Fotobibliothek in der Passage: LARGE FORMAT – The Photo Book as Picture Atlas
Large-format books are distinctive. They take up a great deal of space and in private homes they are often jammed onto a shelf or put someplace where books do not actually belong. In public libraries, on the other hand, they are assigned a special location suited to their over-size dimensions. In the Fotobibliothek of the Fotostiftung Schweiz and the Fotomuseum Winterthur, all the books that are taller or wider than 34 cm fall into the “large format” cate-gory, which currently comprises 454 monographs. Although this is a small number relative to the total stock of some 15,800 monographic titles, it is these formats and their distinctive style that raise generic questions about the design and effect of photo books.
The option of presenting large pictures in a format suited to their size allows photographers to break with the conventions of book design. There are two distinct approaches that can be seen as polar opposites: either the double pages are used to print individual photographs in a size that is geared to photographic prints, so that the book sometimes comes to resemble a portfolio; or the available space is filled with several photographs, allowing for playful combinations and associative connections between the images.
Between these two design approaches, we can find a range of different variations. For example, the layout and the different-sized portraits may reference the presentation form of the photo album, as is the case with Malick Sidibé’s Bamako 1962–1976 (1995), or the pic-torial material may be superimposed in the style of a collage, evident in I Love New York (2006) by Isa Genzken, An Image (2019) by Dominik Hodel, and Vrun der Grenz (1989) by Jul Keyser. Another commonly used format is akin to a newspaper: loose sheets are interleaved without being stapled together and in some cases function individually as stand-alone panels, for example in David Southwood’s Memory Card Sea Power (2004), Aram Tanis’s Urban Jungle (2008), and Joël Tettamanti’s Salins Hyères (2004). The juxtaposed pairing of contrasting pictorial forms and sizes on a double page is another playful variant, as exem-plified by Eva-Maria Schön’s Innere Gärten (1998).
The term picture atlas, which is regularly used to describe large-format arrangements of images of various kinds, is closely linked to cultural theorist Aby Warburg (1866–1929) and his book project Mnemosyne. By combining and arranging images on large-format panels, Warburg studied the survival of ancient forms of design in successive eras through to the present day. However, the original sense of the word atlas in the context of books goes back much further—to Flemish cartographer Gerhard Mercator (1512–1594), who introduced it for his geographical maps. A large format is helpful in presenting maps; accordingly, in book printing an unfolded sheet of paper is called atlas format. Nowadays, the term atlas is generally used to refer to a bound collection of plates relating to a specific subject or field. The format, whether small or large, is no longer relevant.
While the eight wall exhibits published in the form of newspapers and periodicals come together as a series emphasizing creative possibilities, the five display cases each contain three titles focused on themes derived from our pool of large-format photo books: abstract landscapes, forms of portraiture, the city of New York, the window motif, and titles exploring the media of film, television, and photography themselves.
The Fotobibliothek handset includes an extended selection of large formats illustrating the theme. These books are available for viewing during opening hours (Tuesday to Friday, 1.30–5.30 pm). Exhibition dates: October 18, 2019 – February 23, 2020