Jason Larkin » Publications

waiting

jasonlarkin — Tue, 18 Aug 2015 15:08:00 +0000

Waiting

While living in Johannesburg, British photographer Jason Larkin was struck by the ever-present reality of people waiting. Inactive yet expectant, this condition becomes a visual echo of the predicament that many South Africans can find themselves in. Though many wait alone, the amount of people waiting becomes a collective, city-wide experience.
Larkin was drawn to those seeking shelter from the harsh summer sun by positioning themselves in the shade. Figures occupy ephemeral spaces of respite created by the surrounding urban environment. Shadows remove the individuals’ identities, leaving only the subtlety of posture and the details of place. With only the waiting period accompanying each image, the purpose or possible outcomes of these situations is unclear. We are then left to meditate on the temporality of these individual situations and the indirect connections that waiting creates across society.

There is dedicated website for the series that features a commissioned collection of new texts that explore the theme of waiting in South Africa and elsewhere, www.waiting.today

BOOK SPECS
Publisher: Photoworks & Fourthwall Books, July 2015
Binding: Swiss Bound
Extent: 40 Pages
Trim Size: 330mm x 295mm
Photographs: 18 Colour
Design: Oliver Barstow
Price: £25

Purchase here

Platinum

jasonlarkin — Sun, 19 Jul 2015 20:24:57 +0000

Platinum

Platinum is a mini-publication by photographer Jason Larkin and writer Jack Shenker. It examines the Marikana massacre and the physical and political context of the communities of South Africa’s platinum mining industry. Breaking with traditional photobook format, Platinum combines large-format posters and an incisive, wide-ranging essay that is available both in English and Xhosa. This timeous publication explores the build up to and the implications of one of the most critical events in South Africa’s recent history.
Half of the print run of Platinum has been distributed for free to activists, political groups, and various communities across the mining region of Rustenburg and Gauteng, South Africa

BOOK SPECS
Publisher: Fourthwall Books, July 2015
Binding: Hand stamped cover with removable band binding
Extent: Card sleeve, 4 posters and 40 page text booklet
Trim Size: 25.2 x 21.5 cm Poster sizes: 50.5 x 41.5 cm
Photographs: 8 Colour
Design: Jason Larkin & Oliver Barstow
Price: £10

Tales From The City Of Gold

jasonlarkin — Thu, 21 Nov 2013 18:53:52 +0000

TALES FROM THE CITY OF GOLD: PUBLICATION

In this incisive and wide-ranging series, Jason Larkin explores the vast waste dumps created by Johannesburg’s once powerful gold mining industry. His images of life on and around the city’s incongruous man-made hills, territory where history, economy and contemporary South Africa collide, shed light on some of the most challenging questions facing the country today.

Photographing the landscape and people affected by these toxic monuments, Jason highlight’s the ignored realities of these spaces, and the denial of the complicated legacy that Africa’s most successful mining story has left behind. Living in Johannesburg for over two years to complete this body of work, Jason brings a comprehensive viewpoint on a forgotten aspect of Johannesburg and captures the undeniable and quiet interaction that occurs between these man-made toxic spaces and the functioning of a 21st century urban center.

Alongside these photographs are old archival images, original etchings by artist Ester Svensson and phrases from an old Fanagalo dictionary, an old pidgin language developed for and still used in South Africa’s mines. Essays by South African based writer Mara Kardas-Nelson and the photography academic Julian Rodriguez, bring further context and historical consideration to the work.

BOOK SPECS
Publisher: Kehrer, October 2013
Text: Mara Kardas-Nelson, Julian Rodriguez
Illustrations: Ester Svensson
Binding: Hardback
Extent: 96 Pages
Trim Size: 280mm x 240mm
Photographs: 46 Colour & 6 B&W
Design: Realise Creative
Price: £32

Purchase here

Special Edition: Tales From The City Of Gold

jasonlarkin — Wed, 06 Nov 2013 13:57:54 +0000

SPECIAL EDITION TALES FROM THE CITY OF GOLD: PUBLICATION

This special edition, limited to 20, includes the book, one archival 22x20cm limited edition print, an archival limited edition print from artist Ester Svensson, all held inside a unique hand made case.

In this incisive and wide-ranging series, Jason Larkin explores the vast waste dumps created by Johannesburg’s once powerful gold mining industry. His images of life on and around the city’s incongruous man-made hills, territory where history, economy and contemporary South Africa collide, shed light on some of the most challenging questions facing the country today.

Photographing the landscape and people affected by these toxic monuments, Jason highlight’s the ignored realities of these spaces, and the denial of the complicated legacy that Africa’s most successful mining story has left behind. Living in Johannesburg for over two years to complete this body of work, Jason brings a comprehensive viewpoint on a forgotten aspect of Johannesburg and captures the undeniable and quiet interaction that occurs between these man-made toxic spaces and the functioning of a 21st century urban center.

