"As February fills with red-and-pink declarations of love and romantic gestures are urged in every form, the opportunity to look the other way arises. The other way is understood not so much as an outright rejection of sentimentality, but as a survey of alternative manifestations: through quieter, more singular articulations. The photo book is a particularly meaningful medium - the photo album, its amateur protoform, has long been, after all, a repository for images of loved ones. Plus, photo books also make excellent gifts, for lovers or otherwise."
"From the moment Japanese photographer Seiichi Furuya met Christine Gössler in Graz in 1978, he began documenting her. Only a few weeks into their relationship, they travelled together to Bologna. Seven years later, they returned to Italy for what would be their final trip - shortly after, Furuya-Gössler took her own life. This publication bookends the relationship, tracing the arc from beginning to end by juxtaposing both journeys, attempting to decipher the questions raised by loss."
February's commercial rituals prompt attention to alternative, quieter articulations of romantic feeling rather than outright rejection of sentimentality. Photobooks and family photo albums function as repositories of loved ones and as meaningful, giftable objects. The selected titles examine multiple registers of romantic photography, spanning routine and celebration, closeness and solitude, and voyeuristic to confessional modes. Seiichi Furuya's long-term documentation of Christine Gössler traces meetings, journeys and loss via rediscovered Super 8 films and subsequent publications. Nan Goldin's Couples and Loneliness condenses an established intimate practice and continues engagement with desire, dependency and contemporary portraiture.
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