Book Lookin’ reVieWs
Pieter Hugo, 2005
Akira rides a Vindec Bicycle Elinor rides a Pashley Princess Sovereign
horst A. Friedrichs Cycle Style Perhaps you’ve noticed them. they’ve certainly caught our eye often enough during our street people photo shoots: the hip metropolis inhabitants on their trusty two-wheelers. But the specimens that horst A. Friedrichs is now presenting us with in terms of urban bicycle culture – we ungrudgingly acknowledge – are in a whole other league. ‘Cycle style’ is the story of man and his bike in perfect symbiosis. Along the lines of: show me your saddle, and i’ll tell you who you are, the german photographer, born in 1966, has covered mile after mile of London’s well-developed network of cycle routes to capture the trend-conscious two-wheel community on camera in the style of classic street style photography. Like Para, for example, with his golden 1980s rossin tt; or Jules on her light blue, slightly more down-to-earth-looking globe A1 Premium with little woven handlebar basket, who seems to have just discovered a ladder in her pink tights. Friedrichs, who has lived in the British capital since 1997 and who, in the past, has photographed the ‘21st Century rockers’ and the ‘21st Century Mods’ here, really knows his subcultures. And the London cycling scene is definitely a subculture. not least because the city is home to the ‘tweed run’: once a year in London hundreds of cycling dandies dressed in the styles of the 1920s to 1940s meet up for a group bicycle ride – on bikes that often have parts that date as far back as that too. And this also explains why, instead of jeans and trainers, which you would assume would be a suitable look for fans of this method of transportation, a large number of the approximately 200 ‘Cycle style’ street people prefer vintage attire such as waistcoats, suit jackets and knickerbockers. But even everyday cyclists refute every cliché of cycling environmentalist or student. despite continuously rising petrol prices, cycling in 2012 is no longer about merely saving money, but has become a way of life: the bicycle is a prestige object, or at the very least a trend accessory. even fashion houses like gucci, hermès and Armani have jumped onto the bandwagon. And not only them: the list of cyclists portrayed by Friedrichs also includes designer Paul smith, who is pictured going for a spin in front of his London atelier – of course on a Mercian track Bike, which is also available with Paul smith signature. /ew
CyCle Style is published by Prestel, Munich and costs 24.95 Euros.
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tamar garb (Publ.) Figures & Fictions – Contemporary South African Photography it’s been 18 years since nelson Mandela was inaugurated as the first black president of south Africa, finally bringing the system of apartheid to an end for everyone from the Cape to Pretoria. two decades have now passed since the revolutionary changes in south Africa – a time in which they hosted a World Cup and, growing in self-confidence, dealt with the fallout of the colonial period and the consequences of apartheid. so where does south Africa stand now? What is it like to live in a country with eleven official languages and hundreds of different ethnic groups? With deserts, archaic villages and modern metropolises where, just a few miles away from the next township, Michelin-starred food is being served and designer fashion being modelled for glossy ad campaigns? Well, the situation in south Africa is certainly not quite as the average european would envisage. opening the 312-page ‘Figures & Fictions’ you are in for a surprise: a photograph by Cape town photographer Pieter hugo shows an older white married couple in a humble-looking living room. Between them on the ‘couch’, which appears to have originally been the backseat of a minibus, sits a small black boy in smart jeans and a dazzling white polo shirt. the story behind this mysterious ‘family portrait’ is explained in an interview with the photographer, to be found in the appendix along with essays on all seventeen of the south African photographers compiled for this book. We find out the boy is the son of black middle-class parents from whom the white couple rent a room. so is it a topsy-turvy world? After almost two decades of post-apartheid, this shouldn’t even be the question. this was tamar garb’s opinion too. A professor of art history, she put together this compendium of contemporary south African photography as part of an exhibition for the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. the exhibition covers work from 2000 to 2010. the list of artists includes photographers like david goldblatt, the father of south African documentary photography who, in 1998, was the first south African to have a monograph exhibition dedicated to him at the MoMA, as well as remarkable members of the younger generation like Jodi Bieber and newcomers like Kudzanai Chiurai, who, in his series entitled ‘the Black President’, creates an imaginary south African cabinet with an ironic twinkle in his eye. As the title suggests, ‘Figures & Fictions’ offers a broad spectrum of stylistic and expressive forms – from social documentary to the scrutiny of pop-cultural symbols down to postmodern reflections on the medium of photography. But across the board one thing stands out: in almost every case it is the human being and his identity that is under the spotlight. /ew
FigureS & FiCtionS is published by Steidl, Göttingen and costs 48 Euros.