I’ve not had the chance in the past few months to write or post about photobooks, though I have acquired a few. I have been more selective this year about getting photobooks, mainly due to space constraints.
One of my recent acquisitions that I have enjoyed very much is Traces Within by Eva Voutsaki. It’s a beautiful book with lush, evocative, dream-like images. Indeed, the photographs are to “enable the viewer to travel smoothly and secretly into his own memories.”
It has an innovative design (see info about book below), which fits into the intention of creating a book with no obvious beginning or end and allowing the viewer to drift through the photos.
Info about the book (from her website)
“A trifold book of three booklets stitched on a concertina cover which allows for the book to be opened out in to one long strip.
The format for Traces Within was based on the idea of drifting through memories, the intention was to create a book with no obvious beginning or end and allow the viewer to drift through the photos.”
The book also includes text by Vanessa Winship (whose photobooks include “she dances on Jackson” and “Sweet Nothings”). The text forms part of story and is not an introduction for example. An excerpt of the text is below.
“She told me she was the daughter of a farmer from an Island I visited a long time ago.
Sometimes meetings are short, intense, sometimes they last a lifetime.
What is it to be invited into a diary, to be offered a key to unlock what lies within? Long memories triggered by each lived moment, if shared, to know and understand that we are not alone. Sometimes we know where and when.”
For more images and info about the book, visit Eva Voutsaki’s website. Or visit her Instagram account @eva_voutsaki where you can also find a link to her website to order the book.
Buy the book at her website here or at Photobookstore.
I very much appreciated the personalised touches when I received my own copy. It came wrapped in white wrapping paper and a handwritten “Thank you” on it. The back cover of the book is personalised with my name and the edition number. All this gives it a nice artisanal air.
