Dream Machine
by Ruben Lundgren
Photographs: Ruben Lundgren
Publisher: Jiazazhi
68 pages
Year: 2023
Price: 66 €
Comments: 255 × 180 mm, Hardcover
With “Dream Machine,” Beijing-based Dutch photographer Ruben Lundgren examines—not without a hint of humor—the human fascination with machines and new technologies. Consisting of 35 old portrait photographs painstakingly collected via antique markets and websites over a period of ten years, “Dream Machine” takes a closer look at the infatuation of the Chinese population with modern machinery—cars, motorbikes, airplanes, television sets. The photographs in the book were originally taken in photography studios (which began to spread across Chinese cities like Hanzhou in the 1930s) in front of elaborate sets and painted backgrounds. Each photograph in the book is embedded in an illustration that adds a further touch of technological infatuation, to be pulled back and bring back the reality of the photo studio.
“We can only imagine how mind-blowing it would have been to have witnessed the arrival of the first ever automobiles in China. Over a century ago, city folk and ordinary farmers must have stopped whatever they were doing to admire the mysterious vehicle which moved seemingly without human effort … Generally speaking, they enthusiastically embraced new trends that were then pragmatically woven into the fabric of everyday life. Luxury imports were used by elites as visual evidence of social status, while cheap imitations satisfied the demand for new products among ordinary people: both were absorbed into a culture that without the tangible and craved the new …
This album consists of 35 photographs I collected at antique markets and via websites in China over the past decade. The colourful graphics are copied from an album originally produced in the 1960s which offers a historical tour along the banks of the famous West Lake. The portraits capture the futuristic appeal that machines like cars, planes or televisions once had. Like the invention of the internet, smartphone or e-bike in recent decades, most innovations slowly slip away into the common present.”
― from Ruben Lundgren’s afterword
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Dream Machine
by Ruben Lundgren
Photographs: Ruben Lundgren
Publisher: Jiazazhi
68 pages
Year: 2023
Price: 66 €
Comments: 255 × 180 mm, Hardcover
With “Dream Machine,” Beijing-based Dutch photographer Ruben Lundgren examines—not without a hint of humor—the human fascination with machines and new technologies. Consisting of 35 old portrait photographs painstakingly collected via antique markets and websites over a period of ten years, “Dream Machine” takes a closer look at the infatuation of the Chinese population with modern machinery—cars, motorbikes, airplanes, television sets. The photographs in the book were originally taken in photography studios (which began to spread across Chinese cities like Hanzhou in the 1930s) in front of elaborate sets and painted backgrounds. Each photograph in the book is embedded in an illustration that adds a further touch of technological infatuation, to be pulled back and bring back the reality of the photo studio.
“We can only imagine how mind-blowing it would have been to have witnessed the arrival of the first ever automobiles in China. Over a century ago, city folk and ordinary farmers must have stopped whatever they were doing to admire the mysterious vehicle which moved seemingly without human effort … Generally speaking, they enthusiastically embraced new trends that were then pragmatically woven into the fabric of everyday life. Luxury imports were used by elites as visual evidence of social status, while cheap imitations satisfied the demand for new products among ordinary people: both were absorbed into a culture that without the tangible and craved the new …
This album consists of 35 photographs I collected at antique markets and via websites in China over the past decade. The colourful graphics are copied from an album originally produced in the 1960s which offers a historical tour along the banks of the famous West Lake. The portraits capture the futuristic appeal that machines like cars, planes or televisions once had. Like the invention of the internet, smartphone or e-bike in recent decades, most innovations slowly slip away into the common present.”
― from Ruben Lundgren’s afterword
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Dream Machine
by Ruben Lundgren
Photographs: Ruben Lundgren
Publisher: Jiazazhi
68 pages
Year: 2023
Price: 66 €
Comments: 255 × 180 mm, Hardcover
With “Dream Machine,” Beijing-based Dutch photographer Ruben Lundgren examines—not without a hint of humor—the human fascination with machines and new technologies. Consisting of 35 old portrait photographs painstakingly collected via antique markets and websites over a period of ten years, “Dream Machine” takes a closer look at the infatuation of the Chinese population with modern machinery—cars, motorbikes, airplanes, television sets. The photographs in the book were originally taken in photography studios (which began to spread across Chinese cities like Hanzhou in the 1930s) in front of elaborate sets and painted backgrounds. Each photograph in the book is embedded in an illustration that adds a further touch of technological infatuation, to be pulled back and bring back the reality of the photo studio.
“We can only imagine how mind-blowing it would have been to have witnessed the arrival of the first ever automobiles in China. Over a century ago, city folk and ordinary farmers must have stopped whatever they were doing to admire the mysterious vehicle which moved seemingly without human effort … Generally speaking, they enthusiastically embraced new trends that were then pragmatically woven into the fabric of everyday life. Luxury imports were used by elites as visual evidence of social status, while cheap imitations satisfied the demand for new products among ordinary people: both were absorbed into a culture that without the tangible and craved the new …
This album consists of 35 photographs I collected at antique markets and via websites in China over the past decade. The colourful graphics are copied from an album originally produced in the 1960s which offers a historical tour along the banks of the famous West Lake. The portraits capture the futuristic appeal that machines like cars, planes or televisions once had. Like the invention of the internet, smartphone or e-bike in recent decades, most innovations slowly slip away into the common present.”
― from Ruben Lundgren’s afterword
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Daughters of the Sun 2018 (signed)
by Claire Felicie
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The Police Band of Suriname / De politiekapel van Suriname
by Sara Blokland
Euro 34 -
The Naval Base (signed)
by Rob Hornstra
Euro 9.50 -
Sense of Presence
by Rogier Maaskant
sold out -
Jorinde (signed)
by Ellen Korth
Euro 125 -
Dansende Spoken (signed)
by Ellen Korth
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more books tagged »historical« | >> see all
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Austrian Documentary Photography
by Regina Maria Anzenberger
Euro 75 -
Passeggiata napoletana (signed)
by Arturo Zavattini
Euro 36 -
Miserachs Barcelona
by Xavier Miserachs
sold out -
A Photographic Discovery
by Regina Maria Anzenberger
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Photographien aus dem Dorfleben der 50er Jahre
by various photographers
sold out -
Der Grazer Gehfotograf
by Mila Palm
sold out
more books tagged »China« | >> see all
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Steles - Huang Yi Project (last copy)
by Taca Sui
sold out -
Thundershower (signed)
by Zhang An
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Sample Room (review copy)
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How Was Your Dream?
by Thaddé Comar
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east - west (special offer! - 2 books)
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by Klaus Pichler
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CARS - New York City. 1974 - 1976
by Langdon Clay
sold out -
Badly Repaired Cars (last copy)
by Ronni Campana
sold out -
One Picture Book #97: Las Trocas Angelinas, con sus Mercancía...
by Javier Carrillo
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BACK TO BACK - From Backyard to Boulevard (signed)
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Random selection from the Virtual bookshelf josefchladek.com