More than just a rephotography project based on Ad van Denderen’s Welkom in Suid-Africa (1991), this book is a story about inclusion and diversity featuring a wide variety of voices, perspectives and visual sources. The initiative for the book did not come from Van Denderen, but from local photographer Lebohang Tlali, who didn’t discover Van Denderen’s first book until he was a student in Cape Town, a thousand kilometres away from Welkom, his home town. This contact led to a new cooperation and marked a significant shift in contemporary documentary photography: instead of publishing about or on behalf of the subject, it is the voice of the community being portrayed that is heard in the book. Tlali, Van Denderen and author Margalith Kleijwegt bring the old photos back to the place where they were taken, give photography workshops, collect images from photo albums and add new photos of their own. The result is a ‘multi-voice visual narration’, given a clear visual structure by designer Jeremy Jansen using sparse, effective tools. Text and image sections are kept apart, creating a much-seen phenomenon this year: another ‘layer cake’ book block. The chapters are marked by wraps printed in beige, and the use of thicker, stiffer paper allows for easy thumbing to these sections. Once again, an exposed spine sewn in with the cover guarantees that the book opens nicely. The controlled, painstaking picture editing and mis en page give the many voices, personal histories and perspectives contained by this book space and direction. Exemplary.
Ad van Denderen, Lebohang Tlali, Margalith Kleijwegt
Welkom Today
Revisiting South Africa
Edition: 2019
Release date: May 2019
Language: Dutch, English
Translator: Francesca de Châtel
Final editor: Atlas Contact (Tilly Hermans, Fieke Janse, Renée Peereboom)
Picture editor: Ad van Denderen, Anne Ruygt, Bas Vroege
Photographer: Ad van Denderen, Lebohang Tlali et al.
Publisher: Paradox, Kehrer Verlag, Edam, Heidelberg (GER)
Available through: Bookshop, webshop
Designer: Jeremy Jansen (Amsterdam)
Lithographer: Colour & Books (Sebastiaan Hanekroot), Apeldoorn, Netherlands
Printer: NPN Drukkers, Breda
Binder: Patist, Den Dolder
Dimensions: 170 x 240 x 22
Amount of pages: 304
Number of copies: 2,400
Price: € 39.90
ISBN: 978 90 828708 2 4 (ENG)
Font and foundry: Akkurat (Lineto)
Binding style: Sewn softcover with front and back cover of four pages sewn in, dust jacket over transparently glued-off spine
Paper interior: 120gsm Munken Lynx , wrappers: 150gsm Munken Lynx Rough, Antalis
Cover material: 300gsm Munken Lynx Rough, Antalis
Dust jacket material: 170gsm Munken Lynx Rough, Antalis
Other technical features: The dust jacket is printed in black and Pantone 4535 and 871. The eight wrappers in the interior printed in black and Pantone 4535, give structure to the content of the book.