“I was in search of water and the effect its absence had on me,” writes Canadian sound artist and photographer Mark Templeton about his second photobook, Ocean Front Property. From this sense of absence and geographic isolation grew a new body of work with two components: A book of color photographs, made entirely in the landlocked province of Alberta (“where the nearest ocean is a thousand kilometers away”), and an Audio Experience (a ‘soundtrack’ to the book, included as a digital download or available on a limited edition cassette). Rooted in the same sense of longing — for the imagined comfort of warm blue water and an escape from one’s familiar surroundings — these complementary sensory worlds form a kind of mirage: a prism of banal surfaces, spaces, and sonic textures through which the fragments of an intangible fantasy can be glimpsed, a circular psychic journey from the desolate to the sublime. The photobook also contains an 8-page supplement, compiling selections by eight artists whom Templeton invited to choose pairings of sound and image, suggesting possible feedback loops and alternative readings between the eight audio tracks and his photographs.

Designed by Nicolas Polli, with texts by Brad Feuerhelm and Ezekiel Honig.

Mark Templeton is a Canadian sound artist and photographer. Since 2007 his sound recordings have been released by labels such as Anticipate, Senufo Editions, Staalplaat, Under the Spire Recordings, SUPERPANG and his own audiovisual label, Graphical. In 2018, he released his first photobook, Distorted Tourist, which included a series of five one-sided flexi records. Templeton has performed live and exhibited his work at Pingyao International Photography Festival, Unsound Festival, Mutek Festival, Send+Receive Festival, Suoni Per Il Popolo Festival, WNDX festival and other festivals, art galleries and alternative spaces in Europe, the UK and North America. In the spring of 2019, he completed an MFA in Photography through Ulster University in Belfast, NI.

Co-published with Graphical.

98 pages / 22.5 x 31.5 cm / Swiss binding + 8 page supplement
52 color images + soundtrack (digital download or limited edition cassette)
ISBN 978-0-9992655-6-7
Edition of 300 copies, 40 of which are a special edition
APRIL 2021
38.00USD