On July 5th, INDIE headed to the launch of renowned French photographer Maxime Ballasteros’ debut book Les Absents at Berlin venue JOHANN KÖNIG.
The publication, presented by Sang Bleu Publishing and Hatje Cantz, features a selection of Ballasteros’ work, praised for its raw energy and ability to convey honest moments in our everyday existence. Les Absents is described as a ‘window that allows us to see the gritty, flawed, raw, climatic, and sexualised world that exists around us,’ one that is at times both discomfiting and compelling.
Guests at the launch were treated to a first look of the accompanying exhibition running at JOHANN KÖNIG until July 16th, as well as a chance to buy the book and meet the photographer himself.
“Maybe it’s a book about fear.
Fear of death and its contrary. Fear of desire. Fear of love.
Fear of the truth. Of reality.
A primal fear, almost ancestral. Which was born with your first breath,
and will only leave you, finally, at your last.
But we don’t do books about fear. So it should be about something else.
Is it not for your vertigo, that you strive to climb trees, buildings, cranes or rocks; only to lean over once too far from the ground, and contem- plate at the void,
melting under your feet?”
– Maxime Ballesteros
Maxime Ballesteros, Les Absents will be available to purchase from July 5th, on sangbleu.club and available from selected stores worldwide. The Les Absents exhibition runs from 5th to 16th July 2017 at JOHANN KÖNIG, Dessauer Straße 6, 10963 Berlin.
Images courtesy of Maxime Ballesteros.
