Out of Place is a platform developed to promote photography as a way of exploring and learning about places. We focus on publishing beautifully designed and affordable photobooks
We are interested in exploring ideas about place; how we understand and experience our environments and how we define them. Photography lends itself to such a task because in one way or another you have to experience the thing you want to photograph, you have to be there. This is a key concept behind documentary style photography and is one of the reasons why we sometimes believe in photographs. This, coupled with the cameras knack for seemingly objective reproduction of even the most incidental details, can give photographs a certain amount of authenticity.
We want to use photography as a way of learning about our environments and we see these elements of the photographic process as essential to achieving that. The camera offers an opportunity to explore and develop a physical dialogue with a place and the photographs can serve as record of that experience. We are not just interested in objective studies of places, we are interested in providing a platform for individual explorations and interpretations of place.
We believe that the best way to communicate these ideas about a place is through the photobook. The construction of the book helps refine and communicate ideas but it is also something permanent. Unlike exhibitions in galleries and museums it can be kept, shared exist in many places at once and be rediscovered in years to come.
Education
We believe the best way to learn about a place is to explore it. In a technology driven world that is becoming increasingly virtual we think that direct experience with the environment around you is important. Photography has long been a way of documenting the world and learning about it and we see the camera as a tool to help explore your environment, to help you look at it more closely. One thing that makes photography unique is that you have to confront reality when making the picture, you have to be there.
At out of place we aim to facilitate individuals and groups to explore, interact, and learn about their environment with photography. It is an opportunity for people to share their own observations about their own environment and raise awareness for issues important to them. Along the way participants develop practical skills in creative photography and new ways of seeing.
We believe the photobook has many strengths. Unlike exhibitions, they are physical objects that can be held and can be rediscovered in years to come. Books can act like a dialogue from one place to another, a way of passing on ideas far and wide, but also they are a democratic form of art where there is not just one original and many people can have a copy.
As part of our commitment to education, we provide talks and lectures on photography and photobooks. The photobook is an incredibly important and active part of creative photography. In our talks we look at the photobook from a historical point of view, offering a slightly different approach to traditional histories of photography, but also we look at their cultural impact and how they fit into present day uses of photography including social media and digital platforms for photography.