Exposure by Bruno Bisang
Published by teNeues Publishing (UK) Ltd ISBN-10: 3823845985
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Bruno Bisang was born in Switzerland in 1952. At 19 he attended the School of Applied Arts for Photography in Zurich. After serving as a photographic
assistant Bisang began freelancing in 1979. His work now sees him jetting between Milan, New York, Zurich and Paris for customers such as Cosmopolitan, Vogue Homme, Photo, GQ, Deutsche Vogue, Chanel and Givenchy. Bisang draws much inspiration from his fascination with the films and stars of the 1950's - it was from avidly watching these films as a youth that he first realised that he want to be a photographer. It could be argued that his style of imagery falls into the same camp as Andreas H. Bitesnich in that, unlike say Roy Stuart or Richard Kern, Bisang's camera and eye tends to fall upon examples of what could be seen as idealised perfection.
The book opens with a one page attempt at a 'poetic' introduction from Muriel Amori that, as with all the text, is reprinted in 5 languages. The photographs are peppered with short paragraphs by Bisang such as this one from the inside cover:
"I believe that I have the ability to entice from a woman something that she has within her, without her being aware of it. To present her in a way that she has never seen herself before. To enable her to discover something in her own inner self which has until now been unable to surface. I transfer my own sensitivity to her; I give her my all. From within this common universe my pictures emerge."
Given that the models are all examples of Amazonian idealised perfection and include Claudia Schiffer, Tyra Banks, Carré Otis and Monica Bellucci - it is hard to accept the claim that they have been shown something, in these photographs, of their inner self "which has until now been unable to surface." But then this reviewer has often made plain his cynicism with regard to much of the text that accompanies photographic monologues. Photographs should be allowed to speak for themselves and when they are as good as the ones exhibited within the pages of 'Exposure' why detract attention away by trying to explain them?
The book ends with a selection of photographs entitled 'Video Prints'. These heavily pixilated, low resolution, digital images are a welcome addition as they offer a counter and contrast to the preceding photographs of perfection and may point to a new direction for Bisang.
Within its 200 heavy weight pages are approximately 150 duotoned and colour photographs - for the most part printed one per page. The large format, hard-backed limited edition version, of this beautifully printed and prepared volume, comes complete with an attractive slip case.
Review by Christopher John Ball
** Rating
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