Publisher/European Photography

Google翻訳
"Herbarium," a representative work by João Fontuberta (1955-), is a key figure in contemporary photography, based in Barcelona, Spain, and has consistently questioned the very premise that photography "records the truth." This work, an early representative series created in the early 1980s, takes on a neat form reminiscent of a botanical encyclopedia or natural history specimen collection, but actually features fictional plants that do not exist in this world. The plants depicted in the works are created by combining everyday objects and discarded materials such as hoses, electrical cords, metal fragments, and brushes, and Fontuberta photographed them as if they were real plant specimens. Created as an homage to the German botanical photographer Karl Blosfeldt, this series, while appearing at first glance to be scientific documentary photography, skillfully shakes our trust and preconceptions about photography. This book already establishes the methodology of Vonkberta that would later develop into works like "Fauna" and "Sputnik," allowing readers to enjoy an original world where photography, science, natural history, and fiction intersect. It is highly regarded as an important work representative of conceptual photobooks of the latter half of the 20th century.