Archipelago
Matthew Porter
MACK
Text by John Gregory Dunne
Hardcover
132 pages
240 x 280 mm
2015
ISBN 9781910164303
Archipelago is a journey into an interior, upriver, towards an enigmatic hinterland. At any one instance, Matthew Porter sets up correlations between disparate images, configured on each page like islands in an archipelago, clusters which form their own, indigenous subjects. Short texts, placed at intervals, reveal the connective tissue binding varied subjects – Jane Fonda and the Vietnam War, the Hawaiian Island of Kaua’i and Hollywood. What interests Porter is the legacy of the photographic image, and its capacity to reach across history, to make intelligible to us what we already know, or, encountered at the right moment, that which we could not otherwise know.
“Porter’s stills function like portals”, writes Lindsay Caplan, “obliquely suggestive of historical events, modernist styles, and codified genres, sometimes all at the same time… this very contemporary condition in which knowing too much and knowing too little invoke the same visceral state”.
About the Artist
Matthew Porter (b.1975, Pennsylvania) received his BA from Bard College in 1998 and his MFA from Bard-ICP in 2006.
matthewporterphoto.com
About the Publisher
Mack is an art and photography publishing house based in London, working with established and emerging artists, writers and curators, and cultural institutions – releasing between 20-25 books per year. Established in London in 2010, our founder Michael Mack wanted to create a publishing house that connects new and established authors to a wider audience in beautifully designed editions. Rooted primarily in photography books, our publishing has expanded into art, literature and critical studies, working with some of the world’s most pioneering creative minds and institutions. Over this time, we have sought to build an extensive cultural programme, bringing our authors to audiences across the world in talks, workshops, fairs and signings.
mackbooks.co.uk
