BLACK AND BLUE (signed copy)

Shadowlab. Morten Andersen, 2011 [288 unnumbered printed pages]. Signed by the author & photographer on the title page (printed in blue). Two page introduction by Dorota Sacha-Krol. Colophon page at back. 144 full-page photographic reproductions on good quality paper. First edition of 600 copies. 24 x 18 cm. This is Morten Andersen's 12th photobook, published in conjunction with the 2011 Podium, Oslo Exhibition Morten Andersen: Black and Blue. Morten Andersen revisits his out of print books Fast City , Oslo F and Color F with hitherto unpublished images in a profound photographic examination of the Scandinavian city Oslo. The images are dark, grainy, and mysterious. People, conspicuously absent from most pages, congregate in bars, train stations, and parking lots, appearing both approachable and unavailable at the same time. Blurred lights, deserted streets, and austere building facades are juxtaposed with half drunk coffee cups, empty bubble baths, and cigarette butts, suggesting a busy human presence beyond the looming shadows. As Knut Hamsun says in his classic novel Hunger about Oslo "the city no one escapes from until it has left his marks on him.", the same can be said about today's Oslo in Andersen's books, epitomised in "Black and Blue".. 1st Edition. Soft cover. Fine.