Let's Sit Down Before We Go by Bertien van Manen

A photo book by Dutch photographer Bertien van Manen.

This book isThe collection is made up of photographs taken between 1991 and 2009 that were not included in his representative work, A Hundred Summers, A Hundred Winters (published in 1994). The title, "Let's Sit Down Before We Go (Prisyadim Na Dorozhku)," is a Russian proverb referring to the custom of kneeling and praying before embarking on a long journey by horse or cart in the Siberian winter, where muddy snow roads and wolves await along the way. Van Manen looked back at his contact sheets from that time and asked British photographer Stephen Gill for his opinion. Gill asked to see all the prints from the more than 500 contact sheets, and not only selected the photographs but also arranged them.

Van Manen recalls that in the era of "A Hundred Summers, A Hundred Winters," there were still strict rules about how photography should look.* Both films are based on the photo placement and editing techniques seen in "The Americans," but this film's editing theme is freedom of imperfection, and includes overexposed and out-of-focus photos, as well as photos taken by friends' children on the road. Not only is it a historical masterpiece of documentary photography, but from that perspective it can also be said to be an important work that reflects the transition in photographic expression.

*Aperture Fall 2015 Issue 220 “The Interview Issue”

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Title : Let's Sit Down Before We Go
Artist: Bertien van Manen
MACK, 2011
Linen hardcover, case binding
205 x 243 mm
104 pages
Text in English
First edition
ISBN: 9781907946127
¥44,000 -

Condition: Very Good