Album, Volker Renner

The brown and slightly greasy patent-leather cover brings back memories of family albums that were antiquated long before we got old. Nowadays such heirlooms end up in the trash, at a flea market, or on eBay—not unlike photobooks or vintage prints, they are coveted by collectors. Volker Renner’s Album investigates the various ways in which anonymous private album photographs are presented on these sales platforms. It opens with empty black album pages; only the empty photo corners indicate that something has vanished. Such evanescence and the voids it leaves are a leitmotif throughout the book. Renner employs typical gimmicks people use to gussy up their wares for eBay only to point up their absurdity: spaghetti are stretched across pictures, tourist attractions are blacked out, and semitransparent cover sheets reveal themselves to be the true protagonists. The result is an achingly beautiful hymn to a formerly cherished family treasure stripped of its magic and intimacy by public exposure, demotion to a mere commodity, and—perhaps most grievously— digitization.

Published by Volker Renner and Textem Verlag
Hardcover
96 pages
165 x 200 mm
ISBN 9783864851728