You Won’t Be With Me Tomorrow
Harvey Benge
Dewi Lewis Publishing
Hardcover
88 pages
170 x 220 mm
2014
ISBN 9781907893650
You Won’t Be With Me Tomorrow is a sequel to the narrative Harvey Benge developed in his 2013 book, Some Things You Should Have Told Me.
Both deal with the pain of relationship, the seeming inevitability of separation and the mistrust that is its consequence. Women drift, lost and hostile, throughout the pages – they’re masked or veiled; they stare from behind bars – sometimes metal, sometimes frail as gauze, or turn away, eyes averted. They are beautiful but isolated – the time for reconciliation has long passed. This isolation is reinforced by a sense of eroticised cruelty – on one page, a woman plucks out her tongue, on another she thrusts it through a ghostlike paper mask, its tip counterpointed by a single red nail. Bodies are branded, bandaged, broken; they’re both scarred and vulnerable. A vibrant red apple declares multiple allusions – beauty, knowledge, temptation, betrayal. Benge’s visual vocabulary is typically elusive, but in You Won’t Be With Me Tomorrow he seems to examine a larger narrative. A young man is behind bars; a few pages later, stares at himself in a mirror in front of a closed door. A young boy puts his arm around a girl. They look beyond the frame at something troubling.
And yet…within Benge’s work, there is always unexpected beauty. Hope even. Amongst images of empty rotundas, retreating figures and vanishing planes, a closed door has panes of light, sunlight falls across a track. It’s as if Benge, while chronicling the pain of connection, also suggests subtle ways forward: a wooden X beneath a bush may mean stop; it may also be a kiss.
About the Artist
Harvey Benge (1944–2019) was a prolific photographer and committed maker of photobooks. Working between Auckland and Paris he published over 70 titles, often in the form of limited editions. Publishers included Dewi Lewis in the UK, Kehrer Verlag in Germany and Super Labo in Japan, as well as Benge’s own imprint FAQ Editions. His photographs have also been shown in public and private galleries in the UK and throughout Europe as well as in New Zealand. He has twice been a finalist in the prestigious Prix du Livre at Arles Photography Festival, France.
harveybenge.com
(source: https://www.harveybenge.com/about)
About the Publisher
Dewi Lewis Publishing is a partnership owned and run by Caroline Warhurst and Dewi Lewis. Founded in 1994, its photography list has an international reputation and has included books by leading British and international photographers such as William Klein, Martin Parr, Simon Norfolk, Fay Godwin, Tom Wood, Sergio Larrain, Frank Horvat, John Blakemore, Paolo Pelegrin and Bruce Gilden. The aim of the company is to bring to the attention of a wider public, accessible but challenging contemporary photography by both established and lesser known practitioners. The company has a worldwide distribution network and is recognised as one of the leading photographic publishers in the world.
dewilewis.com
(source: https://www.dewilewis.com/pages/about-us)
