Research - No Hands by Ryu Voelkel

I have recently purchased this crowd funded book by Japanese-born German photographer Ryu Voelkel. It documents the World Cup in Brazil from the summer of 2014 and I found the layout and pace of the book interesting when reading it. There are seven chapter of the book that focus on different numbers, statistics from the tournament that are explained through the use of photography. For example there is a chapter that focusses on the number 10, the most popular number in Brazil, and shows how widespread this number is displayed, especially from fans on the streets or in the stands to show their support of previous legends that have donned this shirt, including Maradona & Pele and of course their present day counterparts in Messi & Neymar. There are a number of different ways in which the images are displayed across the spreads in this book, including the use of black pages, large use of spreads where the image breaches the spine of the book, using two images on the same page and more simple using of images in the middle of the page. Some of these methods are aesthetically pleasing but often leave a page cluttered and difficult the read.