Annabelle Fürstenau
From the beginning White Press travels along the outskirts of photography. In times when “taking pictures” is omnipresent, we are proud to introduce a young artist that definitely found a new path using only photography. Annabelle Fürstenau carinately separates botanical blossoms into their single leaves. These parts of a whole flower are put in a syntax that is captured by camera from a the top of a light table. This beautiful work hints towards Blosfeld’s “Urformen der Kunst” with a just as German title “Blütenstände”.

Max Regenberg is a long distance surveyor. The pictures reproduced in his second book “M – Come To Where…” are vintage 35mm from the 70′s and 80′s. By “screening” the Marlboro advertisement blow ups he mingles the artificial myth of the post colonial conquerer with the reality of black and white German everyday’s public. But looking at these pictures, one (specially looked at with a german eye) has to admit: This it not reality anymore. Both worlds are history!

Kai-Uwe Gundlach
Following the tradition of “German eyes on Japan” White Press gives tribute to the Japan mastery in designing and crafting books. Besides showing three chapters of uncompromising stylish photography downtown Tokyo the book is even more than a special edition. Each book is unique for Rie Wada, a Düsseldorf located Calligraphy artist created a sign of EDO (Tokyo) that is put on the front cover by hand with color pigments from charcoal, rust and silver. Surely each book is signed and numbers as well but the book is wrapped in black silk-paper so nobody knows what kanji or number to expect. Takashi Homma expressed deep respect to the Shibuya chapter which is the dark horse of the book.

 

Doug Rickard

Detroit

“A New American Picture”
is released in October 2010.
There is no ISBN due to quantity.
The edition is limited to 250 signed & numbered copies.
HC, completely bound in paper, 92 pages‘
One page text!

The Price is 150,00€

Igor Chepikov is an artist born in Moscow who lives in Cologne for more than 20 years and works as an architect, painter and photographer. “Heldenstadt” reveals a love-hate relationship with the source he comes from, spelled M.O.C.K.B.A. A leitmotif in grey, continuing all the way, through the book, seeming to say: “Do Not Pass”. WHITE PRESS experimented with various black and white printing methods. Finally we ended up with a system that is (referring to manufacturer) “not made for halftone reproduction”. We RIPed our own and here it is: Printed on paper we choose as an artistic approach to newspaper appearance. Once more: documentary as art.

Helge Schlaghecke, White Press

M.O.C.K.B.A

The Price is 78,00€

Rainer Junghanns GMT + is the heavyweight champion among the WHITE PRESS books. Each box is handmade by craftsman, containing the book, handmade by Sarah Stahl, containing an artist-signed C-print of the “last picture” and a hand-bound colophon-text by xxx. In order to “see” the real container, visit the exhibition of Rainer Junghanns at Rheinisches Landesmuseum Bonn in spring 2011. What’s it all about? One of the remaining misteries: A trip around the world. By freight-ship.

Helge Schlaghecke, White Press

The Price is 490,00€

Frederic Lezmi “Beyond Borders” takes us on a trip from Vienna to Beirut, searching for the border between Europe and the Orient. Going beyond the borders of traditional book making it has been designed as a 11-meter accordion fold-out, hand-folded and glued by the artist. Choosing this unusual format we want to enforce a reading process equivalent to the slow and sometimes uneasy transition between cultural symbols and values as one travels from West to East.

Helge Schlaghecke, White Press

I don’t normally review books where only 150 expensive copies are available, but this is symptomatic of photobooks today, where so many photographers are just getting on and doing it themselves in this kind of way. One outstanding example at least should be celebrated.

Gerry Bagder, photographer, critic and writer, London

“Beyond Borders” has been nominated by Gerry Badger as his favorite photobook of 2009 for the Kassel Photo Book Awards and has been nominated for the 2011 Deutsche Börse Photography Prize.

beyond borders arabic edition

The Price of standard is 98,00€
Sorry, all 150 copies sold!

Special Arabic edition is 98,00€

Very Special edition of Classic and/or Arabic,
in a unique box containing an original! on request.

Olivier Cablat “Galaxy” or shall we say “Galaxie”? is an attempt of deconstructing the meaning of words by pictures. The book “opens to” and “closes in” at the middle, the centerfold, or shall we say “explodes”? It’s a fusion of anarchy, humor and a trip to the absurd. The evident pictures are facades of French night clubs taken at daylight. Olivier has a close connection to nightlife himself, he performs as a d.j. All copies of this book are live-stickered while he plays his sets. Be sure to have the session named in your copy!

Helge Schlaghecke, White Press

foldout!

The Price is 77,00€
Unstickerd version with seperate bag of stickers is 65,00€

Jochen Manz Twentythree Bankers — there are by far more books homaging Ed Ruscha’s famous artist books than Mr. Ruscha did himself. His little books became milestones in the history of photography AND the history of photo book. No almanach where they are not mentioned. The reason we could not resist to give one more example, producing “twenty-three bankers” with the photography of Jochen Manz is portrait. All of Ruscha’s books receive their cool habitus by the complete absence of people. Our book has nothing to show but twenty-three portraits of people closing their eyes. Taken shortly before the so called financial crisis, within a campaign to portrait leading management of an international banking company, these prints actually were cutouts. Being “remixed” in this context you may ask yourself: “Hey what is it all about?” It’s a bit a joke and a bit provocation. The artistic approach though, is that they are beautiful portraits after all (and before). All our appreciation and thanks to the twenty-three people shown in the book for their support to make it happen!

Helge Schlaghecke, White Press

23 Bankers blink

The Price is 39,00€

Verena Loewenhaupt little square is a special among specials. Only personal links give access to the dimension of this book which cannot be derived from the physical size of a pink 4by4 . Verena and I were friends before we did the book. I do have a close connection to Japan myself. Somehow the story displays the Yin and Yang of photography and life: shadow and light, positive and negative, winter and spring, loneliness and togetherness, pain and pride. Thank you Christoph for “inventing” a text style that is half documentary and half poetry. And good luck Verena!

Helge Schlagheke, White Press

CU_Tokyo text booklet

The Price is 79,00€
There are a few speceds with unique print left!

Steven Sasson — thank you and thank you “Deutsche Gesellschaft fur Photographie”(DGPh) for realizing the unique “The Camera Of The Future”. Honoring Stephen  J. Sasson, Rochester, USA, 2008 with… for inventing the first digital camera gave birth to this book. It includes a facsimile print of the official KODAK research papers AND a limited C-Print of “The First Digital Picture” ever plus the accompagning anecdote. Most of the copies were signed by Stephen in Cologne while celebrating the award and photokina, Sept.08.

Helge Schlagheke, White Press

the first digital picture

The Price was 49,00€
Sorry, all 300 copies sold!
Signed collector`s pieces at 99,00€

Ken Schles — a photographer challanging himself. The most important fact about the “history” book is that it shows a perfectly designed “no design”. We refer to classical icons of binding and printing such as hand sewing with a bookbinders needle and leather glove, handmade spines, blind embossed title, half-linen achromatic hardcover, age-relating yellowish patina of the dustcover, wooden-fibre text pages, semi-structural serifs on the ends of some of the strokes of type that make up letters and symbols. Thank you Ken for getting it all started and thank you for a brilliant text as well!

Helge Schlaghecke, White Press