Stranger

This project is an entire book printed on transparent paper! Stranger is a beautiful book of photographs by Magnum photographer Olivia Arthur.

Here are the words about the project, from the publisher, Fishbar:
On 8th April 1961 the MV Dara, a ship carrying passengers between India, Pakistan and the Gulf, sank just off the port of Dubai. An estimated 238 people lost their lives.

Some bodies were never found and relatives of the missing continue to this day to search for their loved ones. Stranger, a new project by photographer Olivia Arthur, imagines a survivor returning to Dubai fifty years later, and what they would see. Through photographs and small anecdotes, the viewer is taken on a journey through a city that is both awe-inspiring and alienating. A city which has grown at breath-taking pace from a population of 90,0000 in the 1960s to over 2 million in the current day, and continues to draw people from all over the world with its promise of riches.

The backbone of the project is the story of the shipwreck, transporting the viewer back and forth in history and acting as a reminder of the fragility and skin-deep nature of Dubai.

Reflecting this fragility and suggesting the feelings of loneliness and disorientation often experienced by residents of Dubai, the book is printed on transparent paper. The result is that the layered images fade in and out of view, interspersed with quotes, memories, and images of the shipwreck itself.

Click on images to enlarge

This is the second published book for Magnum photographer Olivia Arthur and is the result of a residency of the artist in Dubai in 2014.

Concept and book design is by London based designer, Melanie Mues. In her words: "The book is printed entirely on transparent paper, juxtaposing images directly with the help of the show-through. The viewing experience is more like a film or a slide show, supporting the sense of loosing orientation and chronology of events." The book is printed offset litho in CMYK and is section sewn and casebound with a hard cover.

The paper chosen is ZANDERS Spectral White, 100gsm which is from the Reflex Paper Mill in Germany, who also make the ZANDERS Zeta range. Spectral  was chosen for it's uniformity of translucency and high whiteness.

 

The project was recently reviewed on the Grafik site:  http://www.grafik.net/category/case-study/unbroken-view

 

Stranger is printed by Belgian printer, Die Keure, based in Bruges. They are one of the most renowned book printers in Europe and print for many of the high end publishers in Europe.

 

http://fishbar.ph/shop/stranger

http://www.oliviaarthur.com/

www.muesdesign.com

http://www.diekeure.be/nl-be

http://www.reflex-paper.com/en/

Posted by Justin Hobson 06.11.2015

Jobs From The Past - Number 3

Regular followers will know that my first post of every month is a "job from the past" (see posts on 01.10.2009 & 01.11.2009), so that I can show some of the memorable jobs from times past, and here's one from back in 2002...

Towerscan "the realisation of the electrical energy that passes through an architectural space"It isn't often that I see pieces of work printed on paper which are genuinely three dimensional but this is certainly one of them.

This is a promotional piece for an "intervention project" by the artist Charles Quick. The exhibition in 2002, comprised of a photograph taken out of every window in the Art and Design block of the Leeds Metropolitan University building and this superb piece of literature certainly gets this idea across brilliantly.
Design is by Thompson Brand Partners based in Leeds. Creative directors Ian Thompson and Phil Dean worked on the project.
The job was recently written about in an article about 3D paper projects in Grafik magazine, from which I've lifted this quote from Ian Thompson "The budget was rubbish, of course, so we set ourselves the challenge of making this happen with one sheet of paper only. The solution was a single, folded piece of paper which had a pop-up building inside which could be viewed from inside and out - no gluing, just folds and a couple of cuts"
The finished size is 155x295mm (landscape). The Job was printed on Neptune Unique 250gsm. It was printed in four colour process plus a special grey and three of the large letters were foiled in a gloss black. Unfortunately I can't remember/find out who the printer was that did the job (unless anyone out there knows differently...) It is a great job and has always been popular to show, so as you can probably see from the pictures, my last file copy is on it's last legs!
At this time, I had a colleague called Gary Nightingale based in Leeds, working with me at Fenner Paper and he was actually the person that dealt with this project. He now works for himself under the name Packaging Formats (gary@packagingformats.co.uk).

It's also worth pointing out that Thompson Brand Partners still work with the artist Charles Quick which shows that relationships as well as excellent print jobs can stand the test of time!

http://www.thompsonbrandpartners.com/
http://www.uclan.ac.uk/ahss/creative_performing_arts/charles_quick.php
http://www.grafikmagazine.co.uk/