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Close Contact Project Description
Close Contact
CLIENT + TEAM
Städtische Galerie Nordhorn
Helena Schätzle (photojournalist + concept)
Thomas Niemeyer (curator + concept)
The curatorial approach by head curator Thomas Niemeyer and photojournalist Helena Schätzle (who practiced in India for 12 years) served to highlight the personal connection in each artist's auto-ethnographic work.
Some turned the lens on themselves and their own communities, some staged stylistic imagery for social commentary, and some captured the urgent, the mundane, and the excluded, to help create a record. The outcome was a bold exhibition of unconventional narratives that expanded the archives of Indian culture, state and society.
Building on my prior experience in photo essay design, I proposed that instead of a showcase, we produce an exhibition catalogue of 10 mini-photo essays, allowing the display of each project to have a unique layout responding to its visual and textual content.
Working with a square format (10x10 in) enabled the book to emulate the feeling of a gallery wall in a reader's hands. With every featured project given 2 spreads each, the layout became a tool in building narrative. Throughout the design process, we committed to the rules of having as many large-scale openers (the first image for each project) as possible, and as few changes in image sizes in the opposing and following spreads.
This approach also facilitated a consistent typographic treatment of text: in the artists' reflections on their methods, the curators' essays in the preface, as well as the cover design.
Each textual section also had a German-language counterpart. My familiarity with many of the artists' works enabled me to assist as a de facto fact-checker and proofreader.
EXHIBITION CATALOGUE VIDEO FLIP-THROUGH
TYPE TREATMENT in CURATOR ESSAYS
LAYOUT and TYPE TREATMENT in OPENER SPREADS
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