Equivalents
Peter Frasco
Traditionally, most photobooks exist to serve one purpose: to present, in the most objective manner, the works of a single photographer, or to contain a group of photographs around a single concept. Photos shown within these books weren’t necessarily taken with the intention of existing within each specific spread of the publication; rather they exist on the page as mere proxies for the real work itself. Equivalents aims to explore this boundary between photography and the printed page in the form of a “photobook” that exists not as a piece to showcase photographs, but as something that uses photography as the sole tool for creating each spread. Each photograph is taken not as a stand alone photographic work, but as a part of a larger whole whose sole purpose is to exist in the space within this book.
These photos are taken and arranged in such a way that each one has some sort of tie, be it visual or thematic, with the photo present on the previous page and the photo on the page opposite it. This continuous flow of thematic ties between photographs continues endlessly from front to back cover, making for a smooth gradient of transitions among the near 400 photos that make up the finished piece. While the transitions between photos makes for an extremely linear narrative, it is a narrative that viewers can enter at any point within in the book, and can be read either forward or in reverse.