“Violet Isle” is here!
August 11th, 2009
Advance copies of Violet Isle arrived this week. It’s stunning! This “photographic duet about Cuba, by Alex Webb and Rebecca Norris Webb, is truly a photographic collaboration, and we had a great time working with these two amazing photographers. The book is “softbound” and each copy comes in a printed, cardboard sleeve. The essay by noted writer Pico Iyer is truly brilliant, and the entirety of the text in the book is in both English and Spanish. The retail price is $50; a signed copy is $55; the limited edition of 40 is $1500.
The front cover (out of the cardboard sleeve) has one of Rebecca’s images…
And the back cover has one of Alex’s.
Here’s the prototype for the limited edition which comes with two Type C prints, one by each photographer (and you get to choose from a total of four). Pre-order here:
Musings About a Photographic Duet: Violet Isle
July 10th, 2009
Through the lens of one photographer, a melody can be cast. It might wind around corners, creep through windows, or curl around a smooth or weathered face. Those great picture melodists might also choose to add harmony to their images, allowing the subject to sing along, contributing warmth and magic. Perhaps there is yet another level of melodic composition. Bach for one, was not satiated by melody and harmony alone. He craved independence between two layered melodic ideas; counterpoint allowed for greater depth and contrast, dissonance and resolution. In this, Bach demonstrated the concept of unity in diversity: the idea that separate individual entities, when woven together, will reveal a chimeric unit; one stronger and more vibrant than either could be in isolation.
Rebecca Norris Webb and Alex Webb have brought their contrapuntal photography to Radius Books with their vibrant photo-essay on Cuba, the “Violet Isle” which will be published this Fall. Their contrasting artistic backgrounds and creative synergy are evident in this book, the culmination of a nearly two-decade-long project.
The book will feature work by the two photographers, woven together in a seamless and elegant visual poem. Standing alongside the photographs is an essay by famed writer Pico Iyer (in both Spanish & English). The book itself will come in a printed cardboard sleeve, and the limited edition of the book comes with 2 type-c color prints, one each by Alex and Rebecca (and from a choice of 4 total). Pre-order the book now.
Alex Webb is best known for his work in Latin America and Istanbul. He describes himself as a “street photographer” who must, “walk and watch and wait and talk, and then watch and wait some more, trying to remain confident that the unexpected, the unknown, or the secret heart of the known awaits just around the corner”.
He has been a full member of Magnum Photos since 1979 and was granted a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2007 to continue his work in Cuba. Some of his previous books include Crossings (Monacelli Press), Istanbul (Aperture), Amazon (Monacelli Press), and From the Sunshine State (Monacelli Press).
Alex’s Istanbul project is the subject of a wonderful short film, which you can access below.
Rebecca Norris Webb describes her moving earlier work, The Glass Between Us as, “An exploration of the complex relationship between animals and people in cities”. The work is supported by Blue Earth Alliance, a non-profit company that supports documentary photography that challenges social norms. St. Louis photojournalist Erik Lunsford muses in his blog, Uncommons, that the work “let’s you choose — rapt attention or casual exploration”. It is this unassuming generosity that characterizes Norris Webb’s work.
As a team, the couple offers masterclasses around the world to photographers who have an interest in long-term projects. Their classes focus on developing spontaneity in photography and intuition in editing. These two important facets of the Webb Method are explored further in this article and interview by Behance Magazine with Norris Webb on following creative inklings.
More information on Rebecca Norris Webb and Alex Webb can be found at their website.
Alex Webb & Rebecca Norris Webb: Violet Isle
March 20th, 2009
This multi-layered portrait of “the violet isle”—a little-known name for Cuba inspired by the rich color of the soil there—presents an engaging, at times unsettling document of a vibrant and vulnerable land. It combines two separate photographic visions: Alex Webb’s exploration of street life, with his attuned and complex attention to detail, and Rebecca Norris Webb’s fascination with the unique, quixotic collections of animals she discovered there, from tiny zoos and pigeon societies to hand-painted natural history displays and quirky personal menageries. The result is an insightful and intriguing blend of two different aesthetics inspired by Cuba’s existence over the last fifty years in an economic, political, cultural and ecological bubble virtually untouched by the rest of the world, and unlikely to remain that way for much longer.
About the Artists
Alex Webb is best known for his vibrant and complex color work, especially from Latin America and the Caribbean. He has published seven books, including Crossings and Istanbul, and has shown at the Whitney Museum of American Art, the High Museum of Art, and the Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego. He became a full member of Magnum Photos in 1979. He received a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2007 to continue photographing in Cuba.
Rebecca Norris Webb, originally a poet and journalist, had her first NYC solo exhibition at Ricco Maresca Gallery in 2006, the same year her first book, The Glass Between Us, was published. Her series, which uses text and images to explore the complicated and vulnerable relationship that exists between people and animals in cities, has also been included in several group exhibitions, including “Why Look at Animals?” at the George Eastman House Museum of Photography. Her project was awarded sponsorship by the Blue Earth Alliance. Currently, she’s working on a series of photographs in the American West called, “My Dakota.”
About the Author
Pico Iyer is a British-born essayist and novelist of East Indian descent who is currently based in Japan. A regular columnist for Time magazine since 1986, he has also written for Harper’s, The Financial Times, The New York Times, The New Yorker. He has written over ten books, including Global Soul: Jet Lag, Shopping Malls, & the Search for Home (2000), Sun after Dark: Flights into the Foreign (2004) and most recently, The Open Road: The Global Journey of the Fourteenth Dalai Lama (2008).
