"Is there a book you would recommend?" is one of the most common questions I get asked when serving customers.
Since I buy books at my own discretion, I buy books that I think are good or look good. Therefore, everything on display in the store is a recommended book. But that doesn't answer the question, so after explaining the above, I make suggestions based on the customer's preferences, and often recommend new books or classic titles.
In the case of 1 BOOKs, this article is my proxy, so I cannot recommend it in that way. Therefore, in this project, I choose a book that I would like to recommend from a more personal perspective each time. This time, I would like to introduce the latest book by Norwegian photographer Lina Bämmer Lokken, published in November last year by Multipress, an independent Norwegian publisher that IACK has been handling since it was founded in 2017.
Spread from the book "Dry Eye Dripping Stone"
A few years ago, Lokken's daughter lost the sight in one eye due to a tumor around the optic nerve. This incident prompted Lokken to reexamine her own existence as a photographer. As a result, she began to consider the two gazes that photography possesses: the "optical gaze" and the "tactile gaze."
The former refers to the gaze as an optical phenomenon through a lens or the naked eye, while the latter refers to the gaze = image with texture and touch as a printed matter in a broad sense. In the medium of photobooks, which he has been working on for a long time, Locken has begun to attempt to fuse the tactile nature of the latter photograph with the semiotics and visual narrative of traditional photography.
Spread from the book "Dry Eye Dripping Stone"
The fact that this book is a tribute to his daughter is clear from the short afterword included in the book: in his writings to her, Locken writes, "You became like a camera."
Unlike today's digital cameras and smartphones, which take pictures while looking at a monitor, the analog camera she uses literally captures the image through a "single-lens" lens, with the photographer removing the viewfinder with one eye. The photographs in this book are scenes seen with one eye, just like her daughter, and readers can come into contact with the landscapes of Locken's memories stored in layers, feeling their presence with their hands and eyes as they read the book.
Spread from the book "Dry Eye Dripping Stone"
As a father of a daughter and a photographer, I have had more opportunities in recent years to think about conveying something through my work, rather than through direct communication between people. When I look at this film from that perspective, I am struck by the powerful potential and significance of art, which goes beyond criticism and beauty.
Locken's work has become simpler, more stripped down and sharpened with every passing year. This book also deals with personal events, but it has a warmth that envelops the difficulties and a powerful photographic work. It is a book that you should read carefully, turning each page carefully.
Yukito Kono (Photographer/IACK)
January 11, 20251BOOKs" From the text submitted to "
Title: Dry Eye Dripping Stone
Artist: Line Bøhmer Løkken
Multipress, 2024
Hardcover
215 x 290 mm
96 pages
Text in English
First edition of 300 copies
¥7,590-
https://www.iack.online/products/signed-dry-eye-dripping-stone-by-line-bohmer-lokken
