Kummer & Herrman // ART DIRECTION & DESIGN / The Sochi Project
Using the Olympic Winter Games in 2014 as its starting point, The Sochi Project documents the explosive region around Sochi in the Caucasus – from Abkhazia in the south, to breakaway republics such as Chechnya and Dagestan. Together, they form the region around Sochi, which is characterised by poverty, separatism, terrorism, mass tourism and the upcoming Winter Games, the most expensive ever. In the five years leading up to the Games, photographer Rob Hornstra and writer/filmmaker Arnold van Bruggen will travel through the region uncovering the stories no one else is telling. When the International Olympic Committee and the Russian machinery kick off the fabulous event in 2014, The Sochi Project will offer an alternative picture of how the region has fared during the run-up to the Games.
Kummer & Herrman participates within this project and is responsible for strategy, conceptualisation and design of the website, a number of exhibitions at different locations around the world and a small series of books focusing on specific local topics. The Sochi Project will be a dynamic mix of documentary photography, film and reportage about a world in flux, a world full of different realities within a small but extraordinary geographic area. On the website www.sochiproject.org <http://www.sochiproject.org> you can find more info about the project and the possibilities to support.
The portfolio shows: a newspaper to encouraging the audience to become a member within this crowdfunding project; a series of posters; Sanatorium, one of the annual publications which won the New York Photo Festival book award 2010; On the Other Side of the Mountains, a newspaper counting 64 pages which can function – with the use of 2 copies – as an exhibition of 1.20 x 6 meters, which won the Canon Prize for innovative journalism and annual publication ‘Empty land, Promised Land Forbidden Land’.
5b4.blogspot.com <http://5b4.blogspot.com> about ‘Sanatorium’: “Book-wise, Sanatorium is short (21 photos over 42 pages) but its sexy design and production values deserve attention. Designed by Kummer & Herman out of Utrecht, they employed an interesting double stitch binding that achieves a squared off spine and a division of text from the photographs which were printed on different paper stocks from one another.”
Andrew Phelps about ‘Empty land, Promised Land Forbidden Land’: “At 290 pages and about the size of a hefty novel, this book is one you will take on a long train-ride, dog-ear the corners and refreashingly admit that EL,PL,FL is a damn good read!”
Joerg Colberg about ‘Empty land, Promised Land Forbidden Land’: “While you could treat Empty Land as a photobook, in reality it’s something different. In a nutshell, it’s a documentary, transformed into book form (…) It does it in a way that, I think, hints at where at least some contemporary photojournalism is moving. (…) A most excellent book, highly recommended.”
