[Summer 2021]

12 Hz
Ron Jude
Londres, Mack Books, 2020, 128 p.

Par Louis Perreault

[Excerpt]
Even before we open its cover, 12 Hz seems to vibrate on the table. As we plunge into the ice, rock, and powerful sea currents that mark out the pages of this book by American photographer Ron Jude, we are invited to a sensory experience that overflows the edges of the photographs.

Jude had previously concentrated on works in which the sequencing of the images is fundamental to the creation of their meaning. In his past books, he exploited the narrativity of photography as a medium and turned that narrativity upon itself, set alight by the ambiguity of significations and underlain by sudden shifts in meaning, as a single image sometimes dramatically changed the interpretation. He has stood out as an extraordinary creator of photobooks, constantly finding new ways to complexify the medium.

12 Hz, however, marks a new direction in his practice. Landscape, which in the past acted as the setting against which his ideas were deployed, has become the main subject. Moreover, it is not the narrative line of the photographs that imparts value to the book. Another phenomenon is at work: a strategy that functions by accumulation rather than juxtaposition…
Translated by Käthe Roth

 

See the magazine for the complete article and more images: Ciel variable 117 – SHIFTED