Review by Douglas Stockdale ·
When Alfred Stieglitz began his Equivalents series in the early 1920’s, that while looking up into the clouds he attempted to describe more than the visible surface of objects. It was his attempt to express pure emotion, to reveal a parallel universe to his own inner state, and that his photographs could assume the same nonrepresentational and emotionally evocative qualities as music. Regina Anzenberger taps into Stieglitz’s Equivalence concept in her photobook, Roots and Waltz, her third book that continues her investigation of a riverside park in Vienna and extends the nonrepresentational qualities of music to that of a dance of nature. And in Vienna what better dance to consider than a classic waltz.
The Waltz involves a pair that rhythmically glides about and Anzenberger in a similar fashion pairs two manners of investigating the same landscape using an Instax Mini 90 instant camera and an i-Phone while she wanders through this semi-wild landscape. These two photographic camera systems have their own unique visual aspects of capturing an image which provides an alternative perspective and charm when paired up together in her photobook. Anzenberger’s artist practice then literally extends her pairing of like images with the juxtaposition of found natural artifacts and objects as well as hand-drawing and hand-paint the resulting photographic images.
Her drawings extend parts of her subject, twigs and branches, out into and on occasion beyond the margins of the print as a brilliant reminder that what she photographs is not inclusive of her natural landscape and that nature is extensive as well as expansive. That we are the reader need to consider not only what is seen (visually captured) as well as to reflect on what is also not seen as “the essence of life, the roots and the future of the planet.”
As a result, her complex layering abstracts her subject that results in appearing both poetic as well as visible jarring, which for me draws the reader into these familiar landscapes. It is this mash-up of the representational and the non-representational that provides an expansive as well as multiple perspectives for her Vienna terrain. I enjoy the diverse hand-coloring of her photographs, which is a wonderful inclusion of the alternative and historic photographic processes as a creative means of expression.
As a talented book designer, she keeps the pace and sequencing of this photobook varied and engaging, the reader not knowing what the following page spread will reveal. Single images, paired images of the same subject, montage of print and objects, full page bleeds or a photographic image spanning the the two pages with a classic white border. The book is Smyth sewn, which is conducive for a double page spread in which none of the photographic content is lost in the middle gutter. Likewise, her photographs run the color gamut of warm tones to cold tones depending on the nature and interpretation of her subject. A very engaging volume for her artwork.
For those who might enjoy this photobook, I would also recommend consideration of her two earlier photobooks, Shifting Roots and Roots and Bonds that together comprise a beautiful trilogy collection of poetic images and imaginary works investigating nature.
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Other photobooks by Regina Anzenberger, in addition to Shifting Roots and Roots and Bonds that have been featured on PhotoBook Journal include Gstettn and Under the Apple Tree.
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Douglas Stockdale is a visual artist, Critical Mass 2023 Finalist and Founder/Senior Editor of PhotoBook Journal
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Root & Waltz, Regina Anzenberger
Artist: Regina Anzenberger, born and resides in Vienna, Austria
Self-Published (AnzenbergerEdition), sold thru her gallery, AnzenbergerGallery bookshop, copyright 2023
Essay: Regina Anzenberger
Text: English and Austrian (German)
Hard cover with (American) dust jacket over boards, thread binding (Smyth sewn), signed and numbered edition of 350 copies, printing and production by Tea Design, Sofia, Bulgaria. ISBN: 978-3-9503876-3-6
Photobook Designer: Regina Anzenberger
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