Lots of people asked me for tutorials about selecting photos for/and creating sequences. For a second there I started to believe there is such a thing, such a perfect recipe that I don’t know about. I even looked up some books and tutorials from the bald and the famous. I remembered my photography school and its silly recipes and mannerism. Yes, recipes exist. Don’t use them.
Dragos’ project is the second one of its kind that I worked on. The first was “s1xte6n”. Personal projects are the hardest to work on as editor, and the most time-consuming. They require the utmost attention to the message sent by the photographer via the photos and spoken words. There is no room for errors, the relation between photographer and others (that help him) must be like a fine-tuned orchestra, every wrong note can damage the result or even worse, can create another tune. Each time there is a chance to interfere too much, or to alter the message. For me, while working, I always tell myself that I am only an enabler.
Documentary photobooks can easily follow the “chronological timeline” type of sequence. But projects that deal with themes like emotions, sensations, deep feelings… are not in the same area. Maybe not in the same state, as far as selection and sequencing process goes.
And also, it’s a hit or miss situation. There is no “in-between”. The public either likes the photobook or doesn’t. And maybe what I love the most, is that these type of projects create a clear separation line in the audience. For me it’s a clear marker on “how deep is your blue”.
It’s a wild roller coaster when you can look at a photobook, over and over again, and it still does it for you. It’s an intellectual pleasure to find in the photos the little things that tickled your senses.
I like that I can imagine the mornings in Betzingen as eerie fairy tale-like. Or filled with magical hidden creatures awaiting the children to wake up to entertain their imagination. Or light-filled strange places that hide the smallest yet most powerful elements. I think I like the mornings in Betzingen.
“All is quiet, except for a few sleepless birds that pierce the graveyard silence with their melodious trills and chirps. The night fades out, slowly driven away by the first rays of light which have finally finished their journey to us. But their arrival is awe-inspiring. This is the hour when most people are not yet awake to contemplate the quiet, yet spectacular light show. And those who are awake, are in a rush to get to their jobs, unable to fully notice this colorful reverie.
These photographs have been taken in Betzingen, the village where I live, in the morning, when streets are still empty, before daily life begins. I took them from my living room window or from the balcony, while waiting for the children to wake up, or on my way to work.
They represent intimate moments that I have collected to remind me of the mindfulness and peacefulness which only mornings can offer us.”
Photos, text: Dragos Costachescu
Editor: Cristian Bassa
Design: Andreea Stanescu
80 pages on 170gsm matte paper, with 36 color photographs, offset print, coated.
24 x 20 cm, Hardcover.
Edition of 100 copies , first 50 books signed and numbered.
Year 2021.
ISBN: 978-606-95202-1-5
You can buy the photobook and support the artist here: https://www.dragoscostachescu.com/guten-morgen-betzingen/
Good morning everyone!