Gluckauf not only contains photographs taken by Bertien van Manen in mineworking communities in different parts of the world, but also reveals the process surrounding her photography. More so than in the average photo book, we get an insight into the editorial thought process behind this exceptional collection of photos. The section made up of contact sheets printed in silver on black paper, and the section with copies of Van Manen’s own texts printed side by side, scaled-down and on white paper, jump out in this respect. In addition, these copies are a welcome break in the middle of the photographs, and set themselves up in a surprising way. The cumulative effect is to make it palpable that not the photographs themselves, but the maker and her images are the focus here.
The choice of a hard cover benefits the deeply personal nature of the photos, as this assigns them a welcome monumentality. The cover photo stands out well, with its red surround – in the red pen Van Manen used to code her photos – as does the red title on the spine of the book, and seems to refer to the subtle trace of red in the black-and-white photos inside. This trace is probably a consequence of printing the black-and-white photos in full colour – the jury has as yet been unable to decide whether this was intentional or not.