A couple of months after my preliminary meeting at Steidl Verlag 1, the long-awaited email from Gerhard arrived two weeks ago, informing me that he was available to receive me in Göttingen to finalise my book. Without hesitation, I promptly booked my flight and made my way there.
We completed the selection of my photographs taken from 2019 to 2023, managed the CMYK conversion, and decided the cover design. I am happy to share that the new book is set to be released this summer.
For this latest publication, I invited curator Matteo Balduzzi, director of Mufoco, to pen the critical text, as his perspective on the project and valuable insights have contributed significantly to the project.
Similar to what I did in my very first book with Steidl Beach and Disco1 I decided to include some close-ups at the end. This also helped us define the title, which I am very pleased with: Distant Close-ups. It’s an oxymoron that captures my photographic style—detached and objective, yet simultaneously building an intimate relationship with the subjects of the photographs.
Lastly, the cover of the book has been decided, and I am quite fond of it. For those who are curious, I have attached a preview! Both front and back cover images were taken at dawn in Monopoli for “Panorama Monopoli” in 2022.
