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A Visual Inventory
John Pawson is well known as a minimalist architect, whose body of work includes a new Cistercian monastery in Bohemia and Calvin Klein's first flagship store in New York. One key to his success is his remarkable in a life spent almost constantly on the move, he is always looking for patterns, details, textures, spatial arrangements and coincidental moments that can inform his work as an architect and designer. Since acquiring a digital camera, Pawson has amassed over 200,000 snapshots. The anthology of nearly 300 images in this book has been carefully culled from this massive visual diary, and each picture is paired with an illuminating caption.
304 pages, Hardcover
First published March 5, 2012
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
June 24, 2015
If nothing else, an active photographic pursuit (in taking as well as viewing pictures) reminds us of the importance of looking. It’s an exercise that trains the eye and mind to steal quick moments of intrigue from our everyday environment. Simply (and somewhat platitudinously) put, it makes us aware of the potential beauty in every situation.
John Pawson’s A Visual Inventory is a kind of treatise on the powerful effect of purposeful seeing. Culled from a lifetime of photographic documentation, Pawson’s work is a testament to the visual interest inherent in unlikely places. His photographs rarely present a traditional subject or narrative, but, rather, what catches his eye are subtle lines, shapes, and forms--the geometry of environments. This phenomenon can be found everywhere, and it’s stunning to behold, especially when we realize that it’s as often the result of accident as intention. Incidental beauty--these subtle but pervasive designs--are what Pawson is keen to share with us.
Formally, A Visual Inventory is made up of pairs photos with some kind of shared theme. At times the pairings can rely a bit too heavily on obvious compositional parities, but, as a whole, the doubling and comparing of often disparate subjects is a powerful reminder of the visual world’s underlying structures. This is not to say that, when you get right down to it, everything is the same--far from it. It's that there’s something powerful in being able to glean a consonant geometry that’s present everywhere we look. If, of course, we bother to do so.
John Pawson’s A Visual Inventory is a kind of treatise on the powerful effect of purposeful seeing. Culled from a lifetime of photographic documentation, Pawson’s work is a testament to the visual interest inherent in unlikely places. His photographs rarely present a traditional subject or narrative, but, rather, what catches his eye are subtle lines, shapes, and forms--the geometry of environments. This phenomenon can be found everywhere, and it’s stunning to behold, especially when we realize that it’s as often the result of accident as intention. Incidental beauty--these subtle but pervasive designs--are what Pawson is keen to share with us.
Formally, A Visual Inventory is made up of pairs photos with some kind of shared theme. At times the pairings can rely a bit too heavily on obvious compositional parities, but, as a whole, the doubling and comparing of often disparate subjects is a powerful reminder of the visual world’s underlying structures. This is not to say that, when you get right down to it, everything is the same--far from it. It's that there’s something powerful in being able to glean a consonant geometry that’s present everywhere we look. If, of course, we bother to do so.
January 8, 2014
La cámara se ha vuelto un inseparable compañero de todos nosotros, ya sea escondida en el móvil o como compañera inseparable en un modelo mas “profesional” todos aquellos tenemos acceso a capturar imágenes como nunca antes lo habíamos soñado. Para aquellos que nacimos en la era de la fotografía análoga el simple hecho de poder sacar todas las fotos que se nos antoje o que se nos atraviesen, es una sensación de libertad extraordinaria. Sin duda otro de los grandes cambios ha sido el compartir estas fotos, en especial a través de las redes sociales.
Pero, ¿realmente nos detenemos a ver que ven los ojos de los demás? No siempre. El afamado arquitecto Inglés John Pawson se detuvo un momento y de las más de doscientas cincuenta mil fotos que ha sacado con su cámara digital decidió hacer un inventario. Presentadas en pares y comentadas al calce por él, este volumen nos muestra doscientas setenta y dos fotos que nos permiten ver a través de sus ojos. Lo mágico para mí es que la presentación tiene una secuencia, una razón de ser y son una selección en un momento específico. Al contrario de la enorme marea de imágenes que nos invaden cotidianamente esta colección tiene la maravilla del libro, la edición.
En un mundo cada vez más frenético por lo visual detenernos a ver el inventario de un genio creativo, hojeando las páginas de un libro, es un ejercicio de reflexión muy sabroso.
Pero, ¿realmente nos detenemos a ver que ven los ojos de los demás? No siempre. El afamado arquitecto Inglés John Pawson se detuvo un momento y de las más de doscientas cincuenta mil fotos que ha sacado con su cámara digital decidió hacer un inventario. Presentadas en pares y comentadas al calce por él, este volumen nos muestra doscientas setenta y dos fotos que nos permiten ver a través de sus ojos. Lo mágico para mí es que la presentación tiene una secuencia, una razón de ser y son una selección en un momento específico. Al contrario de la enorme marea de imágenes que nos invaden cotidianamente esta colección tiene la maravilla del libro, la edición.
En un mundo cada vez más frenético por lo visual detenernos a ver el inventario de un genio creativo, hojeando las páginas de un libro, es un ejercicio de reflexión muy sabroso.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews