I’m feeling slightly uneasy about announcing my new publication, Complicated Feelings, during the busiest shopping period of the year. But I’m too excited to wait with the announcement.

This is my most personal publication, yet, and I strongly suspect it will remain the only one. You might remember that my father died in early October. I decided to travel to the funeral, even though he and I had had at best a fractured relationship.

The trip took me back to the city I was born in and where I would spend the first 20 years of my life. I had not been back there since roughly the mid-1990s.

I had no idea what to expect when encountering my family, my father’s urn, or the city itself. In the not quite five days I was there, I attended the memorial and funeral, and I walked around the city with my camera, looking out locations that had played a role for me in the past.

During my travels I took some notes, and I did more writing after I had come back home.

The photographs show what I responded visually. As I already said, some of the photographs show locations that had a special meaning to me in the past.

The text reflect my coming to terms with it all — the city, my father’s death, and myself.

While I was there, my brother asked me to go through some materials my father had assembled. That’s where the idea for the publication came from: it is made to look and feel like one of those folders I encountered. Except that this folder was made by me.

Complicated Feelings is a hand-made publication, a folder containing 25 loose prints and 12 loose sheets with text. In addition, there are handwritten corrections and/or additions to some of the texts. Every copy will be unique (and produced on demand in my studio).

Artistically speaking, the publication is a risk in a number of ways. There is no fixed sequence to either the photographs or the texts, meaning there is no narrative. Or rather there is, but a viewer/reader will have to discover for themselves.

I strongly expect that whatever corrections or revisions I will add will change with time. If you decide to get a copy, that copy will reflect how I feel about it all in that particular moment.

Furthermore, I have no idea how people who know me from my critical writing will think about reading some very personal notes.

But I’m excited about exploring what can be done with photographs and text in ways that go beyond the standard photobook — and in ways that do not cost me thousands of dollars in advance.

I’m also excited about doing a very personal project, even if just this once.

A copy of Complicated Feelings is US$40 (plus shipping). There also is a fancier version that comes with 4 prints (on a different paper than the other prints). That one is $80 (plus shipping). You can see all of the details on the website (scroll down to the bottom).

If either one of these interests you, please be in touch. You can either respond to this email or otherwise email me at jmcolberg at gmail.com.

Next time, I will be back with my regular assembly of links and thoughts. Until then…

Thank you as always for reading these words!

— Jörg