Book Launch with Jacob Koestler

The Print Center is very pleased to host the launch of
Jacob Koestler‘s photobook titled Everybody Wants Somewhere.

Please join us for the book signing.

Koestler’s work was selected from the 92nd ANNUAL Competition to receive a solo exhibition at The Print Center. Jacob Koestler: Copy of a Copy is currently on view through August 4, 2018.

Everybody Wants Somewhere
Jacob Koestler
Design by Elana Schlenker
96 pages
73 black & white photographs
Soft cover | perfect bound | 9” x 7”
First edition of 250
© 2018 Jacob Koestler

Photographs by Jacob Koestler
Essay by Gary Sampson
Produced with support from:
Fred and Laura Ruth Bidwell Foundation
CatLABS of JP

The book will be available for purchase for $30.

“The stark character of modernist ideology persists in the built environment all around us.  From its onset early in the 20th century, the singular urge to strip away ornament, seen as a marker of exploitation, signified the architect’s desire to meet the needs of workers and to seek meaning in the new materials of construction, with the promise of social liberation from the tyranny of class, including the vagaries of fashion. The photographs of Jacob Koestler would cast doubt on the success of these ideals in light of contemporary realities.  As one contemplates Everybody Wants Somewhere, a kind of salvage operation occurs regarding the remnants of places of labor, the impenetrable windows of sequestered lives, the construction and massing of skyscrapers, the dismal evidence of economic disparity without so much as a figure.  One may want to avoid any serious investigation of these typically shunned, unappealing elements, but this reclamation through the photographer’s intelligent, perceptual and bodily reconnoitering and chance selectivity in seeing, however, may defeat the immediate response to look away.”

From Gary Sampson
Everybody Wants Somewhere, 2018

“In Copy of a Copy [currently on view at The Print Center], Koestler distinguishes between making and looking at photographs, actions which have become almost simultaneous but once were separated by developing … Several images come from the series Everybody Wants Somewhere. The most absorbing are twins, “West Coast View (Overexposed)” and “West Coast View (Underexposed).” Seen across a gallery, the former seems an empty canvas while its sibling appears a black hole. Details emerge on approach, but it never feels like everything is visible. This is Koestler’s point: from a distance, things tend to look black or white. To understand, you have to get closer.”

From Pamela J. Forsythe
Perception vs. Memory, Broad Street Review, 2018