John Stezaker: Crossing Over

British Conceptual artist John Stezaker is renowned for his innovative approach to found photographic imagery. This artist book focuses on his ‘Crossing Over’ series (2005–13), which reframes image fragments from postcards to stimulate new readings.

Building upon Stezaker’s corresponding ‘The 3rd Person Archive’ series, the image fragments in this volume span the history of postcard production. Moving from the Victorian era to the postwar period and black and white to colour imagery, Stezaker focuses on the female figure as well as notions of return and crossing back. Exploring time and memory, Crossing Over frames seemingly minor details, such as figures passing on a street corner or conversing on a park bench, as well as the marks left by the physical movement of the images themselves.

Exploring time and memory, Stezaker focuses on the female figure as well as notions of return and crossing back – framing seemingly minor details such as figures passing on a street corner or conversing on a park bench, as well as the marks left by the physical movement of the images themselves.

Reproduced at actual size, the 65 image fragments in this artist project are collected here for the first time.