Fw:, 2012
Witho Worms, essays by Xavier Canonne and Witho Worms, design by Hans Gremmen
Text in Dutch, French, English, German, and Polish.
Print run of 500 of which 350 were commercially available.
Softcover, 176 pages

Witho Worm’s first award winning monograph, Cette montagne c’est moi , is centered on carbon. Inspired by the early and notably stable photographic process of carbon printing, Worms set out to photograph sixty-eight slag heaps across five European countries from 2006-2011. From each pyramidal site, he collected remnants of the mined material. He then converted the bits of coal into a pigment used to contact print the negative of the object from where the material was derived. Each photograph is therefore self-referential as it is physically created using the element specific to the location visually represented.

How do you turn such material specific photography into a book?

Designer Hans Gremmen was thinking outside the box and made a bold and brilliant decision not to try to replicate the photographs as faithfully as possible as most books do. Instead, in analyzing and deconstructing Worms’ series, he chose to focus on pigment and black; words both associated with carbon/coal. Starting with black paper as a base, the photographs would be printed using two layers of white, cyan, magenta and yellow. This created a negative (in ways similar to another 19th century process, the ambrotype); where the ink created the light area details and the dark triangular form of the slag heap was where the base paper was most visible.

To offer the viewer clues to the process, Gremmen selected a Japanese binding in the construction of the book, whereby each page is actually a sheet of paper folded onto itself revealing the black paper on the underside.

Another unusual choice of design is that the subtle yet highly detailed images roll from one page onto the next like a continuous rising and falling horizon line, inviting the reader to flip pages back and forth to see the full panoramic scene.

The chapters are broken down by country, inviting economic and historic comparisons. Poland, for example, was still mining and so some slag heaps show signs of activity. Wales - as anyone who watched The Crown will understand - has flattened its hills to prevent the dangerous risk of a slag slide burying whatever lies at the base.

- L. Parker Stephenson

Ce n’est pas un livre. Witho's book actually is an experience, and it is like no classical book is supposed to be…It is a dark book with astonishing detailed pictures; it feels soft and sooty, you positively feel the coal, and according to Witho it is personal book which is reflected in the title. “Cette Montagne c'est moi” is definitely one of my favourite books I really, really had to have. - Calin Kruse for Dienacht Magazine

“One of the questions perpetually bedeviling the artist-driven photobook is how to translate a unique print into ink and paper” - Aperture

“… icon and index, image and substance have become one.” - Alternative Photography

Clearly to be included in my “best of” list at the end of the year - highly recommended. - Joel Colberg