Matthew Monteith: Czech Eden. Introduction by Ivan Klima.

Monteith, Matthew and Ivan Klima:

ISBN 10: 1597110329 / ISBN 13: 9781597110327

Published by Aperture, New York, 2007

About this Item

80 p. ISBN: 9781597110327 Sprache: Englisch Gewicht in Gramm: 820.

Seller Inventory # 81136

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Matthew Monteith: Czech Eden. Introduction by Ivan Klima.
• Publisher: Aperture, New York
• Publication Date: 2007
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1597110329
• ISBN 13: 9781597110327
• Binding: Hardcover with dustjacket.
• Condition: Sehr gut
• Weight: 820 grams
• Seller catalogs:
  • Kunst ab 1900

About this title

Synopsis

When he first visited the Czech Republic in the 1990s, the rising photographer Matthew Monteith was taken by the details of ordinary life in this country in transition. Captivated by the ineffable--a mood, a sense of place--he made repeated visits, and from 2001-2003 traveled throughout the country with his camera, in hopes of creating a contemporary allegory that would reflect the ideals he had observed in old postcards and in Czech photography from the 1920s and 30s. Combining restraint, brilliant color and a certain thoughtful attention to the uncanny within the everyday, Monteith's photographs parallel a venerable tradition staked out by masters like Joel Sternfeld, and embodied in contemporary work by younger photo-documentarians like Alec Soth. Though at times foreboding, an energetic optimism and humor pervades Monteith's work. His meticulously composed and beautifully produced images focus on individuals, landscapes, oddly stilled cityscapes and the worn traces of the country's long and complex history. Czech Eden, Monteith's first monograph, is not a literal description or documentation, but rather a parable in which the viewer encounters individuals and environments that are cohesive yet contradictory, beautiful but unsettling.

Review

"Czech Eden is not a literal description or documentation, but rather a parable in which the viewer encounters individuals and environments that are cohesive yet contradictory; beautiful yet unsettling." --Photo District News

"Monteith's Czech Republic is not a land of castles and cathedrals and frothy beer mugs. It's a vision of paradise lost, a lonely landscape of unrealized dreams and alienated people still struggling to make the transition from the old world to the new. It reflects, first and foremost, Monteith's discovery of a place that had essentially been hidden from Western eyes for 40 years." -- Frank Kuznik --The Prague Post

"...Monteith weaves together a conceptual narrative of truths to represent themes of isolation in postmodern society." -- Larissa Leclair --Photo-Eye

"Czech Eden mixes landscapes with portraiture, still lives, and even the occasional street photography scene in a way that has become quite common in contemporary photography, and the results are very appealing." -- Jörg Colberg --Conscientious blog