Susan Burnstine – Absence of Being

Copyright 2016 Susan Burnstine

Photographer: Susan Burnstine (b. Chicago, IL  & resides Los Angeles, CA, USA)

Publisher: Damiani Editore (Italy)

Essays: Text by Del Zogg, Chantel Paul, Susan Burnstine

Text: English

Hardcover book, sewn binding, four-color lithography, Biography, printed in Italy

Photobook designer: Masumi Shibata

Notes: Susan Burnstine’s second photobook Absence of Being is a collection of singular poetic black & white photographs, which are dreamy and mysterious landscapes. These photographic images result in part from her photographic equipment, a series of homemade photographic contraptions she created that utilized medium format film, but to a larger extent the concept and visions she is cathartically engaging. The overall darkness that engulfs her moody photographs hints at the underlying tension of her poetic narratives, what has been described has “an idiosyncratic and deeply personal visual landscape”.

Another visual theme woven in this body of work, more so than her first monograph, is the presence of a singular person or vehicle, which can be found in the midst of these landscapes. This is a strongly autobiographic element that visually places her within these narratives. Her subjects appear to be engaged in a journey, a dark metaphor that relates back to her night terrors as the source of her artistic endeavors and the mystic road she alone is traveling.

This wonderful body of work is sequenced with a single image per double page per spread; the left edge is run into the gutter with an edge bleed on the right, accompanied with a facing pagination and caption. The layout is metaphoric, with the binding providing the central source from which the pages and photographs radiate, while the bleed off the end of the page implying that her narrative does not simply end on this page. There are two styles of captions that reflect the two different states Burnstine deals with her dreadful night terrors. Also interwoven through the body of work are handwritten excerpts from Burnstine’s personal dream journal that provides some insights to the internal dialogue she is working against.

Burnstine’s photobook is a beautiful object and her wonderful luminous interior images are printed on a warm coated paper with a spot coat of luster varnish that emulates her photographic prints. Viewing this photobook is very similar to the experience of studying her print portfolio, which I was fortunate to do this last spring when we had adjacent tables at Photo Independent and the final galleys for her book were being completed. Recommended.

Susan Burnstine has been previously featured on The PhotoBook: Within Shadows (2011)

Cheers

Cheers!