PLANTED BY JOHN S. WEBB

Planted is John S. Webb's latest book of photographs. There are 30 images of trees and plants in containers in various public locations: airports, big hotels, courtyards, out in the street, but mainly spacious interiors. Technically the photos are brilliant but the thing that hits you in the midriff is the way that these trees are captured and cultivated in enclosed, totally unnatural environments. We see a whole range of bright transit routes and lounges in airports, the air-conditioned spaces filled with glass and polish, some of them shiny and new, some of them looking neglected and sad. The trees are isolated from their kind and from the atmosphere, they simply grow and express their species identity. It's a very moving collection of images and the effect of the whole book is really impressive. The eco-theory and environmental movements should catch up with John S. Webb's amazing work in landscape photography. 
Cover photo from PLANTED copyright © 2012 by John S. Webb
Photographs from UK, USA, Sweden, Denmark, NZ, etc.
32 pages. 30 images. Edition 550 copies +50 boxed special edition with print.
Hard cover clothbound. Size 28cmx17cm.
Printed by Bulls Graphics/Standartu-Spaustyve, Lithuania.
ISBN 978-91 976852 9 0/ ISBN 978-91 976852 9 9 boxed edition.
Published by Nya Vyer Stockholm. www.nyavyer.se 

TRIP TO SWEDEN

I was in Sweden last week for a meeting with the photographer John S Webb to discuss a new collaborative project. John's photo Finnvorduhals, Iceland, 1997 is the cover and frontispiece for my latest book Darwin (Acts of Language, 2009). We spent two days touring Skane by train, ferry, car and on foot, travelling round Oresund and visiting the Louisiana art museum as well as different kinds of landscape around the coast from Malmo where John lives. 

    We saw an international contemporary art show The World is Yours and a one person photography show Jacob Holdts Amerika both at Louisiana, a first rate art museum in Denmark. The Holdts show is a major documentary view of American society in the 1960s and early 70s, rough and ready photo quality with some contemporary more professional looking photos, the whole show focusing especially on race.