Garden of Delights

Northern Ireland will have to leave the European Union due to UK's Brexit although a majority of its citizens voted to remain. There is a serious concern that Brexit will threaten the Peace Agreement of 1998 that ended the armed conflict between Protestant Unionists and Catholic Nationalists who live in homogeneous neighbourhoods that are divided by walls still today. Photographer Toby Binder has been documenting the daily life of teenagers in British working-class communities for more than a decade. After the Brexit referendum he focused his work on Belfast in Northern Ireland.
The images of the book Wee Muckers - Youth of Belfast were photographed in six different neighbourhoods of Belfast. On both sides of the "Peace-Walls". Each neighbourhood will be presented in one separate chapter showing the daily life of local youngsters. Problems they struggle with are similar - no matter which side they live on. And whatever the effects of Brexit will be, it's very likely that they will strike especially young people from both communities.

First major retrospective on photographer Stephan Vanfleteren Includes previously unpublished work with expansive personal reflections and stories from three decades of encounters and photography Stephan Vanfleteren (1969) is best known for his probing black and white portraits, but in recent decades he has also produced a wide range of documentary, artistic and personal work. From street photography in global cities like New York to the genocide in Rwanda, from building fronts and shop windows to the mystical landscapes of the Atlantic Wall, from still lifes to penetrating portraits. To mark Vanfleteren's 50th birthday, he is celebrating with a major retrospective which will occupy the entire Antwerp Museum of Photography (FOMU, 25 October 2019 - 1 March 2020) and with this publication Present, in which he looks back over his fascinating career. "I was there, I was present", says the photographer, who always feels himself to be both accomplice and witness. For Present, Vanfleteren has taken a generous selection of more than 400 photos from his ample archive, some of which have become iconic images while others have never been published before. In extensive texts, he reflects on how his own work and photography as a genre have evolved over the past decades and links these developments with a number of major social changes. This superbly illustrated book is an impressive overview of Vanfleteren's work and offers a comprehensive picture of him as a photographer, as an artist and, above all, as a human being living life with empathy, wonder and curiosity.

During fourteen trips between 1993 and 2010, Harvey Stein photographed in Mexico, primarily in small towns and villages and mostly during festivals (Day of the Dead, Easter, Independence Day) that highlight the country's unique relationship to death, myth, ritual and religion. This book is the definitive expression of Stein's intimate relationship with the people and culture of Mexico. The images show fragments of what Mexico is, a country of incredible contrasts and contradictions. Mexico is about piercing light and deep shadow, of stillness and quick explosiveness, of massive tradition and creeping progress, of great religious belief but with corruption as a way of life. It is a land of ritual and legend, of vibrant life and dancing skeletons, a country next to the United States yet so far away, and with over 50 percent of its population under 20 years old but where old age is revered. In these masterful photo series, Mexico - Between Life and Death Stein explores these unsettling disparities.
Send an email to hsteinfoto@aol.com to purchase the book directly.

Photographer and life-long Tottenham Hotspur fan, Martin Andersen has turned his camera on his fellow fans to create 'Can't Smile Without You', an intimate and often visceral collection of photographs taken at home, away, and across Europe from 2013 until 2017 with the last game played at the White Hart Lane stadium. Selected and edited from over one hundred different games, Andersen presents an authentic and unflinching documentation of the fans and their resultant relationships and community. His imagery depicts the drama, tensions, and raw emotions involved in such unwavering support of a football team that infiltrates every part of life.
Capturing a rapidly changing culture and a unique moment in Tottenham Hotspur's history following the demolition of the 118 year-old stadium at White Hart Lane at the end of the 2016/17 season, the monochrome images in 'Can't Smile Without You' also have a timeless quality that transcends the recent era they were taken in. These could be images of any diehard football fans and of the associated rituals, pre and post match, that are an integral part of being one.
In addition to the 119 photographs that were edited and graded by acclaimed photographer Kim Thue, 'Can't Smile Without You' features texts by lifelong Tottenham fans Joe Kerr, a writer and bus driver at Tottenham Garage, and Felix Petty, Editor at i-D Magazine.