REDBIRD MAGAZINE ISSUE 1

REDBIRDP h o t o g r a p h y M a g a z i n e

EDITORIAL NOTE Dries Bos

‘REDBIRD EDITIONS IS A CREATIVEI N F R A S T R U C T U R E THAT ENABLES P H O T O G R A P H E R S TO REACH A GLOBAL AUDIENCE’

MAXIME DELVAUX.“Democratic People’s Republic of Korea”

There are many truths in North Korea: not in the murky post-modern sense that there are no facts to be shown, but because of the severe limita-tions on what one is, literally and prosaically, al-lowed to see. So, how can representations of grandiose decoys, representations whose very angle seems constrained by secretive official-dom, fulfill our longing for a glance at the horrors of a totalitarian regime? Thruthfulness is what one expects from photographs about North Ko-rea. Should we not rather prefer a furtive glimpse of the terror unfolding behind the scenes?We should not. Catching from the cor-ner of the eye the sight of what might be ahungry child is not necessary to understand the madness of the regime. The few people inthe surrounding emptiness give the scale of the buildings; the sober explanations,provided by the regime itself, give the scale of the folly. We do not need to be told that thecooperative shop is not available to a starving population: one should be scared of a regimethat builds to fool visitors. What Maxime Del-vaux’s photos show is very real. Sufficientlyreal, indeed, to gently distillate a disturbing feeling, where the nauseating vertigo of someof the Borges’ Fictions mixes up with a genuinely Orwellian fear. Social psychologists recently found that Western educated people tend tounderestimate the extent to which they are in-fluenced by irrational conspiracy theories.Propaganda works insidiously, or else it would be useless. So, if at first you only feelslightly amused, if it takes you a while to un-derstand what it means for a country to displaythis, it’s all right. This is what these photos are for.

Essay by Mikhail Kissine

DEMOCRATIC PEOPLE’S REPUBLIC OF KOREA

ADAM NEESE.A known place.

“TO THE OBSERVANT WANDERING CHILD, THE LANDSCAPE IS A PLACE OF FANTASY AND FAME”

“TO THE OBSERVANT WANDERING CHILD, THE LANDSCAPE IS A PLACE OF FANTASY AND FAME”

A KNOWN WORLD is about remem-brance. To the observant wandering child, the landscape is a place of fan-tasy and fame. With this naive view, the size of the world is scaled down; a field, a stand of trees, or an old road can hold the magic and possibility of the American West in nineteenth century frontier days. When growing up our experience of time and space change, but through the fond memories we keep, the places where we lived and frolicked as kids still seem to hold the same mystique and wonder.

ADAM NEESE grew up in Cross Timbers, TX. He has been revisiting and picturing this landscape to compile and archive the memories of his past. Much like child-hood expeditions in The Caprican Empire, he has made these photographs with a creative sense of discovery. The major difference this time is that he has cre-ated photographs rather than memories, the discoveries have occurred inside of himself. These photographs and maps serve as documents of his personal his-tory; a meaningful childhood remembered.

5SERIES of FIVE.

ARI GABEL. Good River - USAFor a time the Ohio River Valley was the backbone of the United States. But those times are long gone. The river is now lined with eerie towns and massive power plants. A document is needed to preserve the people

PAUL CUPIDO. Grid - The Netherlands We intersect and dissect our landscapes with lines, grids and flat graphical planes. It’s what we call architecture. Cut out by the camera these geometric

forms become abstract, in complete juxtaposition with their natural surroundings.

SEBASTIAN REISER. The Tiroler Mountains - Austria

“Man created ways to tame nature, make it accessible and enjoyable. The sublime has become a commodity. Rising peaks and roaring depths have lost most of their awe and terror to glassfacadesd,boardwalks and partitions.”

ANDY FELTHAM. Incidental View - United KingdomRe-examine the commonplace. Confront and question the monotonous. Celebrate the incongruous marriage of perceived isolation with an overriding sense of wonderment. What you will find is a subtle disquiet in beauty, mortality and humour.

MARCUS KOPPEN. City Scapes - The NetherlandsThe uncomprimising growth of megapolises gives rise to a surreal, artifi-cial atmosphere. When the nocturnal hustle of its inhabitants begins, a sense

of timelessness and - paradoxically - unmistakable loneliness takes hold.

CODY COBBMonuments.

MONUMENTS is an ongoing project docu-menting the Earth’s surface and atmos-phere as it folds, condenses and erodes in the visible spectrum. These observa-tions were made while roaming the land-scapes of the American West in search of seemingly untouched nature. With careful compositions and subtle alignments of fractal geometry, these natural formations become exotic, romantic, mysterious. Ev-enthough a mere optical illusion - it is one that can transport its viewer to an alternate dimension. Being isolated in these im-mense spaces distorts any sense of time, space and self. It challenges the percep-tions of what it means to be human and of what our own relationship with nature is.

CODY COBB is currently based in Seattle, Washington. Cobb is a nomadic photogra-pher, scouring the United States in search of the realistic landscapes. His photogra-phy attempts to capture portraits of the Earth’s surface, devoid of human interac-tion and interference. His work has been compared with the master painters of the Hudson River School. “If the Earth where a canvas, Cobb’s photographic skills would most certainly be the paint and the brush-stroke.” (Taylor Curry – Aint-Bad Magazine)

“BEING ISOLATED IN THESE IMMENSE SPACES DISTORTS ANY SENSE OF TIME,

SPACE AND THE SELF”

CONTRIBUTERS.

FOUNDERDries BosDESIGNMaaike BlesEDITORPhilip Montnor

PHOTOGRAPHERSAdam NeeseAndy Feltham Ari GabelCody CobbMarcus KoppenMaxime DelvauxPaul Cupido Sebastian Reiser

[email protected]

I s s u e one

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