1ère édition tirée à 500 exemplaires.
S’inspirant d’un catalogue de photographies prises en Chine, au Japon, à Singapour, en Thaïlande, à Taïwan et au Vietnam en 2018 et 2019, le livre de photographies du photographe allemand Paul Hiller « HappySad Souvenirs » dresse un portrait doux-amer des parcs d’attractions en Asie. Artificiellement conçus et construits comme des espaces pour rendre les gens heureux et leur permettre d’échapper à toutes leurs vies pendant quelques heures, les parcs d’attractions changent de ton et d’atmosphère dans les photographies de Hiller, devenant étrangement serein et mélancolique, parfois même triste. Avec humour mais sans condescendance, les photographies pastel amusantes et fascinantes de Hiller recontexualisent des lieux déjà étranges pour poser des questions plus profondes sur le bonheur, la modernité et la réalité. Plus important encore, les photographies de Hiller offrent un bref répit surréaliste de la vie quotidienne.
1st edition of 500 copies.
Drawing from a catalogue of photographs taken in China, Japan, Singapore, Thailand, Taiwan and Vietnam in 2018 and 2019, German photographer Paul Hiller’s photobook “HappySad Souvenirs” draws a bittersweet picture of amusement parks in Asia. Artificially designed and built as spaces to make people happy and allow them to escape their every lives for a few hours, the amusement parks shift in tone and atmosphere in Hiller’s photographs, turning strangely serene and melancholic, at times even sad. With humor but not condescension, Hiller’s amusing and fascinating pastel-colored photographs recontexualize already strange places to ask deeper questions about happiness, modernity and reality. Perhaps more crucial, Hiller’s photographs themselves offer a brief surreal respite from everyday life.
Paul Hiller, born in 1984 in Germany, is a professional photographer and artist. He first graduated as a photo lab manager and then got his diploma at the Academy of Fine Arts Munich (class of Prof. Klaus vom Bruch, new media). His photographs are not only shown in solo and group exhibitions in Germany and Europe, but they are also being displayed in many international print and online art platforms. His work is part of the so-called straight photography. He celebrates the art and the techniques of photography by shooting on analog film cameras only.
