A journey to the beginning of time

An alternative title for Win Labuda’s photographic book might be “Time and Progress.” In this book Labuda describes four distinct developmental phases of the history of the earth and mankind. He relates the symbolism in his own photographs to each of these phases. The four series show the people of today, communication through pictures and signs on walls, ancient sacred architecture and the beginning of time when there was only sky and water. Labuda builds on the work of such well-known photographers as Cartier-Bresson, Brassaii, Caponigro and Sugimoto and interprets their work in a new way. In a detailed essay Labuda explains his ideas on how photography contributes to the concept of “a metaphysics of progress”. Ludger Derenthal has written an illuminating foreword introducing the book, in which he comments on Labuda’s photographic approach.