Jeffrey Batchen: SUSPENDING TIME: LifeーPhotographyーDeath

This is the first bilingual catalog published in Japan by world-renowned photography historian Geoffrey Batchen. It was produced as the official catalog for the exhibition "Suspending Time: Between Life and Death" held at IZU PHOTO MUSEUM (April 3 - August 20, 2010).

This exhibition focused on the relationship between photography and "time," serving as a sequel to Batchen's "Forget Me Not: Photography and Remembrance," which toured Europe and the Americas in 2004. It features over 300 vernacular photographs that fell outside the mainstream of photographic history, including early daguerreotypes, decorated commemorative photographs, photographic jewelry, and family album snapshots, unearthing the charm of "forgotten photographs" nurtured in America, Europe, Mexico, and Japan.

Composed mainly of Batchen's own collection, who states that "photography has the power to 'suspend' its subjects between life and death," the content explores how past moments are recalled into the present and have served as a medium for memory, mourning, and affection. It meticulously uncovers areas rarely dealt with in existing photographic histories, such as the multisensory experience provided by photographs intertwined with hair, paint, and writings, and the "fluctuations at the boundary of life and death" indicated by snapshots revealing the photographer's shadow.

The texts are by Geoffrey Batchen, Yoshiaki Kai, and Masashi Ohara. This book fundamentally re-examines "what photography is."

[Title] Suspending Time: Life—Photography—Death
[Publisher] IZU PHOTO MUSEUM
[Date of Publication] July 29, 2010 (2nd printing)
[Number of Pages] 256 pages
[Dimensions] Approx. 21.0×14.8×1.9cm, 0.57kg
[Format] Hardcover
[Language] Japanese, English
[Title Reading] TOKI NO CHŪZURI SEI SHASHIN SHI
[Author/Editor] Geoffrey Batchen/Author, Yoshiaki Kai/Author, Geoffrey Batchen, Masashi Ohara/Author, Yoko Mori (IZU PHOTO MUSEUM), Takuma Hayashi (Deco design)/Book Design
[Printing] APEISM Co., Ltd./Printing and Binding
[ISBN] 978-4-904257-08-1
[Condition] Used 【8】Good to Near Mint (Slight scuffing on cover)
[Accessories]
[Featured In]
[Related Exhibition] 2010 IZU PHOTO MUSEUM

Geoffrey Batchen

Geoffrey Batchen is an internationally acclaimed photography historian in the fields of photographic and art history.

He earned his Ph.D. from the Courtauld Institute of Art, University of London, and has taught at various universities in Australia, New Zealand, the United States, and the United Kingdom. He has served as a professor at the City University of New York (CUNY) and a professor in the Department of History of Art at Oxford University, and continues to be active at the forefront of photographic history research.

Batchen has authored numerous important works, including his seminal book, "Burning with Desire: The Conception of Photography" (MIT Press, 1997), which explores inventive thinking before the birth of photography; "Photography Degree Zero" (MIT Press, 2009), a collection of essays re-examining Roland Barthes' "Camera Lucida"; and "Each Wild Idea" (MIT Press, 2001), which traverses photographic history and cultural theory.

He is also influential in exhibition curation, having launched a global touring exhibition starting with "Forget Me Not: Photography and Remembrance" (2004, Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam, and others), which explored the relationship between photography and memory. In Japan, he served as guest curator for the "Suspending Time: Between Life and Death" exhibition held at IZU PHOTO MUSEUM in 2010, drawing attention with his unique perspective focusing on vernacular photography.

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