AMC² Issue 9

Archive of Modern Conflict is an independent publisher based in London and this is issue 9 of  their series of journals. AMC's publications on art and photography have won or been shortlisted for many prizes.

AMC² 9 comprises photographs from an exhibition curated by the AMC at the 2014 Brighton Photo Biennial -Amore e Piombo: The Photography of Extremes in 1970s Italy. The works span a period in the tumultuous decade of Italy's Years of Lead – a period when bombings, kidnappings and assassinations became the standard currency of Italian politics.

"The press photographs collated for Amore e Piombo from the archives of Rome-based agency Team Editorial Services reflect the manifold aspects of the period, as the photographers oscillate between pursuing film stars at play and capturing the violence on the streets against a backdrop of industrial unrest and a sexual revolution embracing free love, divorce, abortion, feminism and gay rights."

The front cover has been distressed with jagged pellet/shrapnel holes which has been done brilliantly (they are lasercut). These 'random' marks truly demonstrate the violence that defined these times.

Click on images to enlarge

Size of the publication is 280x205mm, portrait. 4pp cover is on Colorset Bright Red 120gsm. Printed offset litho in one colour both sides. Below image shows inside front cover and page 1 of text.

The next set of text pages is on Colorset Sandstone 120gsm, again printed offset litho in one colour.

The 96pp text is mainly printed on a coated paper (Phoenixmotion 115gsm from Scheufelen ) with the copy (12pp in total) all printed on our Colorset 100% Recycled. You can see from the image below, the way the text runs through the image pages.

The images are incredibly evocative of the time.

The publication is 'three hole sewn' in bright red thread and below shos the binding in the centre spread:

Text section in Colorset Bright Red 120gsm

Text section in Colorset Deep Orange 120gsm:

The below image gives you an idea of just how thick the book is. It is quite unusual to find any publication this thick which is three hole sewn, certainly the thickest that I have ever come across. It still sits nice and flat and works really well.

Inside back pages...

Publisher is Archive of Modern Conflict. Design is by Melanie Mues. This is one of those projects that has it all! History, an amazing subject, superb images with well considered use of the materials, colours and binding.

The print, finishing and binding is simply superb on this book. Print is by Push. The mono reproductions are superb with real depth and the finishing of the distressed holes and binding is superb.

http://www.amcbooks.com/amc2-journal-issue-9
www.muesdesign.com
http://www.push-print.com/

Posted by Justin Hobson 14.04.2015

Addendum

I'm pleased to report that on 18th May, this publication won the coveted Kraszna-Krausz Foundation Book Award:

http://www.kraszna-krausz.org.uk/kraszna-krausz-foundation-book-awards/2014-book-awards-results/

 

Since 1985 the Kraszna-Krausz Foundation Book Awards have been the UK’s leading prizes for books on photography and the moving image. Winning books have been those which make original and lasting educational, professional, historical and cultural contributions to the field.

Posted by Justin Hobson 04.06.2015