“PERSONAL REALITY: Photography studies” now is available as a collection of photography books with a limited edition of 30 sets, entirely handcrafted at Radlab Studio. Each book is dedicated to different author’s photographic series on the subject and Vladislav Lepoev has combined them into one total visual delight of 116 pages of content.

A LITTLE BIT OF HISTORY

In 2023 RadLab Studio invited six authors who explored the topic of Personal Reality: Vanessa Lu, Vladislav Lepoev, Ivicha, Lilyana Karadjova, Nikola Dyulgyarov and Usha.

Their photographic series were hand-printed at the studio’s base in the town of Gabrovo, using 23 alternative photography techniques that include carbon and salt printing, lith printing, gum bichromate, and other emulsion based processes involving light sensitive chemicals, DIY tools and approaches. The artists created 48 photographic prints, which were presented in two exhibitions: in Gabrovo: RadLab residency and in Sofia: Sofia Arsenal – Museum of Contemporaty Art, the second of which you can visit until 14.01.2024.

UNTILL WE GET TO THE PUBLISHING PROCESS

One of RadLab Studio’s missions is to distribute artists working in the field of emulsion photography. The idea to bring the exhibition “Personal Reality” onto the pages of a book body, or the pages a photography book on the gallery walls, came spontaneously. The conversation was started at the beginning of the project and the credit for the existence of the book collection goes entirely to our creative team. Vladislav Lepoev did the graphic design of each page of the collection, Lilyana Karadjova wrote the introduction, and Nikola Dyulgyarov translated all the texts to make our publication bilingual.

The book collection “PERSONAL REALITY: photography studies” is now a fact and presents the work of each author in the project. Among 116 pages of total content you will find reproduced handmade photographic prints, complemented by exciting conceptual texts and technical sheets of the alternative photographic processes that each author used in their studies.

AND A LITTLE MORE INFORMATION

“PERSONAL REALITY: photography studies” is a registered with ISBN: 978-619-92660-0-7. The print edition is limited to 30 sets, and although it is not large, we have taken great care with every page in it.

The content is printed on high quality Katana Double Matt 125 gr/m2 paper using a 12-colour inkjet printer, which we have calibrated specifically for the papers and inks used to ensure we achieve uncompromising colour reproduction.

For this books edition, we took the liberty of printing at 1200 dpi and we achieved visual details that very few graphic and photographic publications can boast. All of this is packaged in a stylish handmade package printed on Munken Kristall 300gr/m2 paper.

This edition of PERSONAL REALITY: photography studies will be distributed to organizations, educational institutions, and libraries whose activity keeps the conversation about the development of alternative photography vibrant. The collection can be viewed together with the original photographic prints within the exhibition “Personal Reality” at the Sofia Arsenal – Museum of Contemporary Art untill 14th of January 2024, as well as at Radlab Studio.

“PERSONAL REALITY: photography studies” book collection is part of the RadLab’s project “Alternative Photography in Contemporary Art and Education”, which is implmented with the financial support of the National Fund “Culture“, Bulgaria.