Report by Freeman Brad (1 results)

13.5 x 10.5 x 4.5 in. canapetta-cloth covered clamshell box housing 5 vols., designed, bound, and printed by Freeman. A photo-text documentary project by book artist and editor Brad Freeman, undertaken at the start of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020, and published across 4 volumes, with an introduction and colophon included. Per Freeman: "My Report consists of 4 books that may appear to be unconnected in terms of content, purpose, and presentation. This seeming unconnectedness probably reflects my approach to the many possibilities of the book form. On the table of contents page of Book One, the image of sand with snail trails wandering this way and that represents my way of activating a book with change-up and repetition from page to page. It keeps me and the viewer from getting bored and lets me move freely. "The title of this project, My Report, implies a straight-forward telling of events witnessed. So the text in Book One begins that way with descriptions of a few incidents seen on the sidewalks of downtown Chicago in July 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic. These incidents were disturbing because the people involved were all in obviously stressed mental and physical states that I thought were the results of the virus as it spread through the community. My intention was to document the events I witnessed through text." Across the 4 volumes, Freeman moves freely between text, photography, and digital collage, creating a narrative that pushes back against the project title's seeming constraints of straight-forwardness: "My attitude when photographing lies on the personal side of documentaryI bring my own psychic filters rather than any sort of objective point of view. I see this as the difference between journalism and art photography. The book form offers an arena for mixing images with associations that enhance the meaning of the whole." Each clamshell box includes 5 pieces: Introduction & Colophon, 11.75" x 9", 8 pp. Book 1, My Report / Today and Making & Talking About Books, 11.75" x 9", 48 pp. Book 2, Amargosa Opera House, 11.75" x 9", 32 pp. Book 3, Sanssouci and "I like to be in America",11.75" x 9", 36 pp. Book 4, Ash Meadows, 11.75" x 9", 24 pp. Boards are covered with canapetta cloth. The paper is Hahnemühle Photo Rag Book & Album. The project was inkjet printed with an Epson SC-P700 printer Freeman's studio in Mar Vista, California. This is from an edition of 3 copies, signed numbered by the artist.