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Dag Madoka Miya

by Ola Rindal

Photographs: Ola Rindal

Publisher: Libraryman

66 pages

Pictures: 48

Year: 2016

ISBN: 978–91–88113–05–4

Price: 40 €

Comments: 3 publications, in total ~ 14 cm x 20 cm. Offset printed softcover. Saddle-stitched, in colored obi-band with typography in white foil.

“Nothing is like a sleeping child.” – Ola Rindal

It’s impossible to look at this body of work featuring members of Ola Rindal’s (b. 1971, Norwegian) family and not want to immediately transport yourself into their world, or feel as if you might have been magically transported there already, simply by looking in. A world where leaving is as beautiful and hopeful as arriving, a light on the path appears just before your next step, and you are always, always within 10 minutes of a warm nap.

His work here is a study in contradictions: intensely intimate yet protective of his subjects, warm and fuzzy even when you’re viewing a literal icicle. It urges you to be more inquisitive while keeping you at arm's length. Maybe in this work he is revealing to us that most sought-after thing called balance.

Balance can be messy, though. Balance is vague. Balance, for many people, is doing whatever it takes to tip the scale back in the other direction after too much indulgence or lack of discretion. Balance is a green juice after too much tequila. Balance is a silent retreat after too much noise. It's a €400 skincare treatment that might finally undo all the sun you soaked up as a teen.

But what if balance is a state of peaceful equilibrium so achievable, so within reach, that we could get there by simply shifting the way we view the world around us? What if balance has been there all along?

We should all be willing to find out, and the images herein might be a clue as to where we should look.

The book is divided into three publications - one for each family member of the author: son, wife and daughter, in alphabetical order. Each publication has an identical page count and number of images. The photographs were taken in Norway, Japan and France, where the artist's family originated from.

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