“White Snow on Black Ice” is the result of using photography and book design to capture the invisible bond of memories connected to places of my past I have rich memories tied to. Places that make me re-live certain events, painful and happy alike; however, memory does not work like a video recorder. Memory changes upon re-living it. The harder you try to see and remember, the deeper you go, layer by layer, the more likely you are to re-write your past without even realizing it. Until you feel that you really experienced it.
This book is completely handmade and bound. Learn more about the making of process of this book on my blog
Cover: Hardcover
Binding: thread (Dutch binding); bound by hand
First edition: 20 copies
Published in Tokyo, Japan in 2014
More information: http://holgerferoudj.com/store/shop/photobooks/white-snow-on-black-ice/
When I went to Germany last winter, for the first time after more than 3 years, it was only natural to take my camera and use photography to connect to what I was feeling when re-visiting all these places I had rich memories tied to. Acting out of intuition at first, I pretty soon knew what I wanted to say – my vision was clear and I worked every day on this Germany project I had on mind. This book here is an initially unplanned side project, a sub chapter of this larger Germany project.
This is not merely a photo book anymore. It is not what you imagine when you hear the word “photo book”. Instead, it’s an object that conveys an experience that would be impossible to convey in mere photographs, especially not on a screen. Using a multilayered design with a special kind of reflective printing on black paper, the process of browsing through the book and looking at these photographs of the frozen spots on the very ground I experienced so much on gives a feeling of how memory works.
Some people will hate it because of the way the “photos” are represented, fleeting, hard to see. That’s fine, but they miss the point. Compared to the other books that are in the pipeline right now, this is by far my most experimental and “impressionistic” one; the overall feeling and mood the book conveys is just as important as the photos themselves.
