This book showcases a unique blend of nature photography and portraits of Amsterdam children, capturing the transitional phase between childhood naiveté and emerging knowledge. Cuny Janssen, acclaimed for her remarkable portrayal of children, presents a three-part photo essay that intertwines vibrant images of parks and children, creating a dreamlike quality. The photographs depict colorful autumn landscapes alongside serious expressions of children engaged in various activities—playing in fields, lounging with books, or participating in school performances. Janssen's style continues to evoke a sense of suspended time, with her portraits resembling stills from an ongoing narrative. This collection marks a departure from her previous works, as the images are drawn from her immediate surroundings rather than distant cultures. As the sixth volume in a decade-long collaboration between the artist and publisher, the book exemplifies high-quality photography and a deep exploration of childhood within a familiar context.
Whoever visits Naples is captivated by its beauty: the Gulf of Naples, the historic center with its winding streets, and the renowned Botanical Gardens. Cuny Janssen's latest project documents her journeys from April 2012 to October 2013, exploring the various shades of blue that embody the sensory experience of this enchanting city. The blue of the sky—azzurro, turquoise, ultramarine, cobalt, or indigo—has long seduced visitors, including Goethe, who called Naples the "most pleasant part of the journey." Through her paintings, Janssen invites us into a world of children, examining their beauty and mental states. Her ability to capture the essence of childhood earned her recognition as a notable photographer of children. This book is particularly moving, as it portrays not only the Italian middle-class youth but also Roma children, highlighting the stark contrast between their impoverished ghetto life and the city's breathtaking allure. Janssen's experiences reveal the complexities of documentary photography; during her return visit, Roma children recognized her and inquired about school, mistaking her for a social worker. This interaction underscores the empathy that permeates this unusual photo book, inviting readers to reflect on the human condition amidst the backdrop of Naples.
Ever since the day I saw the blossoming treetops in the Yoshino’s mountains, my heart has left my body behind«, wrote the Japanese poet Saigyõ in the twelfth century. And even in those days, the area planted with over 30,000 cherry trees flanking the Yoshino Mountains must have been an awe-inspiring sight and make it an eloquent witness today to man’s harmonious design for luxuriant nature, so characteristic for Japan. For over 1,400 years, the temple, the mountain slopes and the river in Nara prefecture are thus part of the Spring cherry blossom season in the Buddhist pilgrim calendar; in former times, it was the preserve of the aristocracy, today Yoshino is a popular tourist attraction. With 19 major cross-format photographs, Cuny Janssen has gathered together not only captivating and sensitive nature shots from Yoshino in her unusual book of photographs, but has also included a small anthology of Japanese poetry compiled by Jos Vos, which the Dutch Japan specialist rounds up with a travel essay, »A fox in Yoshino«. In a way rivalled by almost no other contemporary photographer, Cuny Janssen knows how to structure her books to suit the given topic – in Yoshino for example she increases the calm and contemplative mood of her photographs with a selection brittle poetry that celebrates of this site of Japanese longing.
The very own deserted Cosmos»Creaking Groaning Folding Rock. continental lift, tilt and breakup – the beginning of the end for the great continent Gondwana. New mountains form – Swartberge, Witteberge. Extremely old Archaen seabed, layer upon layer of river and lake shoved upright – black, brown, pink, rippled rock ridges and walls marching across torn and devastated landscapes. Eroding floods, mud laden escaping waters tearing across the old glacier produced Dwyka Karoo. Trapping, entombing survivors of the great Permian-Triassic green death, to add another layer to the richest fossil beds in the world. Volcanic devastation and lava flows complete the Karoo rock strata. Our ancient ancestors, leathery brown, hunting and gathering, entering the Karoo with its good years and its bad, its wet and its dry. Eyes across the endless rock, coarse bush, occasional grass and the mighty herds of antelope. Wandering far and wide, populating the world.« The young Dutch photographer Cuny Jansen was Thomas Struth’s assistant; she is living in Amsterdam once more and has just had a baby daughter (2007) after a six month-long sojourn in South Africa, taking photographs of a very own deserted cosmos and processing them in a wonderful, beautifully printed and elaborately designed book.
Haunting portraits of Macedonian people and landscape side by side. The new Europe. Hardback with padded cover. 42 colour photographs including 1 gatefold. Text by Paul Andriesse; design by SYB Utrecht. (Parr / Badger v2 87)
Cuny Janssen legt in diesem Herbst zwei ganz besondere, technisch raffiniert ausgestattete Bücher vor. Sie könnten, nachdem die niederländische Fotografin schon mit ihrem ersten Buch von Martin Parr in sein voluminöses The Photobook History: Volume II aufgenommen worden ist, wegen ihrer begrenzten Auflage (1.000 Ex.) schnell zu begehrten Sammlerstücken werden. Cuny Janssen sucht immer wieder nach ungewöhnlichen Präsentationsformen, um ihre Bücher in einen spezifischen Bezug zur jeweiligen Landschaft und den Porträts ihrer Menschen, oft sind das Kinder, zu setzen. So auch bei Amami, einem Fotobuch über die gleichnamige zweitgrößte der Riukiu-Inseln, die einer der vier japanischen Hauptinseln, Kiuschu, vorgelagert ist. Das Gesicht der im Ostchinesischen Meer gelegenen Insel, die 7.000 Bewohnern auf ca. 70 Quadratkilometern Heimat bietet, wird von einer wilden, rauh wirkenden Inselküstenvegetation geprägt, obwohl das subtropische Klima mit einem Jahresdurchschnitt von 21 Grad zwei Ernten im Jahr erlaubt. Die auf großen Centerfolds versammelten Schülerporträts vermitteln den Eindruck einer tief gründenden Ernsthaftigkeit, die vielleicht aus der steten Bedrohung durch eine nie zu bändigende Natur resultiert. Cuny Janssen is presenting two special, technically-speaking cleverly furnished books this Autumn. After the Dutch photographer was included by Martin Parr in his voluminous The Photobook History: Volume II, and in view of the limited number of copies (1,000), these editions could very rapidly become highly collectable. Cuny Janssen is perpetually on the lookout for unusual forms of presentation, in order to place her books in a specific relationship to the respective landscapes or portraits of the inhabitants–mainly children–she chooses to photograph. Thus, is also the case of Amami, a photobook about the second largest of the Ryukyu Islands of the same name, which is situated to the south of the one of the four main Japanese islands, Kiuschu. The aspect of these islands in the East China Sea, offering around 70 square kilometres of homeland to a total of 7,000 inhabitants, is characterised by a wild, raw coastal island vegetation, although the subtropical climate averaging 21˚ throughout the year, yields two harvests per annum. The portraits of schoolchildren on the large centrefolds convey an impression of profound seriousness, which derives perhaps from the continual threat from the untameable forces of nature.
