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Talk Soon is a Surrealist photo book borne from quarantine

Who said social distancing has to be a barrier to creative discourse? Dutch artist Erik Kessels and French artist Thomas Sauvin last year proved that creativity could survive coronavirus.

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Spiral-bound book spread open showing pink and red pages with text "tender flesh" and "makes fine duck soup" alongside photographs of a seal in a blue pool and interacting with a person

Every day throughout the tumultuous spring of 2020 Erik and Thomas sent one another idiosyncratic, uncaptioned photographs, catalysing an organic, free-associative exchange of some 120 archival images. The result is Talk Soon, a tearaway postcard book which allows readers to endlessly juxtapose the delightful photographs selected by the two quarantined artists. Their archives of vernacular photography, one from the East, the other from the West, achieve a dialogue through the recurrence of photographic practices, aesthetics, and subjects.

Open spiral-bound copy of Talk Soon showing blue and green pages with vernacular black and white photographs of hands and feet on the right side pages

For the release, Atelier Éditions' author Kingston Trinder composed an equally free-associative, altogether-whimsical narrative with which to further entwine the duo's eclectic photographs. Expect to read and make sense of Surrealist prose such as 'Tender flesh makes fine duck soup.' Now there's a Christmas dinner I haven't tried.

We've previously featured Thomas Sauvin's work on Creative Boom, being intrigued by his archival project Beijing World Park, an ode to a Chinese theme park which opened in the early '90s.

Meanwhile, Erik Kessels had a busy and collaborative 2020, having recorded with Anthony Burrill and Malcolm Goldie a record that mixes birdsong and aeroplane noise. Clearly, these pair know a good concept when they see one.

Talk Soon is out now on Atelier Éditions.

Spiral-bound book opened to reveal pages titled "double-crossing" and "the Eucharist" with photographs of a plated food arrangement and people gathered around, set against an orange background
Spiral-bound book spread showing "Violet and Lilly" and "journeyed by cane chair" with contrasting photographs including a black and white nature scene and a portrait with yellow flowers against red background
Spiral-bound postcard book Talk Soon opened to show pages with blue and cream sections containing text and photographs of vintage ceramics and tableware on an orange background
Red and yellow parrot photograph displayed on an open page of the Talk Soon postcard book, next to a spiral-bound notebook on an orange background
Spiral-bound book with red upper half reading "TALK" and mint green lower half reading "SOON", crediting Erik Kessels and Thomas Sauvin, against an orange background
Collage of vernacular photographs and coloured paper strips with text overlays including "tender flesh" and "Golden Supper", from Erik Kessels and Thomas Sauvin's Talk Soon book
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