Photography & printmaking / January 2023
Pastilles
23 risograph prints about Black interior life. A zine that comes apart, so the photographs can leave the book and become part of a room.
23 prints
11 × 17 inches
Risograph on gray paper
Glue-bound, detachable pages
The photographs
Family, in light and shadow.
Photographs become high-contrast forms inspired by relief printing and cut-paper silhouettes. Parents and grandparents recur throughout the sequence; the book is dedicated to them.
The object
A gallery you can take apart.
A strip of glue along the top edge holds the pages like a memo pad. Each print can be peeled away and displayed. The reader decides whether the photographs remain a book or become a gallery at home.
The material
The print keeps its imperfections.
Gray paper and risograph printing give every copy its own variations. Printing and binding are visible parts of the object, not imperfections to erase.
Credits
Photography, art direction, design, risograph printing, and binding: Didier Akinlabi Osias.
Dedicated to his parents and grandparents.