DRIFTING

"to be honest, I'm drifting away from many things that are important to me, many people and many things. In a sense I am drifting away from myself, from the life I have. But in another sense this already happened before: where is that boy who photographed himself in the mirror, or the couple in the cinema? Where has that curiosity gone? I am not sure if I want to know the answer, so you tell me, should I want to know?" (from an email exchange with Catherine Duncan).

It was a piece in which I used many unpublished images. Those which had fallen out of the book dummies. It was a collection without sense, because I wasn't consistent: I still brought in known and published images. The wall version of Drifting was liked a lot. It always felt that was because it just looked impressive and perhaps that was reason enough.

"you will do what you have to do, but while you are at it do not forget to use that camera: you have brightened my days with your dark and mysterious images. I insist you keep them coming". (from the same email exchange with Kate)

My first exhibition with HUP Gallery in Amsterdam, in 2005, was soon after the Rainchild exhibitions. In fact these were still happening, both with Gallerie Vu and with Grazia Neri. It was not logic to copy these exhibitions, and we decided to show unpublished work. I had just made Rainchild, on which I had worked over ten years. Any next book is (also) a reaction to the book before: I made one dummy for Drifting, one layout, one title, one sequence. That was it. And this time I was consistent: this catalog Drifting had only unpublished images. Hup's young designer found the crazy typography for the cover, which I would have never thought to use, and I loved it. The idea to print the glossy black typography on the dark grey carton of the slip case came from the cover of Masao Yamamoto's beautiful book A Box of Ku, published by Nazraeli Press in 1998.

Drifting

Published by HUP Gallery, Amsterdam in 2005

Softcover in a carton slipcase

Editing and design Machiel Botman

First edition 500 copies, including a limited edition of 25 copies which includes a silverprint of the image Sydney, 1999

 (Sydney 1999)

Images of the spreads from this catalog Drifting are shown with the kind permission of the publisher

(Copyright for the images in Drifting is with the author. Copyright for the images of the spreads of Drifting is with the publisher Kahmann Gallery (before Hup Gallery) in Amsterdam)