josef chladek

on photobooks and books

Katinka Goldberg - Surfacing, Journal, 2011, Stockholm

Hardcover, cloth bound

I grew up in a world surrounded by women. This work is about the relationship between my mother and me. I photograph the atmosphere between us. What happens between us and what doesn't happen. The way I look at her and the way I sometimes see myself in her. How we as children are shaped by the way our parents see the world.

How do you tell a story without a narrative? A story that is formless and waves back and forth like water, without a concrete beginning or end. The beginning and end is instead created by the book's solid framing between two folders.

I want to tell a story about a close relationship between a mother and daughter - a relationship that consists of both a claustrophobic intimacy, love, pain and struggle towards independence. I believe that people during different periods of their life, can recognize themselves in this ambivalent Mother-daughter relationship.

My work is based on a carefully considered spontaneity. The book works on different levels simultaneously. It is both close and distant, both expressive and introvert. Together this creates a visual collage, which contributes to an expressive visual language with realistic collisions.

I am fascinated by the book as a medium of showing photography because of the intimate relationship it can create with the viewer. It suits this project that is about a close relationship. The viewer is invited into a world where the vision becomes distorted like when seeing under water.

My images are often closer to paintings, and in this body of work I have tried to connect the two expressions. In doing this I am able to combine the expressivity of painting, with the energy and ability to capture the moment that lies within the photographic media.

The whole story isn't told in this book, how could it fit into one book? It isn't a very hopeful book, and the ending isn't necessarily a happy one, but for me the hope lies within the fact that it actually has been made. Maybe that is the happy ending. (Katinka Goldberg)

Pages: 76
Place: Stockholm
Year: 2011
Publisher: Journal
Size: 21 x 31 cm (approx.)