Exit Wounds (as if)

Photography and text: Martijn van de Griendt

Design: Inedition, Eva van der Schans

2014

Book of the month – July 2021

The book 'Exit Wounds (as if)' was published during BredaPhoto in 2014. The theme of the photo festival was 'Songs from the heart'. The exhibition Exit Wounds (as if) was also on show there.

The book shows 73 Polaroids of girls (the girlfriends of the photographer and other muses), posing or ignorant of the camera. Often naked, but not always.

The photos are all spread over two pages. Undeniably, this is caused by the square format of the Polaroid.

At the back of the book is the opening text of a song: 'Smoke' (by Ben Folds and Anna Goodman). The song does not only refer to the passing of love relationships but also to the theme of the photo festival.

Leaf by leaf and page by page

Throw this book away

All the sadness all the rage

Throw this book away

Rip out the binding and tear the glue

All of the grief we never even knew

We had it all along

Now it’s smoke

A selection of the Polaroids was on show at Pennings Foundation in 2018 in the group exhibition PREVIEW. This presentation prompted Petra Cardinaal to ask Martijn van de Griendt to curate a group exhibition on the theme of nude. Initially, thoughts went out to an exhibition about erotic nudes, but over time it became increasingly clear to Martijn van de Griendt that the exhibition should be about all kinds of nude photography and above all, it had to be 'inclusive'. Which means, also with attention to the non binary, intersex and queer. The group exhibition NUDE // NOW with work by mostly young photographers is on show from July 24 to August 28, 2021.

The photo book is in the Pennings Foundation library, but is also for sale (€ 38.50).