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Video: https://vimeo.com/171147881 - https://www.gupmagazine.com/books/jeanette-bos/statia-song
REMARKABLE DUTCH DESIGN AND CARRIBEAN MOMENTS. FEW SIGNED COPIES IN STOCK!
The photo book, 'Statia Song', is a love letter to a Caribbean life on the Dutch island of Statia (St. Eustatius). The large-format book, designed by Sybren (SYB) KUIPER and published in a small edition, consists of full-page spreads in colorful & black and white." (© Richard G. SPORLEDER)
"VERY big & beautiful, showing Statia (St. Eustatius, the small Dutch island in the Caribbean Sea) in all its glory - a tribute to the people of Statia, who in the last two decades have become a minority on their own island, washed over by the waves of globalization. (...)
In June 1996 fate carried me to Statia, a tiny Caribbean island. It was love at first sight. Two years later I returned, planning to make a book about the island in three months of time. But the Fates had different plans. Falling in love with Statia totally uprooted my Dutch life and since 1998 I've been back in Statia for six weeks to six months nearly every year.
The people of Statia welcomed me into their lives and their homes, they became my family, they taught me to sing and play music. They made me a member of the traditional string band and of a group of women singing hymns in the homes of mourning families during the wakes before a funeral. Statia became my life.
In 1996 this island of 21km2 (8sq/miles) just reached the number of 2,000 inhabitants, mainly old Statian families of African descent - a tiny, tightly woven community where everybody is related to everybody in some way. "We all one family."
This 'one family' have become a numerical minority in their own island during the last two decades in which the population doubled, nearly entirely through immigration. Waves of globalization are washing over Statia, traditional life is falling apart. Yet, hidden behind the façades of modern times, the old ways still continue and people are trying hard to keep up their traditions and rituals, to redefine their identity.
After sharing their lives for 20 years, I present you my tribute to the big family of Statia, my song for them: STATIA SONG. Surrounded by 18 pictures of enchanting island nature, their lives are portrayed in 69 intimate images, in black&white and in colour, with texts in English and in Dutch. (...)
Thanks to a subsidy by the Foundation Prince Bernhard Cultural Fund Caribbean Region." (© Jeanette BOS)
Review:
"Dutch photographer Jeanette BOS visited the small Caribbean island of Sint-Eustatius for the first time in 1996. At that time, only 2000 people lived on the island, which is also called Statia. She befriended some of the families who have lived on the island for centuries. 'We all one family,' they told her.
Since that time, BOS has followed the daily lives of Statia’s inhabitants, a period that includes the dissolution of The Netherlands Antilles in 2010 and the doubling of the population to 4000 residents. The resulting book, Statia Song, is not one that looks to cover the impacts of those political issues. Rather, it gives a personal impression of the island, in which the idea of the “one family” that Bos got to know when she first visited the island plays a central role. Living off-and-on in Statia herself, BOS captured social events as well as the sublime feelings that the island’s landscape trigger. The large format of the book (480x320 mm) and the use of spreads (all 87 images are printed as spreads) help bring out the intensity of the series.
The sequencing of the images simulates a visit to the island. The book opens with high contrast black and white photos of the island’s coastal nature. After a few pages, more and more people start appearing in the photos. Then the first colour photo appears, first of a dinner preparation, then of the dinner itself. Towards the middle of the book there are many close-up images of people playing music, attending funerals, and dancing. Slowly the book returns to black and white photos of landscapes, closing with an image of the sea, as if the viewer is leaving the island again, via the coast." (© Nora Uitterlinden, in: 'Statia Song' for GUP Magazine, source: http://www.gupmagazine.com/books/jeanette-bos/statia-song)
REMARKABLE DUTCH DESIGN AND CARRIBEAN MOMENTS. FEW SIGNED COPIES IN STOCK!
The photo book, 'Statia Song', is a love letter to a Caribbean life on the Dutch island of Statia (St. Eustatius). The large-format book, designed by Sybren (SYB) KUIPER and published in a small edition, consists of full-page spreads in colorful & black and white." (© Richard G. SPORLEDER)
"VERY big & beautiful, showing Statia (St. Eustatius, the small Dutch island in the Caribbean Sea) in all its glory - a tribute to the people of Statia, who in the last two decades have become a minority on their own island, washed over by the waves of globalization. (...)
In June 1996 fate carried me to Statia, a tiny Caribbean island. It was love at first sight. Two years later I returned, planning to make a book about the island in three months of time. But the Fates had different plans. Falling in love with Statia totally uprooted my Dutch life and since 1998 I've been back in Statia for six weeks to six months nearly every year.
The people of Statia welcomed me into their lives and their homes, they became my family, they taught me to sing and play music. They made me a member of the traditional string band and of a group of women singing hymns in the homes of mourning families during the wakes before a funeral. Statia became my life.
In 1996 this island of 21km2 (8sq/miles) just reached the number of 2,000 inhabitants, mainly old Statian families of African descent - a tiny, tightly woven community where everybody is related to everybody in some way. "We all one family."
This 'one family' have become a numerical minority in their own island during the last two decades in which the population doubled, nearly entirely through immigration. Waves of globalization are washing over Statia, traditional life is falling apart. Yet, hidden behind the façades of modern times, the old ways still continue and people are trying hard to keep up their traditions and rituals, to redefine their identity.
After sharing their lives for 20 years, I present you my tribute to the big family of Statia, my song for them: STATIA SONG. Surrounded by 18 pictures of enchanting island nature, their lives are portrayed in 69 intimate images, in black&white and in colour, with texts in English and in Dutch. (...)
Thanks to a subsidy by the Foundation Prince Bernhard Cultural Fund Caribbean Region." (© Jeanette BOS)
Review:
"Dutch photographer Jeanette BOS visited the small Caribbean island of Sint-Eustatius for the first time in 1996. At that time, only 2000 people lived on the island, which is also called Statia. She befriended some of the families who have lived on the island for centuries. 'We all one family,' they told her.
Since that time, BOS has followed the daily lives of Statia’s inhabitants, a period that includes the dissolution of The Netherlands Antilles in 2010 and the doubling of the population to 4000 residents. The resulting book, Statia Song, is not one that looks to cover the impacts of those political issues. Rather, it gives a personal impression of the island, in which the idea of the “one family” that Bos got to know when she first visited the island plays a central role. Living off-and-on in Statia herself, BOS captured social events as well as the sublime feelings that the island’s landscape trigger. The large format of the book (480x320 mm) and the use of spreads (all 87 images are printed as spreads) help bring out the intensity of the series.
The sequencing of the images simulates a visit to the island. The book opens with high contrast black and white photos of the island’s coastal nature. After a few pages, more and more people start appearing in the photos. Then the first colour photo appears, first of a dinner preparation, then of the dinner itself. Towards the middle of the book there are many close-up images of people playing music, attending funerals, and dancing. Slowly the book returns to black and white photos of landscapes, closing with an image of the sea, as if the viewer is leaving the island again, via the coast." (© Nora Uitterlinden, in: 'Statia Song' for GUP Magazine, source: http://www.gupmagazine.com/books/jeanette-bos/statia-song)
- Book design
- Sybren (SYB) KUIPER
- Format
- Open binded pb. (no dust jacket, as issued), 24 x 32 x 2,5 cm. 172 pp., 87 color & b/w ills., bilingual text: Englsh / Dutch, Ltd. to 375 copies