KODAK CITY – Catherine Leutenegger
- Photos: Catherine Leutenegger
- Texts: Urs Stahel, Joerg Bader and A.D. Coleman
- Publisher: Kehrer Verlag, Heidelberg (Germany)
«Rochester is a company town, a place that will long remain marked by this industry. It was here, in 1892, that George Eastman founded Kodak, the American company that would revolutionize photography in the 20th century. One hundred twenty years later, having entered the digital game too late, Kodak filed for bankruptcy. The company has just sold around a thousand patents for $525 million.
With her series titled Kodak City, Catherine Leutenegger takes us on a tour through this city abandoned by its key industry. Some 30,000 layoffs, and a strategy reorientation that is as all-encompassing as it is tenacious, should be able to save what can still be salvaged. This metamorphosis was launched, wavering between gradual abandon and accelerated obsolescence, by the digital revolution.» Caroline Stevan – Le Temps
The monograph book Kodak City will be released in autumn 2014 by Kehrer Verlag, a publisher specializing in photography and fine arts and whose authors include such notable photographers as Jessica Backhaus, Jitka Hanzlová, Rinko Kawauchi, Saul Leiter, Martin Parr and Thomas Ruff.
Brief description of the authors:
- A.D. (Allan Douglass) Coleman, American writer and photo critic
- Joerg Bader, Director of the Centre de la Photographie Genève
- Urs Stahel, Co-founder of the Fotomuseum Winterthur / Freelance art critic and curator
The texts in this book appear in the form of essays and interviews.
Book details:
- Binding: Hardcover – 160 pages
- Dimensions: 8 x 10 inches
- Print run: 1,250 copies
- Languages: English + French
Why should you support this project?
Your contribution will allow me to cover a part of the book production costs, which come to CHF 28’000, and thereby to bring exposure to a photographic investigation carried out over several years; a major personal project – until now entirely self-funded – that invites reflection upon the medium, its past and its future. Thank you VERY MUCH for your support! I look forward to seeing you at the book launch party!
A little more about the photographer...
Catherine Leutenegger works as a freelance photographer between Lausanne, Switzerland and New York. Her work has been recognized with awards including the Prix Culturel Manor Lausanne, the Prix du Canton de Vaud, the Prix International de la Photographie Raymond Weil and the Swiss Design Awards (2006 and 2008). These distinctions have led in particular to a solo exhibition at the Musée de l’Elysée in Lausanne, the publication of a monograph titled Hors-champ (Infolio Publishers) and a six-month artist’s residency in New York.
Leutenegger’s photography is included in several public and private collections: Musée de l’Elysée and Banque Cantonale Vaudoise in Lausanne, Switzerland, and Maus Frères Holding and Raymond Weil in Geneva, Switzerland.
As someone directly affected by the unique technological upheavals taking place in photography in this digital age, Catherine Leutenegger has for several years been exploring places, often not well known to the public, where photography professionals work – studios, workshops, photo-processing and printing labs – with the aim of better understanding the impact of this transformation.