The canonical 1977 American photobook returns to print in a new, definitive edition that most closely resembles the original
In 1977, American photographers Larry Sultan (1946–2009) and Mike Mandel (born 1950) published a book of photographs titled Evidence. The book was the culmination of a two-year search through the archives of 77 government agencies, educational institutions and corporations, including General Atomic Company, Jet Propulsion Laboratories, the San Jose Police Department and the United States Department of the Interior. The original pictures were made as objective records of activities unfamiliar to the lay public: the scenes of crimes, aeronautical engineering tests, industrial experiments and other subjects. Sifting through some two million images, Mandel and Sultan assembled a careful sequence of 59 pictures. The book was thoughtfully designed to depict the photographs in terms of their “documentary” origins, unaccompanied by identifying captions. Faced with a world of mysterious events and unfathomable activities, the reader is confronted with only the sequential narrative imagery of the book and thus must actively participate in creating its meaning. Following a revised edition of the book in 2003 and a 2017 reprint—both of which sold out quickly and have become highly collectible—Evidence is back in print nearly 50 years after its initial publication. This new, definitive edition features revelatory new scans—many made from the original negatives—which greatly enhance the eerie objectivity conveyed by the book’s title. In many cases, the original negatives revealed that crops had been made to the image by the agencies; the complete images are restored here. The jacketless, library-style binding of the original 1977 edition is also restored, further underscoring its impersonal documentlike character and its canonical status.
Featured image is reproduced from 'Larry Sultan & Mike Mandel: Evidence.'
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Spreads from Larry Sultan and Mike Mandel’s seminal 1977 conceptual photography book, Evidence—out now from D.A.P. in a new, unjacketed hardcover edition printed from gorgeous new scans, many of which are from the original negatives. Collecting 59 perplexingly deadpan black and white documentary photographs from a variety of government agencies, educational institutions and corporations, the original book was an uncaptioned, effortlessly fascinating cypher. Here, it returns to its most original form. “One major and especially pertinent figure for them, but for Mandel in particular, was Chris Burden,” Sandra S. Phillips writes. “Although probably not obvious, since its intent is poetic rather than specifically political, Evidence has a consistent theme and a kind of narrative. The work in the book is a sort of funny referendum on the new technology, burgeoning close by in the incipient Silicon Valley. Sensitive to the desensitizing implications of a technology gone out of control, Sultan and particularly Mandel found Burden’s work especially relevant. Burden was, for the most part, a performance artist, but his pieces emphasized the realness of the artist, the importance of the gesture of the individual, and the role and value of the creative, humane, and whimsical personality, and they illustrate how slight but heroic the mere body can be.” continue to blog
Published by D.A.P.. Text by Sandra S. Phillips, Robert F. Forth.
The canonical 1977 American photobook returns to print in a new, definitive edition that most closely resembles the original
In 1977, American photographers Larry Sultan (1946–2009) and Mike Mandel (born 1950) published a book of photographs titled Evidence. The book was the culmination of a two-year search through the archives of 77 government agencies, educational institutions and corporations, including General Atomic Company, Jet Propulsion Laboratories, the San Jose Police Department and the United States Department of the Interior. The original pictures were made as objective records of activities unfamiliar to the lay public: the scenes of crimes, aeronautical engineering tests, industrial experiments and other subjects. Sifting through some two million images, Mandel and Sultan assembled a careful sequence of 59 pictures. The book was thoughtfully designed to depict the photographs in terms of their “documentary” origins, unaccompanied by identifying captions. Faced with a world of mysterious events and unfathomable activities, the reader is confronted with only the sequential narrative imagery of the book and thus must actively participate in creating its meaning.
Following a revised edition of the book in 2003 and a 2017 reprint—both of which sold out quickly and have become highly collectible—Evidence is back in print nearly 50 years after its initial publication. This new, definitive edition features revelatory new scans—many made from the original negatives—which greatly enhance the eerie objectivity conveyed by the book’s title. In many cases, the original negatives revealed that crops had been made to the image by the agencies; the complete images are restored here. The jacketless, library-style binding of the original 1977 edition is also restored, further underscoring its impersonal documentlike character and its canonical status.
