It all started with one circle, Fred Hüning’s moving trilogy about a still born child, the love between man and woman, the fears, hopes and wishes during a second pregnancy, the birth and the first years of his son Rocco.
With two mothers Fred Hüning continues the family story. His mother has been living alone since her husband’s long-ago death. He and his wife have to cope with the daily household routines and his son Rocco is now 10 years old. These are the themes of the new trilogy two mothers.
The first part is dedicated to his mother, showing the alone living woman and her everyday activities in the kitchen, in the cemetery and in the garden. Routines interspersed with tender memories of life and the care and worries for children and grandchildren.
Part two addresses the ongoing efforts in a long term relationship of a couple with a child. Cook, wash, take care of the child, decorate the apartment, take care of your own wellbeing, go swimming and – sex, even if the fire does not burn as hot, as it did 10 years ago.
The third part belongs to the son Rocco, whom we know as a little boy from one circle. Now he is 10, discovers the world, develops a personality, transports his ideas into the images that his father makes of him and creates drawings of scary monsters that are shown paired with the photos. A wonderful father-son dialogue in pictures.
With two mothers Fred Hüning’s family saga evolves into a great contemporary generation portrait that will be completed in a few years with the trilogy three sons.
Peperoni Books, 2017 // 216 Pages // 17 x 24 cm // 240 colour photographs // plus drawings by Rocco Bofinger // Text records by Fred Hüning // German, English // Hardcover // EUR 44
<<<
„In private rooms, Fred Hüning gathers stills from videoclips uploaded to Youporn by private users. The resulting pictures are about sex, but they also reveal the subjects’ humanity via domestic settings and Hüning’s particular cropping, which yields puzzling frames and scenes imbued with subtle humor. In exposing vulnerability and a certain unawareness, the pictures gently nod to Sophie Calle’s The Sleepers.“
Mark Ghuneim in Surveillance Index Edition One
Peperoni Books, 2015 // 40 pages // 15,2 x 21,0 cm // 17 color images // Thread stitched, Softcover // With a text by Fred Hüning // edition of 150 // 18 Euros
<<<
One Circle was chosen by British newspaper The Telegraph for „Inspirational photography books for 2014 – Ten photography books exploring personal journeys to inspire you in the new year“, which reads:
One Circle is in fact the complete narrative of Hüning’s trilogy previously published individually in small editions. The first chapter Einer (One) concerns death, the pain and strife required to overcome the loss of a loved one, a stillborn baby. In Zwei (Two) a couple learn about each other, rediscovering love, happiness and sex. A man succumbs to his partner’s desire to become a mother again, leading to the third book, Drei (Three). This chapter reveals an idyllic childhood, the magical world of a child unearthing life and illuminating those around him. With non-linear photographs of his own family Hüning managed to tell perhaps not a personal but a universal tale of parenthood.
Peperoni Books, 2013 // 216 pages // 17 x 24 cm // 3 poems by Fred Hüning (German/English) // 120 color images // hardcover // edition of 300 // 40 Euros
<<<
Review of Fred Hüning`s book-trilogy on Time Lightbox
TIME’s Best of 2011: The Photobooks We Loved by Susan Bright, curator and writer:
„DREI is the third in a trilogy of books (the first being EINER and the second ZWEI) which Fred Hüning has been working on since 2005. It completes an incredibly tender story of the profound cycles of live in a small family. In EINER the loss of a baby is heartbreaking and the oblique shots of the mother and the dead animals that are though the book are a painful attempt to cope with grief and loss. ZWEI concentrates just on Fred’s partner, the mother, as she comes to terms with her grief and her position as a mother even though she has no child. It is a gathering back of self and a chronicle of their love for one another. DREI is a triumph in happiness, bonding, togetherness and love. It shows the mother with their son (the sonogram being the last hopeful page of ZWEI). As a reader you are so happy they had another chance at having a baby and the sheer delight, joy and tenderness of the mother and child relationship is at times overwhelming. You can not imagine a more wanted or loved little boy, or indeed a more loved mother by both the men in her life. It also shows the power of photography to be a cathartic tool to deal with big emotional subjects and make sense of a world that can at times seem unfair, cruel and desperate DREI is pure beauty and happiness.“
Peperoni Books, 2011 // 170 x 240 mm // 64 pages // 44 color illustrations // softcover with dust-jacket // edition of 100 copies // numbered and signed // sold out
<<<
From an essayy Susan Bright, Curator and Writer, in Home Truths: Photography and Motherhood, ART/BOOKS London, Oktober 2013:
[…] zwei was inspired by Nobouyoshi Araki’s 1971 photobook Sentimental Journey charting his honeymoon with his wife Yoko. It shows a couple coming to terms with the death of their child, and finding one another again in their grief. Sex underscores the whole feel of the book, but also Hüning´s love and adoration of his wife and the act of posing and taking photographs as a way of expressing this love. Their need for physicality as a way of coping and grieving is raw and reminds us that sex is needed in order to procreate, a simple fact that is often removed from more saccharine love stories. The book finishes with Hüning’s wife holding a sonogram photograph. […]
Peperoni Books, 2011 // 170 x 240 mm // 64 pages // 44 color illustrations // softcover with dust-jacket // edition of 100 copies // numbered and signed // sold out
<<<
Antone Dolezal on photo-eye blog, January 2011:
One of Peperoni’s new titles, einer with photographs by Fred Hüning, is a deeply personal yet universal venture into love and the fear of loss. Einer is Hüning’s story of having a child with his partner – and due to past experiences, the fear of losing the child. The images weave between intimate portraits and landscapes, while also including found objects or animals left to unforeseen environmental occurrences. A frog dried up in the road is sequenced next to an image of blood on the hospital bed sheet where Hüning’s partner gave birth. The sequencing can sometimes seem to stretch the contemporary aesthetic of visual story telling but each image is individually beautiful and gives insight into a personal drama that many of us share.
