JUSTINA&CO.UK
Who hath ridden wild horses, oft four-in-hand,
driven by adventure, amore, sex, biznes and danger,
portrayed by her dearest cousin and boon companion
for your entertainment and inspiration
artbook, 2014
redesign: Magda Buczek &Emilia Obrzut / Obszar Roboczy
shortlisted for MACK FIRST BOOK Award 2014 in London
a winner of the Polish Photobook of the Year (self publishing category) in 2014
shortlisted at Athens Photo Festival 2015
part of the collection of the National Media Museum in Bradford
part of a collection of The Library Project / Photoireland in Dublin
part of SPBH collection in London
JUSTINA&CO.UK is neither a diary nor a documentary or itinerary, however the protagonist, Justina, is a non-fictional character. In the book her story meets the heritage of novela picaresca, a style of narration originated in sixteenth-century Spain that flourished in the XVII and XVIII centuries around Europe, especially in England. The story is told in a series of loosely connected anecdotes but ends either with a conversion and a road of virtue or with tragic consequences. The title “Justina&co.uk" can be decoded as „Justina and company” meaning a non-fiction protagonist of novela picaresca and her adventurous accomplices: Moll Flanders, Lulu and Fanny Hill. With London city as a scenery, all of them share a passion for risk and masquerade. However, unlike her literary accomplices, Justina tirelessly carries on with the story as she naturally shifts from image to image, unseizable for the reader (voyeur),with her face put always in the binding of the pages, at the edge of the paper.
A book with Justina’s archive photos includes some narrative paths whatsoever. A reader can follow a map of her and her literary precursors’ journeys and follow the strands of adventure, amore (as she calls love), sex, biznes (as she calls business) and danger. Also, the fragments of Defoe’s “Fortunes and misfortunes of Moll Flanders” and Wedekind’s “Lulu. A monster tragedy” are part of the story. Text photographed on an e- book reader screen became an integral part of an album and has transformed into an image. And Justina herself has become an anecdote, as the title says, “for your entertainment and inspiration”. When you take a book about her life into your hands, they can get dirty with glitter difficult to remove.
Links:
press - Contemporary Lynx
press - Wysokie Obcasy
press - Self Publish Be Happy
Other episodes of JUSTINA:
JUSTINA&CO.UK
JUSTINA is
