Self-published, 2021. Edition of 300 copies. Softcover with flaps, Japanese binding, 71 pp., b/w illustrated, 300 x 300 mm. Photographs by Ana María Ferris. Design by Ricardo Baez.
74 photographs taken in France, Spain, the United States and Venezuela during the period 2010/2020 — have been grouped in the photobook “Free Jazz”, by Ana María Ferris. The subjects do not belong to a particular photographic genre. On the contrary, a vast visual universe of heterogeneous references—landscapes, portraits, advertisements, showcases, domestic photography, still lifes, monuments, parks and flowers—are associated and alternate with the intention of breaking with the classic fixed narrative thread present in photobooks or in books. Each copy has been compiled differently. The order of the pages, programmed using artificial intelligence, is random. Consequently, reading is generated by the independent and autonomous interrelation between each minimal unit of meaning; However, here the whole is worth more than the parts. According to designer Ricardo Báez, the musical style of free jazz (from the 60s) is recreated here, based on free interpretation, improvisation, invention and spontaneous creation of rhythmic tonalities. By combining Ferris' images using a fortuitous order, Báez proposes to fracture the defined-definitive narrative plot of visual essays articulated to the sequential edition—not of the photographs—in the space of the folios; He challenges the reader, who will have to prompt the content to create its particular or “own” meaning.
The cover has been printed on aluminized paper of a reflective nature, a tribute to the surface of the daguerreotype, “mirror of memory” and a quality that returns the reflection of whoever looks at it. A QR code complements the book, giving the possibility of scanning it with mobile devices; Its purpose is to interact with the publication at the moment in which it is browsed by listening to a soundtrack (18”:50’), created especially by Abraham Araujo, made of fragments of dialogues, noises, music and percussion. A special edition of 15 copies is accompanied by fifteen vinyl records of the same soundtrack.
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