Naini and the Sea of Wolves by Trinidad Carrillo

I am a little late to this party but Farewell Books has a new release called Naini and the Sea of Wolves by Trinidad Carrillo that is well worth some additional attention as it has now won the Swedish Photobook Award for 2008.

I wrote about three books Farewell had released last year by publisher Martin Lange and the wonderful small conceptual piece by John Divola As far As I Could Get. This new title sees some improvement as far as quality. Naini and the Sea of Wolves is produced in offset printing as opposed to the usual laser printing they have employed on the first few titles.

Naini is a dreamy book - a mysterious little sequence of square photos that implies both an awareness of the beauty of the world as well as its harsher realities. Two children stand outside of a cave, the entrance of which is littered with human skeletal remains. A tiny dog lays curbside after apparently being hit by a car, the entire scene bathed in an etherial red haze. The last in the sequence is an almost surreal image of four young people on a beach with a huge sea lion sitting at the water's edge.

At 7 x 6.25 inches, it fits with the usual petite size of most of Farewell's releases. This one actaully reminds me of the elegance that used to be found with Editions Filigrane from Paris. The paper is nice, the printing looks good and the simplicity of the book makes it hard not to like. That and you can't beat the price - $20.00.

www.farewellbooks.com