Alongside these photographs are old archival images, original etchings by artist Ester Svensson and phrases from an old Fanagalo dictionary, an old pidgin language developed for and still used in South Africa’s mines. Essays by South African based writer Mara Kardas-Nelson and the photography academic Julian Rodriguez, bring further context and historical consideration to the work.

SPECIAL EDITION SPECS
Edition: Limited to 20
Photographic Print: 1x 220x200mm archival pigment print. (Either 'Daniel And His Hunting Dogs' or 'Pressurised Water'. Both editions limited to 10)
Illustration Print: 200x160mm archival pigment print by Ester Svensson. Edition limited to 20
Total Size: 295x250mm
Price: £285

BOOK SPECS
Publisher: Kehrer, October 2013
Text: Mara Kardas-Nelson, Julian Rodriguez
Illustrations: Ester Svensson
Binding: Hardback
Extent: 96 Pages
Trim Size: 280mm x 240mm
Photographs: 46 Colour & 6 B&W
Design: Realise Creative

Purchase Directly from Jason Larkin (info [a] jasonlarkin.co.uk)

Cairo Divided

jasonlarkin — Sat, 19 Oct 2013 18:18:16 +0000

Cairo Divided: Publication

During the last year of living in Egypt Jason Larkin focused his camera on the controversial ‘satellite cities’ project that has dramatically transformed the once inhospitable desert surroundings of Cairo into new urban centres, and in the process consigning old focal points to a life on the margins. These mega-projects, sending boutique villas and water-hungry golf courses tumbling into the sand dunes, are reshaping the political and psychological contours of the largest megacity in Africa and the Middle East.

Against the backdrop of national revolution, Jason Larkin collaborated with writer Jack Shenker to produce this unique bilingual publication exploring the capital’s rapidly mutating urban landscape. Released as part of a new publishing project Unabridged, which brings writers and photographers together on in-depth works, this English-Arabic bilingual newspaper format publication was freely distributed across Europe and the Middle East. Nominated for the prestigious Deutsche Borse Photography Award and Prix Pixtet environmental award and featured at the Brighton Photo Biennale in 2012, were a second edition was printed for the Biennale.

PUBLICATION SPECS
Publisher: Jason Larkin/Unabridged, October 2011
Text: Jack Shenker
Arabic Translation: Industry Arabic
Binding: Newsprint
Extent: 32 Pages
Trim Size: 380mm x 290mm
Photographs: 30 Colour
Design: Realise Creative
Price: Sold Out

After The Mines

jasonlarkin — Sat, 19 Oct 2013 17:54:44 +0000

After The Mines

A unique bilingual newsprint publication of work from Tales From The City Of Gold, allows for a diverse audience across South Africa to engage with the realities of Johannesburg’s gold mining industry. Through this incisive and wide-ranging photographic project, Jason Larkin explores the vast waste dumps created by one of the world’s most successful mining stories that altered the history of South Africa drastically.

Larkin’s sensitive images of life on and around the city’s incongruous man-made hills shed light on some of the most challenging questions facing South Africa today—the legacy and future of the mines, environmental degradation, service delivery and the housing crisis.

An essay by Mara Kardas-Nelson considers the complex debates amongst environmentalists, government entities and communities about the future of the mine dumps. Translated into Zulu, the bilingual publication has been freely distributed to effected communities around the mine dumps.

PUBLICATION SPECS
Publisher: Fourthwall Books, July 2013
Text: Mara Kardas-Nelson
Zulu Translation: Thandiwe Nxumalo Kunutu
Binding: Stapled Newspaper Print
Extent: 36 Pages
Trim Size: 370mm x 260mm
Photographs: 22 Colour, 1 B&W
Design: Fourthwall Books

After The Mines - £7.50

London Tales

jasonlarkin — Sat, 19 Oct 2013 13:11:14 +0000

London Tales
Amidst the UK's celebrations over its winning bid to host the 2012 Olympic Games, sentiment among residents, businesses and employees in the neglected industrial corner of East London, where the games will be held, has been far more ambiguous. The controversy surrounding the compulsory purchasing of land from businesses’ and residents - a policy pursued on a scale not seen since the end of WWII – put the spot light on the government and its rush to appease the International Olympic Committee. The forced resettlement of residents and local businesses, many of whom have resided here for generations, has brought into focus the fragility of our rights to property and provoked a sense of dislocation from the communities and environment we call home.

This publication is a unique collaboration between Jason Larkin and the award-winning poet Francesca Beard. Her poetry and writing explores the historical and cultural connection for a fictional group of residents barricaded in an empty tower block soon to be demolished. Whilst Jason’s images examine the landscape and environment of communities forcibly removed and businesses destroyed all for an event that lasts less than three weeks.

PUBLICATION SPECS
Publisher: Self Published/Arts Council, Oct 2008
Text: Francesca Beard
Binding: Stapled, Digital
Extent: 32 Pages
Trim Size: 260mm x 220mm
Photographs: 34 colour
Design: Lee Belcher (Wallpaper)
Price: (Sold Out)