Martin Tscholl (DE) is an artistic researcher whose work involves walking through meadows, forests, and mountains. There he encounters a web of interconnections that extends far beyond the realm of humans, inhabited by a wide variety of organisms, materials, and processes that are mutually dependent and in permanent change. By actively looking out for these other beings located in the margins of our phenomenal perception, a correspondence between the human and the non-human spheres starts to unfold.

Imaginary Ecologies gathers what that attention yields. The book presents photography and text by Martin Tscholl, published by The Eriskay Connection in a first edition of 1,000 copies. It is a hardcover volume of 240 pages, measuring 225 × 308 mm. Design is by Rob van Hoesel, with lithography by Sebastiaan Hanekroot (Colour&Books), production by Jos Morree (Fine Books), printing by NPN Printers (NL), and binding by Patist (NL).

In Tscholl’s photographs, positions emerge in which the apparent opposites of the rational and irrational, life and non-life, art and nature converge. His photography allows us to recognise the silent fragments of nature as being different from us, but also as originating from the same ontological ground. The many mystical objects in this book seem like they could come to life at any moment, giving a warm sense of connection.

For a collector, the appeal lies in how the book turns close looking into a quiet argument. Tscholl’s practice sits among current conversations about ecology and the photographic book as a place for research, and the images resist both the spectacular and the merely documentary. It is a considered book, designed with care, and it rewards returning to it.