Photopaper
Issue 57
Briefkästen II
Jens Klein
Kasseler Fotografie Festival
English
Nominated by Dieter Neubert.
Softcover
20 Pages
210 x 290 mm
2020
ISBN Not Available
For his work Hundewege – Index eines konspirativen Alltags, the Leipzig artist Jens Klein sifted through photographs in the Stasi documentation Office and put them together in sequential series. Stripped of their original context, without any indication as to the informer who took the snapshots, the photos reveal, at first glance, the comedy and triviality of the surveillance: the perceived “dissidents” kept watch on with a telephoto lens. However, Klein cuts out the contextual references, the background to the photos being taken, and adopts a different way of reading them. The blurriness of the pictures is the “reality effect,” a residual clue pointing to the secrecy inherent in the production of the photos. Other details of a visible reality are registered in the wobbly pictures, something the artist called “conspiratorial mundane”. The elements of the photographs that remind him of his own childhood and youth—the clothing and movement of the people, the rituals of dog-walking, motor-cyclists – seem to him to be what is truly remarkable, beyond the incriminating gaze that caused them to be taken. – Florian Ebner, Head of Cabinet de la Photographie, Centre Pompidou, Paris.
(source: https://photopaper.world/portfolio-item/57-jens-klein/)
About the Artist
Jens Klein is a German photographer and Archivist.
jensklein.com
About the Journal
PHOTOPAPER is a new kind of monographic photo publication with aa continuously changing editorial team of international experts. These guest editors name photographers or photographic projects which they would like to present to an international public. PHOTOPAPER features this work in single monographic issues of 16 or 32 pages. The main idea is to make high-quality printed photographic work accessible to as many people as possible by producing the final publication at a reasonable price. Therefore, the production process is reduced to a minimum while at the same time using high-end printing technology and a nice paper. Published on a quarterly basis.
photopaper.world
(source: https://photopaper.world/about/)
About the Publisher
The Fotobookfestival Kassel is a charitable foundation that has been engaged with the artistic medium of the photobook and has presented it in all its facets, since 2008, in a festival program of international standing. The annual festival shows works by renowned artists and promotes established and emerging talents, publishers, designers, printers, curators and booksellers on an international platform. It was the first festival of its kind dedicated to the photographic book and has founded two novel book awards: The KASSEL DUMMY AWARD for the best photobook mock-up of the year has awarded emerging talents a complete photobook-production since 2010; the KASSEL PHOTOBOOK AWARD assembles the best photobooks of the previous year nominated by international experts in the field. Books entered for both awards are showcased regularly in travelling exhibitions at international festivals and photography events. These two awards are unique in their formats and have been role models for other international festivals and events.
fotobookfestival.org
(source: https://fotobookfestival.org/fotobookfestival-kassel/)
