Diana Michener. Bones.

Steidl, Göttingen 2022. 38,5 x 28,5 cm. 64 Seiten, 24 Abbildungen. Leineneinband im Schuber.- For Diana Michener, bones are treasures, and this book is her preservation of them through photography in a way that honors their value as vessels of lives past. Inspired by nineteenthcentury photography, along with Paul Strand and Irving Penn, Michener chose the appropriately delicate and precious medium of platinum prints, which she crafted in her darkroom from analogue film shot on a Hasselblad 500 C camera. “Bones” recreates both the look and spirit of these prints through offset printing on Somerset Book 175 gsm paper from St. Cuthbert Mill, UK. Michener’s subjects are both human and animal bones, photographed between 2018 and 2021 in collections including Luxembourg’s Museum of Natural History, Strasbourg’s Zoological Museum and the Musée de Cambrai—often in restricted areas, thus revealing many bones not normally accessible to the public. In her words: “Bones bear witness to a life, and in and of themselves they show the magnificent structures of our forms. They are what is left.”