I Imagined It Empty
Ruth Lauer Manenti

Ruth Lauer Manenti is an American photographer born in Philadelphia. She lives in the Catskill Mountains in New York State. I Imagined It Empty was inspired by several pictures Ruth Lauer Manenti had taken of her mother in 2017, briefly before she passed away. In the years prior, her mother had never wanted to be photographed.

I Imagined It Empty offers readers a deeply moving introspective exploration of life and loss. The loss of dear ones is reflected in the sense of belonging to a place.

I Imagined It Empty is a delicate layered work and an intertwining of several narratives. It is the story about what makes a house a home. But it is also a story about family: the people you feel at home with.

The book is relative slim, and immediately feels intimate and tender. Its cloth cover features a photograph of a woman holding a piece of white fabric, her head out of frame. The title appears in a thin white stripe, debossed at the top of the image. Inside, the black-and-white photographs vary in their sizes and are surrounded by white space. There are no captions or page numbers. So our attention is solely directed to the visual flow. Manenti’s images are simple.

I Imagined It Empty

Photographer: Ruth Lauer Manenti

Co-published by PHREE, Ediciones Posible & RM Editorial

Publication year: 2024

Hardcover, 80 pages, 37 images, 20 x 28 cm

Shortlisted for the 2024 Author Book Award at the Les Rencontres de la Photographie festival in Arles

Chosen by people immersed in the photobook world as one of their favorite photobooks of 2024

I Imagined It EmptyRuth Lauer Manenti

I Imagined It Empty

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I Imagined It Empty
Ruth Lauer Manenti