Peter Pflügler devises an intimate maze into the heart of his family secret. Concealed for 20 years, his father’s suicide attempt was an occurrence he somehow always knew about. Investigating traces of this silenced trauma, he created images that inhabit the brink of comfort and irritation, of love and pain. While rummaging through this unsettling landscape, we are invited to look closer and discover texts and images hidden between the pages. ‘Now Is not the Right Time’ grapples with t...

The Novogen is a breed of chicken that was developed in order to use its eggs in the production of pharmaceutical products such as medicines and vaccines. Through an investigation of the industrialised farming of the Novogen White Light variant, Dániel Szalai raises questions and dilemmas regarding technology and our relation with nature. The book centres around an extensive series of portraits of individual chickens along with images which document the production of vaccines. Szalai believe...

In 2017, The New York Times revealed that the American ministry of Defence for years had been investing millions of dollars in secret UFO investigations. At that time, the photographer Robert Pufleb (1969, DE) had already recorded numerous mysterious flying saucers for his series TRANSFORMER (2015–2018). He first encountered them in the Chinese megacity Chongqing and since then photographed dozens of UFO’s in China and several European cities. But are we really seeing the vessels of extra...

Universe is about curiosity, comprehending, and knowing. Knowledge for the sake of knowledge. Comprehending for the sake of comprehending. Fundamental scientists as modern explorers. Pioneers who are trying to understand the world and waging a war on mortality. But what are the major mysteries that they grapple with now? And what do scientific facts mean in a world of fake news and alternative facts?

In Universe, Jos Jansen explores research topics in the domain of hard science, like dark mat...

Photographer Michael Yuan paints an intimate portrait of the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, challenging accepted perspectives of the monument, which is most often observed in its mind-blowing entirety and completeness. This is the bridge in all its characteristic faces that have never been presented before, a study of its form, lines, shapes, and familiar colour. The book is a loving tribute to the imposing towers, stylised street lamps, gigantic cables, bolts, and plates, each with the...

With ‘Vital Mud’, Dutch artist Hiske Altena explores the theory that life on Earth once began in clay. In the 1980s, her uncle, now a retired geologist, found an unusual stone that rattled. Within this stone, he discovered organic-looking structures which he could not easily explain using existing geological theories. The so-called “clay hypothesis”, however, seemed to offer a better explanation. This is the basis on which Altena builds a collection of images intended to shift our per...

First and foremost, ‘Within the Bubble of Surroundings’ is an ode to friendship. Belgian photographer Seppe Vancraywinkel imagines himself and his friends as moving through life inside a bubble that assumes form whenever they are together. In that space, he finds solace and refuge, for the bubble is impervious to the demanding clamour of the outside world. This series of photographs documents spontaneous moments in which both visual and affirmative traces of the bubble can be discerned. A...

In the 17th century, the citizens of Oberammergau made a covenant with God. If he halted the plague, they would reenact The Passion of Christ every ten years for eternity. When the deaths ceased, in 1634, the villagers fulfilled their promise and the first Passion Play was staged. Regine Petersen’s (DE) combination of image and text takes as its starting point Adolf Hitler’s attendance of Oberammergau’s tricentennial Jubilee in 1934. Her narrative unfolds on two levels: that of the worl...

Xiaoxiao Xu embarks on a journey of 25,000 kilometres to document the lives of the people along the foot of the Great Wall of China. Contrary to popular belief, the wall is not a single, continuous structure, but rather a collection of walls and fortifications built during various Chinese dynasties. Her images show that, despite its decline in some of these parts, a lively relationship remains between the wall and local populations who honour and protect it. In the process, Xu attempts to dis...

Fifty years ago, optimism concerning scientific progress seemed endless. However, while the techniques from the space industry found a way into our daily lives, science grew increasingly apart from the everyday world. Scientific interpretations are complicated for non-experts to grasp, resulting in an exchange based on trust.

The truth is that science actually is a temporary and uncertain activity, with ambiguity, curiosity and unpredictability as fundamental elements of its process.

In Fail...