Gift - a beautiful collaboration
in form of a visual conversation.
During the pandemic, a friend of mine and I collaborated on a few smaller photo projects to stay not only in touch but also creative. We had several ideas how we could collaborate while living on two different continents. One of the photo projects we actually finished in the form of a zine. The other project, one I really liked, we unfortunately never finished. The idea was simple: I would send my friend a photograph and she would make a photograph in response to mine and would send it to me. The idea was to have a conversation based on photographs rather than words. I still love the concept and I am sure one day we will continue what we started…
When I wrote about photographer Terri Weifenbach a few months ago, I was looking through the list of her publications and found out that she had collaborated on a photobook with photographer Rinko Kawauchi. They had done exactly what I had envisioned to create with my friend. I was very excited to learn about their collaboration, because I admire both of these artists for their unique ways of seeing and photographing the world.
If you are not familiar with these two photographers, here is a very brief introduction:
Terri Weifenbach is an American photographer living in France. She is known for her dreamlike depictions of nature and everyday moments. What makes Weifenbach’s work so unique and inspiring to me is her use of minimal focus, vibrant colours, and the magical feel her photographs carry because of it. Her photographs always evoke a sense of wonder and awe in me.
Rinko Kawauchi is a Japanese photographer based in Japan. Looking at her work, I always feel like I am being transported into one of Haruki Murakami’s novels. Kawauchi too, focuses in her work on the everyday, photographing nature, family and everyday subjects in a poetic and intimate way. Her photographs feel familiar yet sometimes otherworldly to me. Each unique moment she presents to us in her photographs appears fragile and fleeting.
After learning about their collaboration, I went on a mission to find that book. It has been out of print for some years now, but I was lucky enough to get a copy.
Kawauchi and Weifenbach met in person in 2009 for the first time. Both women were familiar with the work of the other and shared a mutual interest and admiration for each other’s photography. But it wasn’t until 2011 that they began sending each other photographs via email and turning it into a year long visual conversation. When the book was taking form, Kawauchi suggested “Gift” as the title for the book, because she saw the images they sent to each other, also as gifts to a faraway friend.
The book, well it’s actually two books that have mirrored bindings and share the same end page. When they are laid out on the table, one opens to the right, the other to the left. Weifenbach’s photographs are in the book to the left, Kawauchi’s images in the book to the right.
As you start flipping through the pages a visual conversation between these two amazing artists starts to unfold. And although both artists have different ways to see the world, you can feel the connection these two have.
This wonderful book invites the viewer to become a witness of an intimate conversation between two women who share their unique perspectives on the small wonders of life with each other through photographs. It is a book one can return to for inspiration and contemplation over and over again. I know, I will.
If you would like to see more images from the book: Weifenbach has a few more pages displayed on her website and so has Kawauchi.
That’s it from me today.
Thank you for being here and for reading this week’s newsletter. It means a lot to me!
X,
Susanne
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now that is not only beautiful and wonderfully displayed but also very creative and in the same time simple idea. love it!
What beautiful projects- yours with your friend and the book. It reminds me of a collaboration I followed years ago- 3191 where 2 friends posted morning photos from Portland Maine and Portland Oregon. Such a thoughtful way to stay connected to a friend.
Thanks for sharing, Susanne.