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Acta Est
This is the first book by the emerging photographer-artist Lise Sarfati. Composed of images made during extended visits to Russia during the 1990s. It is neither travelogue nor photojournalistic essay. Rather, Sarfati uses descriptions of the details of the Russian environments which fascinate her to create a visual drama - a personal theatre of dysfunction and deterioration, of change and beauty. The title - literally "it (feminine) is over" from the Latin phrase "Acta Est Fabula" meaning "the play is over" - signals her insistence that the work not be read as journalism but as a work of theatrical imagination. She builds a disturbing Tarkovsky-esque world out of concrete historical fragments - for example the architecture and factories of Norilsk, a town in arctic Siberia built and occupied by political convicts - and peoples it with lost characters - young transvestites and teenage runaways interned in "re-education" camps. Why results is a body of beautiful, engaging and disturbing photographs which are both a historical record of Russia at the end of an era, and the poetry of a visual artist conjuring her own world.
- GenresPhotography
112 pages, Hardcover
First published August 29, 2000
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
August 27, 2016
Some amazing photos of young Russians in detention and psychiatric facilities make this book worth a look. However, the editing, printing quality, and book design are all quite poor.
May 6, 2009
Thema: kunstfotografie; Rusland;post-communisme; ruïnes; industriële archeologie; psychiatrie; gevangeniswezen; 1990
Sluit van thematiek prachtig aan bij 'Rus' (Gert Jochems).
Aanrader voor wie een stukje 'schoonheid' kan vinden in alle mogelijke vormen van menselijk verval.
Sluit van thematiek prachtig aan bij 'Rus' (Gert Jochems).
Aanrader voor wie een stukje 'schoonheid' kan vinden in alle mogelijke vormen van menselijk verval.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews