SPRING/SUMMER 2014 - boersenblatt.net

Sébastien Lifshitz
AMATEUR
“Those amateur images slipped out of family albums to randomly go out into the world, offering
themselves to those who care to take them on, made me realize what really fascinates me about
photography: the longevity of its traces, the manifestation of forgotten lives. In his book Camera
Lucida, Roland Barthes called it the ‘that-has-been.’ I hold the proof of those people’s existence
in my hands.”
Sébastien Lifshitz
Amateur consists of four volumes and unites a vast collection of amateur photographs assembled by filmmaker
Sébastien Lifshitz over the last twenty years. Found on, flea markets all over the world and in photo galleries or on the
net, they are divided into four themes: the uncanny, empty places, blurs and beachsides. Every volume revolves around
one of those recurring themes, playing with the different frames, the changes of light, movement and subject in order
to create an immense poetic collage.
Sébastien Lifshitz was born in Paris in 1968. After studying art history, he began working in the world of contemporary
art in 1990, assisting curator Bernard Blistène at the Centre Pompidou, and photographer Suzanne Lafont. In 1994, he
turned to filmmaking with equal attention to fiction and documentary. His films received numerous awards such as the
Prix Jean Vigo and the Kodak Award, twice the Berlin Film Festival’s Teddy, and the Cesar 2013 for his last feature “The
Invisibles.” Sébastien Lifshitz has just finished the documentary film “Bambi” which was selected at the Berlinale 2013.
Sébastien Lifshitz
Amateur
Volume 1 Volume 2
Volume 1: Superfreak
Volume 2: Under the sand
Volume 3: Someone was here
Volume 4: Flou
Book design by Sébastien Lifshitz and Gerhard Steidl
Vol. 1: 96 pages/ Vol. 2: 88 pages
Vol. 3: 112 pages/Vol. 4: 96 pages
7.9 × 8 in. / 20 × 20,3 cm
486 photographs
Four-color process
Four otabind broschures in a box
€ 58.00 / £ 48.00 / US$ 68.00
ISBN 978-3-86930-739-8
Volume 3 Volume 4
145