Things That Look Like the MOON (but are not the moon)
A playful, surrealistic look at ordinary (and not so ordinary) objects that look like the moon.
Now a handmade artist book in a limited edition of 50,
plus limited edition prints.

Get more details in my description and video below.

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Book Standing Up
iPhone Snapshot, 2021

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Nite Lite
Cyanotype on Sumi-e , 2021

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Front Cover
iPhone Snapshot, 2021

A Playful and Surrealistic look at ordinary (and not so ordinary) objects that look like the moon.
Ten images in a 30 page, hand-made artist book - limited edition of 50, plus portfolio and exhibition prints.

It all started in 2018, with the gift of a night light in the shape of the moon, combined with a love of still-life photography
and the desire to create a limited edition, hand-made artist book. I lived with the night light for more than a year before I knew how I wanted to shoot it. Realizing that cyanotype printing would yield the beautiful rich blue that this celestial subject requires, I started shooting on 4x5 Kodak TXP film for a nicely sized contact print (later I added 8x10 film to the mix). Someone saw that first print and asked “Is that really the moon?” My response: “No, it looks like the moon but it’s not” led to the title: Things That Look Like the MOON (but are not the moon) and that led to images of balls of string, cantaloupes, sports equipment and more. I couldn’t go anywhere without seeing things that look the moon! This body of work is the result.

I have said it all started in 2018, but my relationship with the moon goes much further back! The moon was big in the 1960’s and I was little. I remember being on an airliner (the kind with propellers, that you climbed up a stairway to get into) for the first time, in July 1969. My parents and I were flying to Rochester NY to visit Eastman Kodak. The pilot came on to announce that Apollo 11 had launched for the moon! Two firsts the same day, air travel for me and space travel for everyone. I remember my father telling me that when I grew up I'd be able to travel in space as easily as we were traveling in the air that day. So far I don’t have the money to fly around in a commercial rocket ship but you never know. Send me to the moon, buy my book! As you can see in the photo above of my six year old self, I went Trick or Treating dressed as the moon that fall. I don’t have that costume but I do still have the lunar orbiter and lander cutouts that I’m holding in the picture. So I’ve been fascinated by the moon for a long time.

To set the images in a book format, I started simply. MOON is modest in size at 6.5” square and contains ten images and text on 30 pages. The text describes how I came to have the objects pictured, my artist’s statement and technical info. In the spirit of Anna Atkins’ Photography of British Algae: Cyanotype Impressions (1843), MOON is printed photographically using a classic cyanotype formula (no ink involved). The images were shot on 4x5 Kodak TXP. The negatives to print the covers, endpapers, text blocks and other graphics were created in PhotoShop, using the Futura Medium font, and output onto Pictorico OHP film, which were also contact printed using cyanotype. For more information about the image aspect of the project go to the MOON at davidsokosh.com

MOON can be experienced as a hand held book or as a sculptural object due to its accordion binding. Pages can be turned as with a traditional binding or the text body can be laid out flat(it is 16 feet long that way). In addition, the cover can stand on its own when the text is arranged in a variety of positions. The book is printed on Hahnemuhle Sumi-e which is a heavy tissue, brite white, strong and slightly translucent. MOON is offered with the option of a presentation case.

All the book images are available as 8x10” portfolio prints (4x5” image size) in an edition of 10 variants + 2 Artist Proofs.
Some subjects are also available as 11x14” (8x10” image size) in and edition of 10 variants + 2 APs.
There will also be one mural print of each image, printed from an enlarged negative, in an edition of 3 variants + 1 AP,
All printed on Sumi-e.

Click the Insta icon below to get to red_barn_letterpress on Instagram for up to the minute posts (like and follow)!
Or search Insta for #thingsthatlooklikethemoonbutarenotthemoon
Send an email (envelope icon below) with any questions you may have.
All images © 2020-2022 by David Sokosh.

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Halloween 1969
Color Transparency, 1969

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Cyanotype Contact Printing Test
iPhone Snapshot, 2021

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First Mock Up
iPhone Snapshot, 2021

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Cover Sketches

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Futura Text Block Sketch

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End Paper Sketch 

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Sumi-e Test with White Borders

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Platine Test with Blue Borders

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Sumi-e Floding Tests