This is the first bilingual catalogue published in Japan by internationally acclaimed photography historian Jeffrey Batchen. It was produced as the official catalogue for the exhibition "Suspended in Time - Between Life and Death" held at the IZU PHOTO MUSEUM (April 3rd - August 20th, 2010).
This exhibition focuses on the relationship between photography and "time," as a sequel to Batchen's "Forget Me Not: Photography and Remembrance," which toured Europe and the United States in 2004. Featuring over 300 vernacular photographs that have fallen out of the mainstream of photography history, including early daguerreotypes, decorated commemorative photographs, photographic jewelry, and snapshots from family albums, it unearths the appeal of "forgotten photography" that has been cultivated in America, Europe, Mexico, and Japan.
Batchen himself says that "photography has the power to suspend its subject in mid-air between life and death," and the exhibition is centered around his own collection, exploring how moments from the past are recalled to the present, becoming a medium for memory, remembrance, and affection. The exhibition carefully explores areas that are difficult to address in existing photographic histories, such as the sensory experience brought about by photographs combined with hair, paint, and writing, and the "fluctuation of the boundary between life and death" shown in snapshots in which the photographer's shadow can be seen.
The text is by Jeffrey Batchen, Yoshiaki Kai, and Masashi Ohara. This book reexamines the very essence of "what is photography?"
[Title] SUSPENDING TIME: Life, Photography, Death
[Publisher] IZU PHOTO MUSEUM
[Publication date] July 29, 2010 (2nd printing)
[Number of pages] 256 pages
[Size] Approx. 21.0 x 14.8 x 1.9 cm
[Format] Hardcover
[Title reading] Time Travel Photography
[Authors/Editors] Jeffrey Batchen/author, Yoshiaki Kai/author, Written by Jeffrey Batchen and Masashi Ohara, 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 above average
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Geoffrey Batchen
Jeffrey Batchen is an internationally acclaimed photography historian in the fields of photography and art history.
He received his PhD from the Courtauld Institute of Art, University of London, and has taught at several universities in Australia, New Zealand, the United States, and the United Kingdom. He has also served as a professor at the City University of New York (CUNY) and the Department of Art History at the University of Oxford, and continues to be active at the forefront of photography history research.
Batchen has published numerous important works, including his masterpiece 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 that reconsiders Roland Barthes's "Camera Lucid," and Each Wild Idea (MIT Press, 2001), which crosses the boundaries of photographic history and cultural theory.
He is also influential in the field of exhibition curation, and has produced a number of internationally touring exhibitions, beginning with "Forget Me Not: Photography and Remembrance" (2004, Van Gogh Museum Amsterdam, among others), which explored the relationship between photography and memory. In Japan, he served as guest curator for the exhibition "Suspended in Time: Between Life and Death" held at the IZU PHOTO MUSEUM in 2010, where he attracted attention for his unique perspective focusing on vernacular photography.
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