Publication: Distant Journeys by David Katzenstein

Lifelong chronicler of humanity throughout the furthest reaches of the world, David Katzenstein’s forty-nine-year artistic journey through thirty-seven countries is thoughtfully curated into Distant Journeys (Hirmer Publishers / distributed by University of Chicago Press). Drawn from an exhaustive body of work developed by Katzenstein, the 120 duo-tone images taken between 1974 and 2023 are thoughtfully accompanied by excerpts from The Sheltering Sky by Paul Bowles. Available for purchase in August 2024 in the EU/UK and September 2024 in the United States.

Steeped in documentary and reportage photography tradition, Katzenstein imbues his work with immediacy, emotional engagement, and a deep respect for his subjects. Imploring the viewer to join him on his journeys, his first-hand experience of cultures and peoples is shared with the audience as though they are present at the scene. Using subject, light, and composition to create visual dynamism, he sets the stage for the viewer to be in the moment with him. His goal is to allow viewers to experience a scene through his eyes.

In Distant Journeys, writer and educator Susanna Moore points to the potential irony of the title: these journeys are not distant but intimate. She notes that the construction of Katzenstein’s photographs “...while not arranged or designed, is far from accidental. Split between the discrete and the continuous (like time itself), the images make it seem as if one were in motion, viewing humans reduced to themselves in a solemn collision of past and present.”

In 2018, Katzenstein formed a nonprofit organization, The Human Experience Project, whose mission is to create and mount exhibitions of photographs depicting the human experience. The most recent project is the documenting and archiving of the extraordinary record of public and private life of Bayard Rustin, one of the architects of the Civil Rights Movement.

Katzenstein has spent his career traveling the world extensively, creating narrative imagery for fine art exhibitions, global corporate giants, and philanthropic organizations. He was a contributor to Rolling Stone, The New Yorker and Conde Nast’s Traveler, worked on numerous music projects for Sony Music, and completed both national and worldwide campaigns for Fortune 100 companies, including Hewlett Packard, American Express, AES and Stolichnaya.

This is his second title, following Ritual, released in 2022, which documented different religious and non-secular rituals and pilgrimages captured by the artist throughout his worldwide travels. Katzenstein is based in New York City.