Pascual Martínez & Vincent Sáez
Pascual Martínez & Vincent Sáez
The Tree of Life is Eternally Green
23 x 18.5 cm
Softcover
174 Pages
Trade Edition
Published by Overlapse
2018
From the artist:
Pascual Martínez and Vincent Sáez are two Spanish photographers working together. Their focus is on human relations and the study of society through photography as a means of anthropological exploration. In 2014 they began an artistic residency in Bucharest, Romania, working on The Tree of Life is Eternally Green, and have exhibited their work in solo shows in Spain, and in Bucharest and Brasov (Romania).
For this project they have been awarded grants for foreign cultural journalists by the Romanian Cultural Institute. The Tree of Life is Eternally Green was selected to exhibit at PHotoEspaña Forum of the Community of Madrid and at the PA-TA-TA Festival in Granada in 2017, and in the final selection at Barcelona International Photography Awards 2015. Their first book "The tree of life is eternally green" have been awarded with ArtsLibris-Fundació Banc Sabadell Prize 2018, jury selection at the Arts Libris book fair in Barcelona.
Book review by Dana Stirling |
Do you know that feeling when you open a photo book and you go ‘wow’ with your inner voice? Well, that was my experience the first time I opened this book by Pascual Martínez & Vincent Sáez. The first thing that grabbed my attention was the materialistic aspect of the book, from its golden book cover title, to its semi translucent pages, to the gate-folds and the paper type. All these textures and visual sensations really drew me in to the book.
The book successfully creates the feeling of an old notebook with old dried up leaves and flowers between its pages. Each time you step upon one it is yet another delicate fun surprise waiting for you and the very first one you encounter brings you back to that feeling of opening an old notebook and finding a flower you forgot about – that immediate sense of both nostalgia and innocence.
The semi translucent pages are used to show these dry flowers and plants, yet they create an interesting juxtaposition with the images under them – they create a new images/collage of the paired visuals.
The photographs inside the book are poetic still lives and portraits. They have this cold and cool-toned feeling to them that stands in conjunction to the warm feeling of the ‘notebook’ and the plants and they all work in a great harmony.
I think that this book was smart in it’s design, yes it leans on this nostalgic feeling, this sweetness of the flowers and the esthetics of the notebook but it also brings some fresh and new design choices that make it interesting and unpredictable. This collab of old and new really highlights the book’s visual photographic work.
I think the best thing, for me, in this book is how easy it is to view it, to move around its pages, go back and forth to see it from different ways. There is something very inviting about holding this book and looking at its images.
I hope you consider grabbing a copy for yourself – this is a great inspirational book for anyone interested in books and bookmaking to get ideas of how creative you can get with your publications.
Grab the copy here
