Every so often I come across something in my own collection that I had nearly forgotten was there. This week it was Andrea Modica’s As We Wait, still wrapped in plastic and still, quite literally, new.
Published in 2015 by L’Artiere in Bentivoglio, Italy, this is the first edition, one of only 500 copies issued. The book contains forty-eight black-and-white photographs drawn from several recent projects, all previously unpublished at the time. Larry Fink edited and sequenced the work and also contributed the introduction.
It is a beautifully made book, which is no surprise considering it was produced by Grafiche dell’Artiere, a printer known for carefully made photography books. At 9¾ by 12 inches, with seventy-two pages and forty-eight black-and-white illustrations, it has the presence of the kind of monograph meant to be handled slowly.
Modica’s photographs have always had a certain stillness to them. Even when something difficult or unsettling is present, the pictures seem to ask you to stay with them rather than move on too quickly. The title, As We Wait, feels especially fitting for work like this.
My copy has never been opened. The original plastic wrap is still intact, which makes it one of those books that is interesting both as a photographic work and as an object that has remained untouched since publication.
For now, it has gone from being buried in my collection to being properly noticed again, which is exactly the sort of thing I hope to keep doing here in the Shopkeeper’s Log.
