Last week i stumbled over a very nice photographic book at Vienna's number one art bookstore Lia Wolf.

"The last days of Shishmaref" by Dana Lixenberg published by Episode Publishers and Paradox in 2008. The work tells the story of a village on a small island off the coast of Alaska, that is getting swallowed by the sea. Due to climate changes the permafrost layer is melting, leaving the sea little restraint from reclaiming what is left. The book portraits the people aswell as their surroundings and for example also examines the dangers involved with relocating the inhabitants (animal hunters since generations) in the next bigger city of Kotzebue 100 miles away with it's liquor stores and gambling halls (in textform). A complex portrait of a community balancing between a past rooted in tradition and an uncertain future. The design of the book by Mevis & Van Deursen from Amsterdam is very beautifully succeeded. Very nice 4x5 inch photography (portrait aswell as village tableaux and landscapes), altering groupings of photos and text with different choices of paper grades and colors make it a very well done and (concerning presentation of photographic works in books) inspiring package. Me personally: i would go with the paper grades but leave the colors. Still: I love it!

Plus! The topic of "disappearing" is one of my favourites too as you can see in my last big and still ongoing work "La disparition - le mur d'Atlantique autour de Cap Ferret". This might be one reason why i like this book so much. Props over here!