JTF (just the facts): Published in 2024 by GOST Books (here). Hardcover (24.5 x 19 cm), 264 pages, with 166 color and black-and-white photographs. Includes texts by the artist. Design and production by GOST. (Cover and spread shots below.)
Comments/Context: When the South African photographer Jillian Edelstein turned forty, she discovered a group of old photos of family members. In particular, what caught her attention was a photograph of her great aunt Minna, who she had never heard about before. Curious to discover more about her family history, she started digging, ultimately finding out an unknown side of her family living in Ukraine. Her investigative journey took her from her home in London to the heartland of the Ukraine, and eventually to her grandfather’s birthplace in Latvia. She then combined her research and documentation with a wider selection of photographs made throughout her career, bringing them together in a photobook titled Here and There. The book explores the universal theme of human displacement, through the lens of her family’s own histories and mysteries.
Overall, Here and There feels like a classic photobook. It has a dark red cloth cover with an embossed group of photobooth strips, and the title appears in the top left corner. The book opens with a lengthy essay by the artist, sharing her family history and richly illustrated with family photographs. Inside, her photographs are interwoven with short texts and captions. The book easily lays flat making the interaction more enjoyable, and the understated but refined design of the book immerses us in its visual narrative.
Here and There is a sophisticated tapestry of memory, ancestry, and displacement. It consists of nine chapters, spanning continents and communities, marking the places Edelstein visited on her journey. The visual narrative moves from places in South Africa, to the West Bank, Latvia, then to the shores of Lesvos, the jungle in Calais, Ukraine, and finally to a boat graveyard on the island of Lampedusa.
In the first section, Edelstein goes back to her early years in South Africa, tracing her own history and inspirations. In 1976, she enrolled in the University of Cape Town to study sociology, and she also joined the photographic club (as the only woman member). One of the first events she photographed was the demolition of the Crossroads squatter camp by the police in 1977, and she realized that doing work as a social worker was supporting the political and legal status quo in the country. The black-and-white images in the chapter (shot in the early 1980s) document the suburbs, “colored” townships, and their residents, and photography became her way of channeling her emotions and fighting the unjust system.
The color photographs from the West Bank were made in 2010, when Edelstein was invited to participate in the Palestine Festival of Literature. Her images capture olive groves that are inaccessible for harvesting because of the wall, the Qalandia checkpoint, a deserted ferris wheel, graffiti, etc., and displacement is quietly present in all of the photographs. Pages later, there are photographs of refugees from Afghanistan arriving to the shores of Lesvos, usually by dinghy (most of the women and children can’t swim), to an unknown future ahead of them. Other images show a young man Hassan being attended by a doctor after passing out on the beach, a young mother with her child, exhausted refugees resting in the car park, and a makeshift camp.
Edelstein’s photographs from Ukraine, shot in 2018, are portraits of the people she encountered there: army officer Victor Heyfets poses in a camouflage outfit with a hunting rifle and his dog, while twin sisters Anastasia and Ann stand in matching outfits. The very final section of the book takes us to a boat graveyard on the island of Lampedusa, with images of an abandoned faded life jacket shot against dry landscape, looming stacks of boats, and shots of discarded vessels of various kinds. As we move through these chapters, a wider and more complex narrative of memory and displacement unfolds connecting them together.
A number of excellent photobooks published in the last couple of years have explored the complexity of immigrant experiences. Elements of Edelstein’s photobook bring to mind recent books that have probed incomplete family histories, like Tarrah Krajnak’s book El Jardín de Senderos Que Se Bifurcan (reviewed here), which imaginatively re-examines the circumstances of the artist’s own birth and adoption. Similarly, June Canedo’s Mara Kuya (reviewed here) tells the story of her family split between Brazil and the United States.
As a photobook, Here and There is well conceived and thoughtfully designed. Edelstein’s work lies in the intersection between her own personal story and the stories of others. Her book is a powerful reminder of the common refugee narrative that is nestled within us all – whether we are aware of it or not. It comes at a time when sharing the truth and complexity of immigrant experiences is more urgent than ever, especially when these circuitous stories are told with such honesty and compassion.
Collector’s POV: Jillian Edelstein is represented by AVA Gallery in Cape Town (here). Her work has little secondary market history at this point, so gallery retail likely remains the best option for those collectors interested in following up.
