It’s thirty-six degrees. A dry desert sun burns the roof.
From up here the vast empty ground seems endless.
The heat and the wind touch my skin.
I open a door,
the background noise of the city fades away.
With my eyes closed I see an ocean of weightless light rays –
dancing, floating…
I trust my body.
I’m here.
For several years I climbed numerous rooftops to make pictures, over and over again. For a long time I didn’t know exactly why; I simply felt attached to these strange, unknown and obscure places. I explored my city from a different angle and I photographed architectural situations up there being fascinated by the vastness and expanse as well as its limitation by moments of blocked sights. Eventually I realized that I had compiled a personal map – an imaginary walk in another dimension.
— Diane Vincent
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Diane Vincent’s beautiful self-published book OBEN takes you on a very personal, meditative journey and quietly lifts you up to a parallel universe most of us are usually unaware of – the rooftops of Berlin. OBEN lets you breath in the fresh air… and out again, slowly. Your eyes start to wander, and so does your mind. You might have a hard time returning from up there. Hand-bound and made with lots of attention to each and every detail. Your bookshelf will treasure it. – Julia Schiller
OBEN / ABOVE
Photography & Design: Diane Vincent
Editing: Paul Gaffney and Diane Vincent
Bookbinding: Nico Baumgarten and Diane Vincent
Self-published in October 2014
Edition size: 250, including an upcoming special edition of 21
Contains twenty-one photographs and one poem
Type of paper: Lessebo Design Rough 150g/m² and 90g/m²
Printing: digital
Number of pages: 48
Cover: Muskat 160g/m², printed offset
Size: 20,5cm x 28cm / 8,1 x 11 inch
Hand-bound with a special saddle stitch and finished with a hand-drawn map
The regular edition is now available to purchase at Diane’s website and selected bookstores at a price of 25 € plus shipping and packing expenses.
For those of you in Paris these days (so, basically everyone):
On Friday Nov 14th noon Diane will do a book signing session at Café Lehmitz Photobooks on the Polycopies boat together with Olaf Unverzart (⇢ Facebook Event). And there is two more booksellers which will present OBEN on their table: Johan Deumens Gallery at Offprint Projects and Claude Lemaire from L’Ascenseur Végétal at Le PhotobookFest.
ACMV already caught a glimpse at the upcoming special edition, and we can tell you it’s going to be beautiful as well – so watch out for its release!
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About the artist
Diane Vincent loves to take pictures, make books and play ping pong. She lives in Berlin, Germany. Growing up in East Germany she attended a school specialized in music. Later Diane studied Philosophy and Cultural science in Berlin and Paris. A few years ago she devoted herself to Photography. Her focus areas are portraiture, urban landscapes and documentary. She also likes to get challenged by assignments.
In October 2014 Diane self-published her book OBEN. The book dummy was shortlisted for the Unseen Dummy Award 2014 in Amsterdam.
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Book Reviews
→ Colin Pantall on his Blog
→ Jim Casper on LensCulture
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Related articles on ACMV:
OBEN by Diane Vincent will also be part of ACMV’s Photobook Night Berlin this Saturday, November 15th 2014 at Das Gift in Berlin/Neukölln!
All images/videos © Diane Vincent.
