de Conde in France where she studied photography. Her favorite Aperture books are Kamaitachi and Winter Stories among others. Elina, coming from Latvia, loves to discover New York, lives in the moment, and documents her experiences in photographs and words on her blog.

The spring issue of Aperture magazine #198, is now on newsstands.

Here are some of the features:

• Magnum colleagues Elliott Erwitt and Marc Riboud discuss each other’s work and where their philosophies on photography differ.

• Anders Petersen speaks with JH Engstrom about expanding beyond the spatial limitations of his earlier work and his method of photographing people.

• John Gossage transitions into color photography for his upcoming volume The Thirty-Two Inch Ruler/Map of Babylon, featuring photographs taken in Washington D.C.

• Paolo Pellegrin and Scott Anderson team up using pictures and words to tell stories about Iraqi refugees.

• Zoe Crosher’s collection of Michelle duBois’ self-portraits examines styles of documentation.

• Walid Raad‘s visual catalogue of Lebanon explores modes of interpreting and fabricating history.

• In New Trees, Robert Voit photographs cell phone towers to comment on how nature submits to the technological desires of people.

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With over 60 exhibitions set among beautiful 12th-century churches and former industrial buildings, the 40th Rencontres d’Arles is not to be missed. The carefully prepared exhibitions are mostly produced by the Rencontres team, along with artists and curators, and often travel on to other parts of the world.

Returning to Arles after over twenty years, Nan Goldin is presented in 40 Years of Ruptures, and has invited 12 photographers to participate in the exhibition Ça me touche, Nan Goldin’s Guests: David Armstrong, Marina Berio, Jean-Christian Bourcart, Antoine D’Agata, JH Engström, Jim Goldberg, Christine Fenzl, Leigh Ledare, Boris Mikhailov, Anders Petersen, Jack Pierson, Lisa Ross and Annelies Strba on view at the Atelier de Mécanique.

Additionally, Goldin is presenting three personal exhibitions: The Ballad of Sexual Dependency, a visual diary of her life in New York; Sisters, Saints and Sibyls, a tribute to her sister and to those rebel women fighting for survival in society; and her own collection of photographs. On Saturday, July 11, Nan Goldin will be honored with a Discovery and Book Award ceremony for her influential work in contemporary photography. Aperture originally published Goldin’s masterwork The Ballad of Sexual Dependency in 1986.

Les Rencontres d’Arles 2009

40 Years of Rencontres/40 Years of Ruptures
Rencontres Internationales de la Photographie
Tuesday, July 7—Sunday, September 13, 2009
10 rond-point des Arénes
13632 Arles, France
Phone: +33 (0)4 . 90967606

Nan Goldin: The Ballad of Sexual Dependency+ Tiger Lillies
Saturday, July 11, 2009  10:15 pm
Théâtre Antique

Nan Goldin, The Ballad of Sexual Dependency: Atelier de Mécanique