NYC photobook
Personal project
2018

A personal project exploring subjectivity that overtakes its position of material objectivity.

Editorial

Photography

concept design

Art direction

This project is deeply personal: a photographic and moving-image narrative built from a short family trip to New York City. Conceived as a fictional construct, the book unfolds as an infinite scroll through the six days spent in the city, blurring the boundaries between documentation and interpretation.

As the reader moves through the publication, the work deliberately challenges the assumption of photographic objectivity. The narrative explores subjectivity through a three-axis structure—Art, Human, and Matter—which guides the sequencing and spatial logic of the images. This framework allows the same city to be read through emotional, relational and material lenses, shifting the viewer’s position from observer to participant.

Materially, the soft-cover photo book incorporates a reversible postcard that interacts with the dust jacket through die-cut openings, alternately revealing the letters forming the shorthand NYC, fragments of the city, or the faces of my family printed on the cover. This tactile layer extends the narrative beyond the pages, reinforcing the tension between presence, memory and representation.

All photographs were taken using an iPhone XS.

To create a disassociation between preconceived knowledge of the subject and its visual representation, the project investigates the relationship between form and content, treating each element as a discrete entity. Images are printed across two different paper stocks and isolated from the written content, which is collected in a notes section at the end of the book, allowing the photographs to exist independently and at their strongest. Short videos are integrated horizontally within the layout, preserving a continuous visual dialogue and reinforcing the notion of flow.

Book Details

Volume: 9 × 16 pages
Format: 14.8 × 21 cm
Paper photos: Fedrigoni. Arena High Definition. Smooth finish white. 120g/sm
Paper texts: Fedrigoni. Cotone 100 Ivory. 120g/sm
Dust Jacket: Sirio Ultra Black 90g/sm
Printing: Offset print
Binding: Glue bind

Poscard

Paper: 350 g/sm
Print: Offset print

Photography

Gisela Ch. de Bruijn