Beautiful Pig
Ben Schonberger
Self-Published
English
Hardcover
135 pages
254 x 355 mm
2013
ISBN Not available
The Anamorphosis Prize: 2015 Jury Special Mention by Anouk Kruithof
Beautiful Pig is a straightforward book as object, but it’s layeredness in design shows the complexities of identity through narrative mixed with questions about violence and lets us travel to bigger issues of great importance. I see this book as evidence of an investigation, which has been done by the artist into the life of a retired former Detroit Police officer, Marty Gaynor. Most of the pages of the book show Gaynor’s old photos in grids, where one can see his personal investigations during his employment; photos taken by Gaynor of people arrested accompanied by handwritten instructions, personal findings and somewhat critical stereotypical notes. Subsequently, the artist did his investigation of the police officer through photographs he took and the quirky ways that he worked together with a: the retired man himself and b: his photographic archive. The book is extraordinary because it manifests Schonberger’s unraveled quest for social collaboration that lead to this book, which I see as a detection to a much more complex problem, one which is accurate and current. It’s like a loaded puzzle that cannot be resolved. I see this book as a metaphor, which provokes my spinning mind into the current enigma of violence and stimulates me to further thinking, therefore deserving my special jury mention.
(source: http://www.benschonberger.com/new-page)
About the Artist
Ben Schonberger is an American photographer, based in Akron, Ohio.
benschonberger.com
(source: http://www.benschonberger.com/info-save)
