Thinking About Photography
Dedicated to expanding our ideas about photography
RedFoxPress
We are Francis Van Maele and Antic-Ham, a duo of book artists. Since 2005, we have been running Redfoxpress on Achill Island, off the west coast of Ireland. We hand-bind all of our books and do all the silkscreen printing ourselves in our studios. We travel widely, taking photographs, collecting local imagery and objects, which we use as themes in our books.
We also participate in art book fairs in many cities—New York, Los Angeles, Paris, Seoul, London, Singapore and more.
In 2011, we purchased a Polaroid SX-70 camera, which sparked a deep and immediate fascination with Polaroid photography. Using early films produced by The Impossible Project, we captured scenes from cities such as New York, Paris, London, Venice, Berlin, Seoul, and Los Angeles, compiling them into handmade books.
We became captivated by the imperfect images produced by 1960s Land Cameras and expired peel-apart films, which led to several book projects exploring these qualities.
When we were selected for an artist residency program and stayed in Venice twice, each time for three weeks, we carried out a series of Polaroid photography projects using techniques like the ones described above. We used expired film and employed image transfer methods to create unique textures.
In addition to taking Polaroid photos, we also collect vintage Polaroid photographs. We focus on specific themes—such as people posing with their cars, beside televisions in their living rooms, with camping vans during holidays, or even portraits taken at funerals showing the deceased in open caskets. These curated collections are published as small zines called Polazine.
Alongside collecting old photographs, we also gather photography-related ephemera to create limited edition publications. One such project is Photobooth Time, a book combining our own portraits taken in photo booths across various cities with vintage photobooth images. Another book is Kodak and More, a book focused on the promotional designs printed on film wallets used by photo labs from the 1930s to the 1970s to return negatives and prints to customers. This collection highlights the graphic design and branding of film companies from that era.
BOOKS ARE AVAILABLE ON
https://www.redfoxpress.com/new.html
@redfoxpress.ireland, @antic_ham
All images are ©REDFOXPRESS