josef chladek

on photobooks and books

Volker Renner - sleep tight, Textem Verlag, 2014, Hamburg

Hardcover, cloth bound with „individual soiling“. Design by Christoph Steinegger / interkool.

„The project “Sleep Tight” represents a very different kind of search for clues that challenges the viewer to do his own detective work. Everyone knows Columbo, the slightly quirky American police officer embodied by Peter Falk, who has maintained a steady late-night presence on German television screens since the 1970s. And we have all nodded off as the investigation dragged on and ended up missing the bad guy’s mistake that tripped him up. Volker Renner has certainly been there, and so he compiled this series: the crucial clues that helped Columbo identify the murderer from every single episode. The result not only relieves us of the obligation to stay awake to the end, as the title suggests. It also reflects an image of America subliminally broadcast, then as now, by cultural products such as television shows. Most importantly, Volker Renner’s series provides a key to his own work in photography and to photography in general: it can pick up leads, but the interpretation remains the task of the viewer—if he knows how to read the pictures and sticks to it until the case is solved.“

Order at Textem.

Pages: 192
Place: Hamburg
Year: 2014
Publisher: Textem Verlag
Size: 24 x 30 cm (approx.)