Phantom City - a photo novel - Kim Bouvy

Kim Bouvy had been working on her book for over two years before I got involved. She had a clear vision of what it was supposed to become: a novel, not a picture-book. We chose for a rigid classification to divide her photography, found footage and text. With the beautiful lithography and print work by Calff&Meischke Printers it all came together in a clear, simple, but beautiful pocket-size novel. The book tells a story about the history, presence and possible future of the main character of the book: a city. It ends with a photo index revealing the identity of the city Rotterdam.






"Outside, the city has ceased to exist. From this point on, I will be able only to evoke it from my memories, to see it in these few photos I managed to bring with me. When my own memory eventually abandons me, this collection of yellowing newspaper cuttings, crumpled snapshots and torn out pictures will continue to remind me of how the city was before everything changed. From this dusky non-space with no night or day, I shall attempt to constantly reconstruct my city out of ever less clearly defined memories."

- commissioned by Kim Bouvy
- published by Pels&Kemper
- 12 x 19 cm, 276 pages
- black and white photography
- type: SangBlue Sans
- print and lithography by Calff&Meischke, Amsterdam