Peperoni Books, 2010 // 170 x 240 mm // 64 pages // 30 color illustrations // stich-bound softcover with dust-jacket // edition of 100 // numbered and signed // sold out
<<<
Die Liebe im Auge / Love in the Eye
Hommage an René Groeblis Fotobuchklassiker „Das Auge der Liebe“
Hommage to René Groeblis photo book classic „The Eye of Love“
Mit einem Text von / with an essay by Simone Gülde
1953 befinden sich der Schweizer Fotograf René Groebli und seine Frau Rita auf Hochzeitsreise. Sie verbringen zwei Wochen in einem Hotel im Pariser Künstlerviertel Montparnasse, wo Groebli seine Ehefrau, die ihm Muse und Modell ist, fotografiert. Das Künstlerpaar trifft aus den entstandenen 300 Bildern gemeinsam eine finale Auswahl von 25, aus denen 1954 das fotografische Liebesgedicht „Das Auge der Liebe“ entsteht – heute ein Fotobuch-Klassiker von zeitloser Poesie und gewaltiger Schönheit.
„Die Liebe im Auge“ ist eine tiefe Verbeugung, behutsame Annäherung und ein Versuch über dieses Meisterwerk. Die Bilder entstanden im legendären Berliner Hotel Bogota.
stuntman bob books, 2013 // 40 pages // DIN A4 landscape // edition of 100 // 30 Euros
<<<
Mutter ist aus Pommerland / Mother is from Pomerania (sketch-book nr. 01)
Das fotografische Tagebuch einer Reise in die polnische Woiwodschaft Pommern nach Miastko, das ehemals deutsche Rummelsburg, wo meine Mutter im Dezember 1941 geboren wurde.
///
My photographic diary of a journey to the Polish province Pomerania, to a town called Miastko, the formerly German Rummelsburg, where my mother was born in December 1941.
stuntman bob books, 2012 // 32 pages // DIN A5 // edition of 25 // 25 Euros
<<<
SOME FLAT FROGS (sketch book nr. 02)
Es ist, was es ist: Neun plattgefahrene Frösche, eine Eidechse und eine Reminiszenz an Ed Ruschas SOME LOS ANGELES APARTMENTS.
///
It is what it is: nine flat frogs, one lizard and one Ed Ruscha cover. And remember: a flat is the same as an apartment.
stuntman bob books, 2012 // 24 pages // DIN A5 // edition of 25 // 25 Euros
<<<
BOGOTA HOTEL RO. 441 (sketch book nr. 03)
Eine Nacht im legendären Berliner Künstlerhotel Bogota, eine Flasche Champagner, ein Striptease und eine Reminiszenz an Leonard Cohen.
///
One night spent in legendary Bogota Hotel, the Berlin „Chelsea Hotel“. One bottle of champagne, one striptease and a reminiscence to Mr. Leonard Cohen.
stuntman bob books, 2012 // 20 pages // DIN A5 // edition of 25 // 25 Euros
<<<
mein weg / my way (sketch book nr. 04)
Landschaften meiner schleswig-holsteinischen Heimat. Gefunden an meiner damaligen Laufstrecke, die ich über einen Zeitraum von 10 Jahren mehrmals die Woche gelaufen bin. Eine gute Gelegenheit, Abstand vom Alltag zu nehmen und über sein Leben nachzudenken.
///
Landscapes of my home town in Nothern Germany. Found on my old mileage, which i used to run 5 times a week over 10 years – thinking about my life.
stuntman bob books, 2012 // 32 pages // DIN A5 // edition of 25 // 25 Euros
<<<