“Every year, the Stedelijk Museum and the Stichting De Best Verzorgde Boeken present the entries selected by a jury, submitted by publishers of their previous year’s publications. The Netherlands has a rich tradition of exceptional book design, known for innovative design, lithography, printing, and bookbinding. This selection celebrates the best of Dutch graphic design.”
Talk: “Art Forms of the Eastern Forest: Documenting Southern Ohio’s Biodiversity”
“Clearly a lot of hard work has gone into getting the essence of the fireflies, which Nightairs is all about, onto paper. Over several summers, using slow shutter speeds, Samuel James created a photographic record of the communication between fireflies (and their mating rituals) in the south of Ohio. Both the black of the night and the yellow of the insects fly off of the page, and the residual hints of sky and woods give a pleasing, overt sense of calm. A deliberate decision was taken not to use fluorescent yellow for the printing, in order to remain more faithful to the actual bioluminescent colour of the 26 species of firefly captured in the book. The book’s mammoth format forms a nice contrast to the accessible Singer-sewn binding. The yellow thread used gives a good approximation of the printed yellow. All in all, this book is a convincing home for this wonderful feat of nature photography.”
