Kisses and the kindness of strangers in True Journal
About the size of an old-fashioned photograph album, in the unromantic age of the scroll, True seems purposefully designed to let you linger over an image. The magazine does print new work, but much of the content is made up of previously unpublished, even personal pictures. Inside the latest edition is a collection of holiday snaps taken over a two-year period by the photographer Brendan Freeman; another is a privately commissioned body of work on China by Jim Goldberg.
Thumbing through the enormous, full bleed pages, you feel you are enjoying something niche, or rare. Below are five of our favourite images from the new issue, with the stories behind them.
Running with eyes shut — Peter Puklus
Puklus deconstructs and questions the dynamics of pre-established female and male roles: motherhood as an alleged heroic activity and the supposed duty of the father to build and protect the home. His search breaks down the traditional symbols associated with maternal and paternal figures in a playful yet critical way.
Mud — Arnaud Lajeunie and Georgia Pendlebury
The series this image is taken from shows Laura, Simone, and Sofie being teenagers. The shoot took place in France last summer, however the subjects are from Switzerland and the Netherlands. It’s a semi-fictional exploration of how to reveal natural behaviour within an artificially created situation: Laura, Simone and Sofie had never met before, but gradually a certain intimacy was created, and lines between staged and spontaneous reactions started to fade.
Hüzün (a melancholic longing) — Kalpesh Lathigra
Lathigra describes his photographs as a reflection of the emotional visages he creates in his mind: “My grandparents immigrated from India in the 1940’s to east Africa, and whilst I have some heritage in Kenya and Zanzibar, my longing for India has always been there in the ether, an unfulfilled love affair.”
Holiday — Brendan Freeman
This picture is part of a selection of images taken over a two-year period of landscapes and incidentals during travels. Holiday snaps but through a photographer’s eye.
Water Well — Jim Goldberg
In 2017, Jim Goldberg was commissioned by a private collector to produce a small portfolio of work in China. He chose to narrow his scope to a specific city, Beijing, which allowed him to focus on the minutiae of everyday life in a foreign land. Goldberg put his trust in his own openness, depending on the kindness of strangers to help him find a pathway towards a story.
