Beyond Here Is Nothing.
Photography & texts by Laura El-Tantawy | Design & book concept by SYB | Lithography by Colour & Books | Hand-bound by FopmaWier Boekbinderij | Self published edition of 500 | Signed & Numbered | Released March 2017 | ISBN: 978-0-9932876-1-9 | SOLD OUT
Beyond Here Is Nothing is a photo-book object meditating on home. A place of belonging, a tranquil state of mind; a nostalgic memory or an imaginary destination – home is a perpetual possibility El-Tantawy is journeying to reach. Her personal experience growing up in contrasting cultures is the window to an intimate and emotive visual exploration of the unsettling feeling of rootlessness, the mental burden of loneliness and the constant search for belonging in unfamiliar places. Drifting between the physical and the whimsical, the book reveals itself through layers of images and words. A mirror of dispositions. A living object harmonising with time.
“There are many photo books produced about the world around us. Books about the physical world we live in. About buildings in Sao Paulo, gay marriages in Amsterdam, food cults in Italy, an upcoming neighbourhood in New York City, sex trafficking in Thailand, a revolution on a famous square in Cairo. Books about “things” that reflect light and therefore can be photographed. There are far fewer books about our inner world. Books about the absence of something, because well… how do you photograph that? When Laura asked me to design the book for her new project “Beyond Here Is Nothing”, I was intruiged. The project was, except for the quality of photography, totally different from “In the Shadow of the Pyramids”. In a way, it was a book about absence. The absence of belonging, the absence of home. The emotional vacuum of being in transit all the time. Being somewhere but never completely. About the mind franticly trying to fill the hole in ourself with impressions but never quite succeeding. In my mind the avalanche of images Laura sent me for her new book should be just that. Very present but illusive at the same time. Non linear. Chaotic. Multi-dimensional. Multi-interpretable. Images making new connections with other images all the time, without ever revealing what they are really about, because they slip away in every direction possible but never the same. In that sense it is a lonely and emotional book not withstanding the staggering amount of stunning pictures. A Pandora's Box. Open it up and all the demons of loneliness are set loose to haunt the reader, confronting him or her with their own feelings of not belonging, but also with the beauty of it.”
— SYB (Sybren Kuiper), Designer
“A surprisingly experiential photographic project, with evolving reactions and stories that wander through its pages.”
— Loring Knoblauch, Collector Daily
“A deeply-personal contemplation on identity, home and the desire to belong.”
— Stefan Vanthuyne, 1000 Words
“It’s hard to think of a more personal photobook maker than El-Tantawy.”
— Robert Dunn, The PhotoBook Store Magazine
“A demonstration of the many meanings images can incarnate depending on a sequence, an association or, even more so, a mood. And that’s the gift Laura gives to the viewer.”
— Laurence Cornet, Photographic Museum of Humanity