THE ARCHIVE OF BERNARD TAYLOR. SELECTED AND EDITED BY PETER WARD
Without a doubt, the incredibly assured first steps of a brilliant new photobook talent.
– Robin Titchener, selection of Photobooks of 2021 for Photobookstore UK
Tom Lecky’s new book, The Archive of Bernard Taylor (Understory), is at times disorienting, playful, melancholy, and retrospective. This beautiful photobook re-creates the thrill of discovery that animates both book collecting and history writing. The photographs are expertly printed with just enough luster to feel like they belong in a solander box of archival prints.
Lecky, it would seem, decided to give some of his own photographs over to a fictional character, partly because he saw a different aesthetic evolving in certain images, but also, I think, so that he could create a mostly fictional bibliographical entity. What more fun could a rare book dealer and collector have than to toss a little puzzle into the system? The author doesn’t exist, the photographer doesn’t exist, and even the first edition doesn’t exist. That’s just delicious.
In his preface, filmmaker Peter Ward describes acquiring the archive of Bernard Taylor, an enigmatic former resident of his suburban New York village. Ward selected and edited this group of Taylor’s papers: intimate worksheets that combine a series of photographs, maps, and postcards with illusive short texts that were clearly created for Taylor’s private study. Ward’s editorial interjections – all relating to local history – punctuate the book, and blur distinctions between fiction, biography, and reportage.
An afterword by The Publisher contextualizes Taylor’s worksheets, critically re-examines Ward's editorial practices, and describes the agonizing process of preparing this edition.
The Archive is equal parts photographic narrative, fiction, puzzle and mystery – an obstructed view of an inward journey that explores the outside world. The questions and answers remain with the reader to piece together. Conceived, created, and designed by Tom Lecky.
Published by Understory Books.