Kissing a Stranger
Joni Sternbach
Dürer Editions
English
Hardcover
First Edition of 1000
96 pages
235 x 285 mm
2022
ISBN 9781838314316
Kissing a stranger, is a study of Sternbach’s early work made during the 1970s and 1980s.
In essence it is a portrait of the artist as a young woman forming her visual language through freedom of experimentation and expression. Sternbach said, finding her way towards independence and autonomy as a young art student was both intensely lonely and toughening. Having a camera around her neck afforded her a feeling of protection. This allowed Sternbach to project herself onto the world around; exposing her own needs, desires and loneliness.
Sternbach looked at the city not from above or below, but straight on. Photographing herself and her family became a coping mechanism. The images in kissing a stranger are a product of that era.
About the Artist
Joni Sternbach is a native New Yorker. She holds an M.A. in Photography from New York University/International Center of Photography and a BFA from the School of Visual Arts. She has held teaching positions at NYU and been a visiting artist at Cooper Union. She is founding faculty at Penumbra Foundation where she currently teaches and serves on their advisory board.
Sternbach uses both large format film and early photographic processes to explore the present-day landscape, and to make environmental portraits. Her work centers on our relationship with water, and how as humans, we observe, relate to, and interact with the earth’s oceans. Because her work is so intrinsic to connective bodies of water, it taps into environmental issues like climate change and its accompanying effects.
Sternbach’s involvement and experimentation with historic and alternative processes began in the early 1990s and was part of her teaching curriculum at NYU where she worked for over 15 years as an adjunct professor. The Untitled Silhouette series, a feminist-based riff on Muybridge’s nude studies of females from The Human Figure in Motion, furthered her work with concept, process and platinum printing.
Sternbach’s work has been exhibited extensively throughout the United States and abroad and was included in the seminal exhibition, Pleasures and Terrors of Domestic Comfort at MoMA. Her photographs are held in several public collections including the High Museum, LACMA, The Nelson-Atkins Museum, MoPA, Maison Européenne de la Photographie in Paris, France, and Museum of Fine Arts, Houston to name a few. She is the recipient of several grants and awards including MacDowell, NYFA, the 2011 Clarence John Laughlin and 2010 Santo Foundation awards.
jonisternbach.com
(source: https://jonisternbach.com/about/)
About the Publisher
Dürer Editions is a fine art book publishing company working with artists in Europe and the US. It publishes fine art titles in photography, painting, sculpture, design and architecture.
Named after the German Renaissance artist Albrecht Dürer (master printer, engraver and one of the earliest book publishers), Dürer Editions is committed to publishing beautifully crafted books in collaboration with artists. They strive to be faithful to the artists’ vision and to present their work in a poetic and sensitive manner. Working alongside the artist at every stage of production, from the initial concept to the final printed book and onward distribution, Drürer are committed to creating fair and equitable relationships with the artists.
durereditions.com
(source: https://www.durereditions.com)
