Ingar Krauss, Sugar Beets photo book published by Hartmann Books is reviewed in Collector Daily.
Zuckerrüben isn’t like most photobooks, taking an almost contrarian stance to the usual conventions of how photographs are presented in book form. But what emerges from time spent with Zuckerrüben is a growing feeling of being seduced by its calmness and restraint, with Krauss’s persistent interest in the sugar beets becoming unexpectedly contagious. What I like about this book is that it insists that a mundane object can be a valid, and indeed compelling, subject for photographic investigation, and compulsively disregards those who might disagree. It is this kind of eccentric perseverance that can often be found at the root of artistic experimentation, where a small idea (like a still life of sugar beet) is expanded beyond its natural boundaries, thereby transforming that idea into something richly extraordinary.