My project

My project is a photo book whose main characters are the record covers from the 70’s and 80’s and the anecdotes around those who chose them for the shot.

All the ideas are exposed and the procedures arranged. The only thing I need to do now is to get into the printing process, and for that purpose I need your help.

The book is a journey through various artists, musicians, journalists, producers and disc-jockeys’ most remembered vinyl record covers. It also deals with those unsung protagonists who still keep strong in their memory the ritual and the emotions involved in listening to those records.

On the pictures, the characters are shown yet hidden behind the record covers they have chosen for the shot; the cover they have looked at and read so many times while listening to their music. The "mise en escene" takes place in a meaningful context to each character at the present, producing a poetic, humoristic or delirious counterpoint between the past and the present.

The book, a visual essay, holds almost a hundred photographs with portrays of people like Litto Nebbia, Nito Mestre, Lalo Mir, Alfredo Rosso, Lito Vitale, Claudio Kleiman, Rocambole, o Alejandro Pont Lezica, and their testimonies.

I wish you get excited by this project, just like it has happened to all of those who have already helped me to shape this work. If it is so, here you have the opportunity to be one of the book’s producers, getting in return one or more copies of a special collector’s edition.

How did this project come out

My connection with vinyl records comes straight from my teen years.

My dad used to work for a record company, and while I was on summer holidays he would make me go to the company's storehouse to wrap the discs with their envelopes, the covers.

 The vinyl records were wrapped up in a soft and thin paper that was easily breakable, and in another box there were the covers with their fresh smell of ink.

It was a completely automatic job, anyway.

But while my mates were working and loosely listening to Cacho Fontana or Antonio Carrizo on the radio, I, on the other hand, would be fascinated by the pictures and illustrations of the record covers. Maybe it was on that shed, sitting on that unsteady stool, where my vocation for photography was born. And while enjoying those covers, I discovered some unknown artists that slowly began to become part of my small collection of records along with The Beatles, The Carpenters and The Bee Gees.

Since then, it went on this way; trading records at Parque Rivadavia's fair, or perusing through the stands at the record stores. My curiosity began with the cover and would carry on when I put the disc on the turntable. I would be lying on the floor or standing on my feet, going through the lyrics or looking at the pictures while the music was still on. I do not know of anyone who has got rid of all their vinyl records. In fact, underneath a bed, inside some piece of kitchen furniture, or at mom’s house lies that record collection waiting to be played.

I have already taken almost a hundred photos where musicians, designers, photographers, journalists, physicians, greengrocers, etc... show themselves through their favorite vinyl record, making them revive emotions that still go on at present. Many of them have told me some anecdotes which are also going to be included in the book.

A selection of the pictures is currently being shown at the Centro Cultural Recoleta until October 7^th.

But there is still much more art material! That is the reason why I am asking you to help me publish the book! A book that holds the records that brought up and became icons for a whole generation. Sounds like a big shot, doesn’t it?

The book: Technical facts

“Ponete un disco” ("Try on a record") – Photographs and interviews by Pablo Garber

Special collector's edition: Hard cover,  20x25cm, 144 cotton thread binded pages.

The exhibition

You can attend the exhibition from September 5^th to October 7^th at the Centro Cultural Recoleta in Buenos Aires. Junín 1930 (C.P. 1113) Tuesday to Friday from 1 p.m to 8 p.m. Sunday, Saturday and official Holidays from 12 p.m to 9 p.m. Closed on Monday.

Project by

pablogarber

PABLO GARBER es artista y educador especializado en fotografía, reconocido internacionalmente. Nacido en Buenos Aires, Argentina en 1961, ha sido seleccionado por Phaidon Intenational como uno de los mejores fotografos emergentes, en 2001. Fue artista invitado a la Bienal de Bruselas Arte Contemporáneo, 2008. Ha recibido distinciones del Museo de Bellas Artes de Venezuela, la Fundación Banco Ciudad de Buenos Aires, el Centro Mexicano de la Imagen, el Fondo Nacional de las Artes, las Grandes Ecoles de Paris, la Fundación Federico Klemm, y la Fundación Coca-Cola en las Artes, entre otras. Su obra ha sido exhibida en los cinco continentes, y ha sido publicada en libros, catálogos y revistas especializadas. Desde 1997 enseña en el Centro Cultural de la Universidad de Buenos Aires y en otras instituciones.

Vive y trabaja en el barrio porteño de Boedo.