Slowtime Alabama & the Beautiful Sadness – A Fairy Tale - Sanne Peper

Slowtime, Alabama & the Beautiful Sadness is a book written and photographed by Sanne Peper. It’s about the difficult Deep South in the U.S. of A. It is about “fear of the other” which could mean many things down there. Fear of the supernatural, or perhaps of another person’s skin color. The South’s history is intertwined with slavery, and the book’s main color is haint blue, the color the Gullah people, descendants of slaves, use to paint their porch ceilings. This color is supposed to ward off ghosts by tricking them into believing the porch ceiling is actually the sky. In the book, haint blue frames the texts containing different fairytales. The pictures in the book are on a grainy paper and they feel like they’re taken in some other realm, whereas the texts are on sleek paper, taken care of so well, with some of the most flawless typesetting seen this year.