The deluxe edition of the book (30 x 37cm) is limited to 700 copies. The book contains 460 pages. All 195 photos are printed across two pages. The paper used is of a heavier quality than in the other book. Each book comes with a free art print (24 x 36 cm) of Sweden, numbered and signed by Jeroen Swolfs.
The deluxe edition of the book measures 30 x 37cm. It is a limited edition of 700 copies. The book contains 460 pages. All 195 photos are printed across two pages. The paper used is of a heavier quality than in the regular edition. Each book comes with a free art print (24 x 36 cm) of Sweden, numbered and signed by Jeroen Swolfs. In addition, the book is crammed with personal stories. Each photo is accompanied by Jeroen’s explanation about what you can see and why he took it. The book contains more than 900 infographics about the countries, includes numerous maps, 195 flags, facts and photos from Jeroen’s iPhone.
This is not just another photography book. It is a message to all those who want to discover what a street means to society, education, wisdom, youth, experience, happiness, stories, food and so much more. You will not find esthetics competing with constructions to impress the public. This is raw material, directly from the guts of a global traveller focussing on the essential streets. The street represents the culture, colours, rituals, maybe even the history of the city and country where he found them. The street is a meeting place, a platform of crowds, a centre of news and gossips, the working spot of salesmen and prostitutes, the playground of their children, the ultimate enemy of solitude and anonimity. Imagine going to almost two hundred different countries searching for that one street (or sometimes harbour or railway station) that symbolizes a whole community.
The street is adventure, emotion, tension, pressure, leasure. It is food, it is drink, it is market. The street is the connection between people, their last hope for new beginnings, the mother of intimacy. Without streets we would be lost, haunting the world without directions, without points of reference. Without streets there would be no communication, no organisation, no structure. In other words: the street is everything. The street is us, is me, is you. Thinking of streets I wonder why I always took them for granted. They are actually one of man’s greatest inventions.
Mark Blaisse