Awoiska van der Molen’s “Sequester,” published by Fw:Books in 2014, gathers monochrome landscapes that loom out of darkness rather than sit in light. Across eighty pages, printed in duotone with sections on black paper, the photographs pursue the core of isolated places. The title points to withdrawal and separation, suggesting a way to approach these secluded landscapes. Van der Molen works within analogue photography and printing, and the book’s making—its tonal depth, its deliberate pacing—is inseparable from what the images describe.

Hans Gremmen designed the book, whose combination of images and dark paper makes the physical page an active part of the encounter. This is not landscape as scenic record but as an encounter with darkness, asking attention of the viewer rather than offering easy vistas. The physical book, at 24 by 29 centimetres, gives the pictures room to loom, and the duotone printing on black paper connects the darkness within the photographs to the material surface of the page.

“Sequester” appeared in 2014 and entered conversations around the year’s strongest photobooks. It was named Best Photobook of 2014 by the Guardian, among the 15 Best Dutch Photobooks 2014 in De Volkskrant, with further recognition listed in the publisher’s bibliography. It also won a Silver Medal at the Best Book Design from all over the World. The publisher lists this edition as out of print.

Among contemporary photobooks, “Sequester” is distinctive for its restraint: no colour, no easy resolution. It asks the viewer to slow down and to accept uncertainty. That combination of photographic craft, considered design, and a subject resistant to description gives it a lasting place in post-2000 landscape photography. The interest lies in how the photograph and the printed object sustain that attention together, rather than in treating darkness as a decorative effect.