JTF (just the facts): Published in 2024 by SUN Editions (no book link, publisher site here). Hardcover, 180 pages, with 110 color photographs. Includes a map of the Basque area of France (design by Vicky Montero) and an essay by James Zug. Design by Bill Sullivan and Shamus Clisset. In an edition of 150 copies. (Cover and spread shots below.)
Comments/Context: Charles Johnstone is a New York City-based photographer and a prolific book maker, with over twenty artist photobooks to his name. Most of them run in small editions and are carefully crafted, often incorporating hand made elements (like stab binding, boxes, etc). His earlier books obsessively documented Ed Ruscha-influenced typologies, including basketball courts, empty pools, handball courts, Brooklyn fences, and New York storefront churches. A number of his books have been made in collaboration with individual women, either friends, muses, or artistic co-creators, and he has also produced a series of photobooks with Polaroids of actresses he admires, each photographed from films playing on TV. Johnstone also happens to be an avid tennis player, a lifelong passion. With his new photobook Basque Courts, shot over four years, Johnstone returns to familiar artistic territory, in both typologies and racquet sport.
In this new effort, Johnstone points his camera at Basque pilota, a sport closely linked to the Basque country in France. Pilota refers to a range of court sports played with a ball, a glove, a racket, or wooden bat, against a wall known as fronton or with two teams face to face. It arose from the old French game known as jeux de paume, and varieties of this game are still played in many parts of the world. In the Basque country, pretty much each village has its own court, and that location plays a key part in village life. Like his other projects, Johnstone brings an artistic vision to a subject that’s more often seen from a photojournalistic perspective.
As a photobook, Basque Courts stands out, its thoughtful design allowing each element to reinforce its connection to racquet sports and their history. The book has a greenish blue cover with an abstract white figure resembling an exclamation mark, suggesting an unorthodox documentation of tennis (seen from the side of the net). The design of the endpapers and the font (the color of page numbers changes in various parts of the book) are inspired by the Basque country. Inside, the photographs are more or less the same size, one per page, usually with a generous amount of white space surrounding them. An essay by James Zug, a writer on racquet sports and a lifelong squash player, appears at the end of the book. A map of the region marking the locations of the courts is included as an insert, placed in an envelope at the back of the book.
Johnstone focuses on two types of pilota courts in the French part of Basque country: frontons (outdoor courts) and trinquets (indoor courts). Frontons are outdoor courts with a colossal front wall, and the opening section of the book is dedicated to them. Twenty color photographs capture them in a similar straightforward approach, showing empty courts, taken from a similar stance, mid-court facing the wall, with no players present. This geometry sets up a template for each court, slightly tweaked by shadows, surroundings, and weather. There are variations in colors (yellow, red, pink, orange) and in architectural shapes, and the year (along with various local emblems) appears at the top of each wall. This opening section is a beautiful visual introduction into the game and its courts.
The second part of the photobook focuses on trinquets, and takes us indoors. Here, Johnstone surveys twenty-two courts, all arranged in alphabetical order. His visual language is all about geometrical angles, shapes, unassuming details, colors, shadows, abstractions etc. The courts have a series of lines, numbers, and crowns marked on the floor, and walls which are all used to calculate scores. One of the first sequences starts with a wide view of an inside of the court, with its green walls, shiny floor, and other details; the caption on the opposite page reads “Arcangues – Emak Hor”. The shots that follow show numbers three and six in a light green circle above a line against a green background. In another image, various colors of the court are presented in a geometrical arrangement reminiscent of Mark Rothko’s paintings.
Johnstone often incorporates historical and cultural references and Basque Courts ends with a mural (it was outside of the Fronton Court at St. Jean de Luz) that depicts sailors playing pilota, connecting it back to early years of the game and community. Johnstone’s courts are precise and graceful, but ultimately his photographs aren’t really about courts at all – they use form to consider history and human connection. The fluidity in these photographs transcends the normal boundaries of sports photography, pushing the pictures toward elegant abstraction. His photobook is a warm tribute to the sport, presented in an understated but thoughtful format.
Collector’s POV: Charles Johnstone is represented by Joseph Bellows Gallery in La Jolla (here), Meredith Ward Fine Art in New York (here), and Jörg Maaß Kunsthandel in Berlin (here). His work has not yet found its way to the secondary markets, so gallery retail remains the best option for those collectors interested in following up.
