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A Visual Inventory
John Pawson's career as an architect and designer spans a variety of sizes and from bowls to bridges, and monasteries to Calvin Klein stores. In addition to his acclaimed design work, he is the author of Phaidon's successful Minimum , a book that paired images and captions to illustrate the notion of simplicity in a beautiful and inspirational manner. Visual Inventory presents some of the images from Pawson's personal collection of over 200,000 digital snapshots. The book opens with an essay explaining the importance of photography as a tool for Pawson's work, and the images are set one per page with illuminating captions. Covering a huge range of subjects, the photographs form a remarkle body of reference material. Some of the images illustrate a particular idea out form, material or space; others reflect the author's interest in returning repeatedly to certain subjects, capturing the changes brought by different weather, light conditions, seasons and patterns of use. Each image has been chosen for the book because it is useful, offering a lesson in visual thinking. None of the photographs in the book have been cropped or altered; it is the selection, arrangement and captioning of the images that make this book unique, valule and attractive to any architect, designer, artist or student who wants to see the world around them with a stronger eye.
320 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