Between Here and There
Book Review
3 min read by Dmitri.Published on . Updated on .
Between Here and There is a new photography zine by Steve Rydz.
I had the pleasure of reviewing his previous book, Safe Distance, on this blog two years ago. To my (pleasant) surprise, he remembered that and sent me a copy of his new printed artwork. And so I am happy to share my thoughts about it here with you again.
These photographs were taken between 2021 and 2022 which was a transitional point in my life. I found myself having to leave the place that I’d called home for almost 10 years and move into a place which I knew would only be temporary, but I had no idea what was coming next.
— Steve Rydz, 2023.
Steve’s new zine — like his old one — is purely photographic. The quote above is all the text you’ll find in his book, which is 53 words more than in Safe Distance.
I find this kind of work particularly interesting as it opens the viewer’s mind to interpretation.
An uncaptioned and free-of-text book of photography to a work supplemented by the written word is like a book to a movie: the story is similar, but the former lets you imagine your characters and put yourself in their shoes however your mind sees it.
I don’t know Steve beyond what I’ve learned about him from his books, but I see my life journey reflected in his photographic work back at me in some ways. Between here and there is how I felt when I moved to Vancouver after spending five years as a traveller and a semi-permanent resident in Thailand.
Many parts of Vancouver — particularly in the winter — are grim, decaying, and filled with evidence of human subsistence, as many of Steve’s photographs depict his surroundings. His black-and-white images depict back alleys, barren trees, train tracks, graffiti, and metal fences. To anyone who lived in a city subjected to winter weather, they are familiar but often pushed-aside sights. Wealthy or not, we move past those places to wherever our destination may be. At least, that’s my understanding and interpretation of Steve’s work.
The zine is made with uncoated bright-white paper, approx. 50lb cover and ~40lb pages. It’s the size of a US Letter/A4 paper folded in half with 28 pages hosting 26 landscape black-and-white photographs with ample margin.
As of this writing, Between Here and There is available on Steve’s Big Cartel page for £10.