7.24.2011

f100: Marie Quéau, Erik van der Weijde

© Marie Quéau, from the series "Gojira"

fototazo has asked a group of 50 curators, gallery owners, blog writers, photographers, academics and others actively engaged in photography to pick two photographers that deserve (more) recognition - the underknown, the under-respected as well as not-appreciated-enough favorites. A little more information on the project is available in the first post in the series here.

Today we resume the series after a summer break with responses from Marc Feustel.

We began the series with responses from Nicholas NixonMatt JohnstonBlake AndrewsJohn Edwin MasonAline SmithsonColin PantallMichael WernerLiza FetissovaLaurence Salzmann, Bryan Formhals, Richard Mosse, Shane Lavalette, Amy Stein, Amani Willett, Wayne FordS. Billie MandleLeslie K. Brown and Gordon Stettinius.

Respondent: Marc Feustel is an independent curator, writer and blogger based in Paris. A specialist in Japanese photography, he is the author of Japan: A Self-Portrait, Photographs 1945-1964 (Flammarion, 2004) and the founder of Studio Equis (www.studioequis.net), an organisation devoted to broadening access to the visual arts between different cultures, with a focus on the relationship between Japan and the West. He writes for several photographic publications including European Photography, Foam, Fantom, Look and VU MAG and blogs at www.eyecurious.com.

SelectionsMarie Quéau and Erik van der Weijde

I first discovered Marie Quéau's series Gojira at the Hyères Photography Festival. I was intrigued by the way the series combines a very wide range of different imagery to explore an abstract concept: the myth of Godzilla. Although she uses all sorts of images for this project—'classic' landscape, solarised abstraction, photo-montage, lo-fi gif—which come from sometimes totally unrelated sources, the result is extremely coherent and evocative without resorting to obvious references. The series is still a work in progress and it will be fascinating to see how it develops.

© Marie Quéau from the series "Gojira"

© Marie Quéau from the series "Gojira"

© Marie Quéau from the series "Gojira"

© Marie Quéau from the series "Gojira"

Erik van der Weijde is a prolific bookmaker (you can see a list of all his publications at www.4478zine.com). His work is all about the book form and his latest publication is a 5-part series of zines where he mixes his own images with work by five other photographers (Erik Kessels, Linus Bill, Takashi Homma, Eric Tabuchi and Paul Kooiker). He has a mischievous and irreverent sense of humour (the collaboration with Tabuchi is subtitled "modernist churches in France and the wife's butt") but his books also force us to think about the many decisions that are taken when making a book and how images relate to each other within that form.


© Erik Kessels / Erik van der Weijde, kids with nosebleeds and black eyes on polaroid and a lady with her poodle

© Linus Bill / Erik van der Weijde, Linus’ family in Switzerland and Eriks family in Brazil

© Takashi Homma / Erik van der Weijde, the cat and a smoking father-in-law

© Eric Tabuchi / Erik van der Weijde,  modernist churches in France and the wife’s butt 

© Paul Kooiker / Erik van der Weijde, a russian wolf having an identity crisis and a sleeping boy