The World Is Where You Stop — Tomasz Tomaszewski. Published by BLOW UP PRESS.
“For the ancient Greeks, the perspective of the world was the cosmos. For medieval Europeans, God. For the modern and contemporary era Man,” writes Tadeusz Gadacz, a specialist in the philosophy of man, in The World Is Where You Stop by Tomasz Tomaszewski (Blow Up Press, 1500 copies).
There is an occasional peaceful landscape but most of Tomaszewski’s images of twenty years, presented full bleed on huge and heavy paper, are filled with fear, suffering, cruelty, and death. One could say they leave little hope for mankind. In turn, Tomaszewski will tell you that he resists modernity. That he does so by independent thinking. And that his photographs are insights “selected with a hope that they will encourage reflections.” Hopeful he is, but this is how philosopher Gadacz reflects in the back of this black box of humanity: he talks about Auschwitz, the communist camps, and the repetition of our cruelty. He mentions specifically, “the atrocities of war, on my very doorstep in Ukraine: torture, the rape of women and children, mass graves and deportations to Siberia.” A thought-provoking black box with an open spine, which I choose as my Most Notable Book of 2023.
Afterthought:
In between writing these lines, I went out to vote for a new parliament. Right now the exit polls are published. I hit Facebook and immediately a post by Hristina Tasheva slams at me. With a black square containing no poetry, but: “The Netherlands chose the far right…”
We need to reflect. And for the sake of our souls, also look at what is good. I do this with the continuation of my list. You are invited to my Facebook Page for ll Monuments for Their Lives and Monument for Seeing Beauty in Part IIl. Almost all chosen books come in small editions!
Viory Schellekens is a Dutch photographer, also schooled as a journalist. She collects photobooks and year-end lists of photobooks. The latter resulted in a yearly List-of-Lists and the Meta-List which both contain more than 600 publications, published on 100 lists of ‘favorite photobooks’ made by 200+ people and institutions involved in the art of the medium. This year for the 9th time, you can go to Facebook.com/Viory.Schellekens to see who chooses what and which book collects the most voters behind its title. If you made a list, or see one that I missed, please let her know. It will be added.