Astres Noirs by Sarker Protick and Katrin Koenning.

1. Research a photo-book and describe the story it is communicating  with reference to subject-matter, genre and approach to image-making.

This photobook shows a collection of black and white photographs where the photographs have taken the ordinary and blown it up into dramatic images. Every photograph was taken on a phone and matched to its neighbour through overall shape and contrast. Each page is folded with a handful hiding additional images behind. The images were cumulated by an exchange between the two photographers. Like letters the two would send each other images and bounce off one another’s ideas. One photographer is from India and one from Australia. The pockets hide images and the word ‘disappear’. The book and sentence ‘all colours…within black’ makes somewhat sense but with the additional ‘disappear’ and hidden images, it creates a fuller and more well rounded overall narrative. The book is also a reflection of phone photography. The images were all taken from their own social media pages and the shine reflects the bright screens of the devices.

2. Who is the photographer? Why did he/she make it? (intentions/ reasons) Who is it for? (audience) How was it received? (any press, reviews, awards, legacy etc.)

Sarker Protick is an Indian photographer who overexposes and ‘looses’ colour in his black and white images. Katrin Koenning is an Australian photographer with a focus on the emotional connection with the environment.

3. Deconstruct the narrative, concept and design of the book and apply theory above when considering:

• Paper and ink: use of different paper/ textures/ colour or B&W or both.
• Since every page is folded they feel much thicker then they actually are. The pages are black and make use of a metallic white ink to make it shine under the light.
• Format, size and orientation: portraiture/ landscape/ square/ A5, A4, A3 / number of pages.
• The book is A5 portrait with 168 pages.
• Binding, soft/hard cover. image wrap/dust jacket. saddle stitch/swiss binding/ Japanese stab-binding/ leperello
• Its a hardcover with pages are bound by swiss binding.
• Cover: linen/ card. graphic/ printed image. embossed/ debossed. letterpress/ silkscreen/hot-stamping.
• The cover uses pure black card with the tile indentented.
• Title: literal or poetic / relevant or intriguing.
• The title is poetic. In English it translated to black stars. Black holes could be seen as more relevant however the use of stars relates to the brightness of the white and the metallic used for printing ink.
• Narrative: what is the story/ subject-matter. How is it told?
• There isn’t much of a story to the images. The images document an interaction between the two photographers.
• Structure and architecture: how design/ repeating motifs/ or specific features develops a concept or construct a narrative.
• Every set of unfolded pages have the same layout. The pictures are squares in the top corners of the pages.
• Design and layout: image size on pages/ single page, double-spread/ images/ grid, fold- outs/ inserts.
• Each image takes up part of one page. The book makes use of folded pages. The pages would have been folded in half and bound through the centre like normal pages. This makes the pages openable from the bottom corners.
• Editing and sequencing: selection of images/ juxtaposition of photographs/ editing process.
• The images are put together mostly in pairs. each pair are related in some way be it general shape or related themes.

• Images and text: are they linked? Introduction/ essay/ statement by artists or others.  Use of captions (if any.)
• The book doesn’t use many words. In the beginning there is the phrase ‘all colours disappear within black’ which relates to the images being black and white but also the hidden nature of the folded images. There are no captions with the images as these images are abstract and strung together in a narrative that wouldn’t make sense with added context.