For over a decade, photographer Carl Ander has been obsessively collecting manuals illustrated with photographs on the subjects of sports, health, and self-help. Aspiring to teach everything from how to wrestle or ski to how to stretch or give a massage, these books encompass a broad range of topics and cultural contexts. Over time, Ander’s collection has grown to include hundreds of volumes published across the span of a century.
In the book Static Motion (LL’Editions, 2025), Ander presents a selection of photographs drawn from this collection—omitting their accompanying textual instructions. Removed from their original contexts, and with the logic underpinning their existence obscured, the viewer is invited to interpret these images anew. Through this act of recontextualization, Ander imbues the photographs with new layers of meaning. Detached from the utilitarian logic that once governed them, they invite new readings; at times absurd or humorous, at others unsettlingly violent or erotic.
Although their initial purpose—to instruct—has been lost, their capacity to teach is not entirely negated. Collectively, these images now seem to constitute a manual on how to photograph the body in motion. Frequently, the photographs are annotated with drawn arrows and other graphic interventions indicating direction or sequence of movement—visual cues that suggest a single frame can never fully capture motion. Likewise, when enlarged, the halftone rasters of the scanned images become pronounced, transforming into an aesthetic leitmotif that runs throughout the publication.
In the book Static Motion (LL’Editions, 2025), Ander presents a selection of photographs drawn from this collection—omitting their accompanying textual instructions. Removed from their original contexts, and with the logic underpinning their existence obscured, the viewer is invited to interpret these images anew. Through this act of recontextualization, Ander imbues the photographs with new layers of meaning. Detached from the utilitarian logic that once governed them, they invite new readings; at times absurd or humorous, at others unsettlingly violent or erotic.
Although their initial purpose—to instruct—has been lost, their capacity to teach is not entirely negated. Collectively, these images now seem to constitute a manual on how to photograph the body in motion. Frequently, the photographs are annotated with drawn arrows and other graphic interventions indicating direction or sequence of movement—visual cues that suggest a single frame can never fully capture motion. Likewise, when enlarged, the halftone rasters of the scanned images become pronounced, transforming into an aesthetic leitmotif that runs throughout the publication.
Title: Static Motion
Publisher: LL’Editions
Year: 2025
Edition: 400
Dimensions: 170×240 mm
Pages: 328
ISBN: 978-91-987673-5-3
Available from LL’Editions
