Most of my time, I toil on my work alone, isolated in my studio, headphones on, in my own little world. This is not unique to artists or photographers, of course. The pandemic has only exacerbated this isolation. On the plus side, it has proved very productive for me, but I do find the urge to reach out and connect (both literally and figuratively) with other people, other creatives, other photographers.
To that end, I reached out to my frequent collaborator Fábio Miguel Roque in Portugal, and asked him to connect me with one of his frequent collaborators, Peter Oey in the Netherlands. My hope was to work together on “something.” What that was I had no idea. Both of these artists are prolific and create unique photographic work, mostly in book form.
After numerous exchanges over WhatsApp, we devised a plan to collaborate on a set of self-published books. We combined a pool of photos from which we each would pull from, and then design a book in our own chosen manner. The images were loosely based on a common theme (explained in detail at the end of this post) but the final choice and layout was at the discretion of each artist. To further the uniqueness of each book, hand assembly and / or binding techniques were employed. We each produced 14 books in total, 11 to sell, and 3 artist’s proofs…one for each of us.
The entire process took a bit over one month to complete. Quick yes, but also liberating and at the same time, connecting me with two other creative friends, albeit thousands of miles apart. I am proud of this project, and hope you will consider purchasing one at my online shop. But even more important than sales is the satisfaction of forging connections as a panacea for the isolation of the past few years.
IDUARE (old Latin) or IDES refers to the middle day of each month in the Roman calendar. Every month has an Ides, with the Ides of March being the 15th.
The word I des comes from the old Latin verb, iduare, which means to divide. This day became well known as the date of the assassination of Julius Caesar, which made the Ides of March a turning point in Roman history. Julius Caesar heard and ignored the warnings about the Ides of March. That day has since become associated with doomsday.
Doomsday and ignoring warnings of visual signs is our theme for this trinity of books. Each is born out of brainstorming discussions between the three artists.
Each book takes on a unique format, decided upon by each artist; created from a pool of photographs each had submitted for this work, expressing diverse viewpoints on the theme. What unifies each book, beyond the recurrence of images, is a spirit of creative opposition in the face of the complicated, often dangerous world we live in.
Are we soothsayers? Ignore at your own peril.