Jet lagged, it seems fitting that I pick up my copy of Lena Grass’ book Nachtigall (trans: Nightingail).
Made in cities all around europe, these are random, beautiful images of surrealistic, fleeting moments and events certainly made by the somnambulist, wandering with one eye wide open and the other still sleeping, kind of how I feel at the moment…
Imagine Arthur Tress and (a young) Ralf Gibson having a love child, a pretty 20something cosmopolitan with wanderlust. It reminds me of the time when it was normal for the party to just be starting at the time I now go to bed. There is a refreshingly lyrical text from the curator and art historian Jasmin Seck, who rightly avoids an analytical summary but instead adds a layer of her own:
…Night awakens fundamental questions in us. The longing which dwells in our depths leaves us restless, driven by the secrets of this timeless and spaceless empire. In the daytime we are many, but at night we are alone-hurled back upon ourselves. As the day’s counterpart night is the hidden, often dark realm of our soul and likewise a refuge…
Jasmin Seck (excerpt)
This is the second edition, I got it from Lena at the ViennaPhotoBook fair this summer. It seems to be self published so I would try to get one direct from her.
It is 60 Pages with b/w and color photos.
ISBN 978-3-00-041183-0