Golden Apple Of The Sun

by Teju Cole

Published by MACK

“Many artists have felt the lure of juxtaposing photographs and text, but few have succeeded as well as Teju Cole. He approaches this problem with an understanding of the limitations and glories of each medium.” – Stephen Shore

In the period leading up to the November 3, 2020 elections in the United States, Teju Cole began to photograph his kitchen counter in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He photographed every day over the course of five weeks, leaving his arrangements entirely to chance, “the bowls and plates moving in their unpredictable constellations.” Alongside the photographs is a long written essay, wide-ranging in its concerns—hunger, fasting, mourning, slavery, intimacy, painting, poetry and the history of photography. The text and photographic sequences are interspersed with an anonymous handwritten eighteenth century cookbook from Cambridge.