Book Ex Machina

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Nicosia in Dark and White revisited (part 2)

Some more images from our award-winning first book Nicosia in Dark White with some more writings, this time from our photographer friend Bob Black.

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Though we navigate our lives through the channel crossing of rooms, is it not our interior upon which we roam and promenade, kicking the dust and detritus of abandoned selves, parched yet forever you.

Bob Black

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Bone and feather-less wing, knobby beak and elongated rib of our throat: all that is left of our singing when the song has gone wrong, all that is left when the singing has gone rung.

Bob Black

More, coming up soon.

Nicosia in Dark and White revisited

It’s been a little while since we launched Nicosia in Dark White, but as we are working on new projects we thought it was a good time to revisit our very first book and critical success by sharing some of the images along with writings from our talented friends.

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In the valley of the dry bones, the living pass as in dreams; here the ghosts are still, here the living haunt the empty houses…

  Akaky Bashmachkin

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There are no children in this place, only the memory of children. War has been here, and hate, and left a wasteland and called it peace.

Akaky Bashmachkin

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“Why,” the children asked, and drew the reasons they heard on the walls of their bedroom, but reasons are reasons and are not why.

Akaky Bashmachkin

 

More to come soon, and you can also follow us on our Facebook page for updates. The book is still available through our website and in many wonderful bookshops around the  world, in a limited amount of copies, so if you’d like the first edition, hurry!

Letter from Cyprus

Dear friends,

You might have noticed that our little country has been going through a rough time. Some call it an economic crisis. Some an economic attack, blackmail, and robbery.

We have spent the last few weeks worried about our friends, our families, and the people of Cyprus.

We have gone out in the streets and photographed demonstrations, talked to people, and stayed in for too many hours glued on our computers following the news. We made jokes, we laughed, we swore, we got anxiety attacks. We took breaks. We did work.

Through everything we got orders for books. Some have already arrived at their destinations. Some are on their way.

And one was sent to a lovely person who wrote to let us know that in addition to buying our book for the photography and the subject matter, they bought it because they “wanted to give some small support to business in Cyprus by buying something.”

We just had to share this with you. Whether you are in Cyprus, or not. Actually, especially if you’re in Cyprus, you need to know this.

Cyprus might be small, but the world is big, with wonderful supportive people. Evil politicians and bankers are not the world. We stand together here, in our tiny country and support each other, and others will support us too.

We are extremely grateful for our friends. And we don’t want to get too sappy, but we believe that a better world is possible.

(Okay, we don’t care, go ahead and call us sappy. We are creative types. We’ve been called worse.)

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A new project: Story Postcards

You might have gotten one from us in the mail. Or you might have caught a glimpse of it on The Letters Page, who called it mysterious and lovely (thanks guys!)

What started as a collaboration project for the Postcard Collective is now the first of our forthcoming Story Postcards.

Every postcard will feature a photograph by Thodoris and a short story by Ioanna. There will be many. The exact number is yet unknown. (One of us proposed a hundred. The other, a dozen.)

This first one is called Fall and it was taken last summer in Oia, Santorini, one afternoon when we were taking a break from minding Atlantis Books.

The capturing of the photograph is serendipitously documented below. The writing of the story was done later, in less beachy conditions.

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Congratulations David Alan Harvey!

Today we send out our warmest congratulations to our friend David Alan Harvey for winning POYi Best Photography Book award for his  book “(BASED ON A TRUE STORY)”

Harvey was kind enough to lend us his name, advice, and even his own words when he wrote us a lovely poem for our first book Nicosia in Dark and White that was a finalist for POYi Best Photography Book last year.

We wish Harvey the best, and many more wonderful pictures and books to come!

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You can see a preview of “(BASED ON A TRUE STORY)” here and keep up with the latest from Harvey on his Road Trips blog on Burn.

Straw Dogs

We just got our hands on the newest installment of local arts+culture magazine Straw Dogs and now we have to set time aside to read through it all.

This second issue, even better than the first, is chock-full of art, and poetry, and literature, and also: us.

There’s an interview with us (in Greek,) a new short story by Ioanna, “The Last Time I was Near a Volcano” (in English,) and a new photograph by Thodoris (in film!)

Maybe next time they’ll let us interview them so we can find out the answers to all the important questions. For example, who let the Straw Dogs out, or, will there always be a dog on the cover, and if they have a bone to pick with anyone. Then again, maybe it’s best that they don’t. They can chew on the idea a little.

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Ioanna in Litro

Ioanna’s story The Break-In was just published in Litro Magazine’s Story Sunday.

Grab a drink or some Chinese take-out and have a read!

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Links to more of Ioanna’s published work here.

Happy Holidays!

So the world didn’t end, and you’re in need of some wrapping paper. No worries. We got you covered.

Just download PDF,  print, and get wrapping!

Happy holidays!

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Nicosia in Shakespeare and Co.

Just in time for Christmas, Nicosia in Dark and White is now available for purchase at the magical Shakespeare and Company bookshop.

If you’re in Paris, stop by and check it out (like you needed an excuse!)

(*Seen here on an Impossible Polaroid from our visit last May)

In the Shadow of the Black Sun

The American Photo article In the Shadow of the Black Sun featuring Thodoris’s pinhole images is now also online.

The article is by John Mahoney. He writes:

“In 1939, Ansel Adams created a famous image using overexposure solarization. Today, a new generation of photographers are adding to this tiny subgenre, drawing on equipment that spans decades to create images that are surreal and sublime.”

The article also features images from Chris McCaw, Hans-Christian Schink, Amelia Konow, and other sun-capturing photographers.

“You expect the sun to be something. When it’s the opposite, the landscape takes on something otherworldly. It fits into the project as another expression of the power of nature.”

-Thodoris Tzalavras

Nicosia at PhotoNOLA

Our book Nicosia in Dark and White is in New Orleans for the weekend until January 20th, 2013, courtesy of Larissa Leclair and her wonderful Indie Photobook Library.

The Indie Photobook Library Pop-Up Exhibition is part of the PhotoNOLA 2012 festival.

If you’re in the neighborhood be sure to go check it out.

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Congratulations Jing!

Our friend, and very own Matchbook Stories poetry editor, Lee Jing-Jing has a novel forthcoming, published by Marshall Cavendish early next year.

Congratulations Jing! We can’t wait to get our hands on our signed copy!

American Photo

We were really excited when we got the latest issue of American Photo magazine and saw Thodoris Tzalavras’s pinhole image headlining the article “In the Shadow of the Black Sun.”

The image is from Thodoris’s forthcoming second book and Book Ex Machina title Spirits of the River.

Some more info on the article as well as and links to other Spirits of the River images can be found on Thodoris’s blog.

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Urban Soul Festival

Thank you to all the wonderful people who came out to see us at last Saturday’s Urban Soul Festival

Good to see so many old friends and meet new people, and see Nicosia buzzing with art.

Thank you to Pantheon for organizing, and for everyone’s interest, support, and good words.

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