Published by MACK after winning this year’s edition of the First Book Award, Between the Shell by Paul Salveson consists of a series of photographs taken in New York and Virginia between 2006 and 2011.

Absurdist playful constructions are jocosely extracted from commonplace objects, within the walls of domestic environments.

Salveson’s photographic process is intended as a “private performance in an empty house, or after everyone falls asleep”, as the 28 year-old American author puts it. The logical perception of the objects he depicts is in fact distorted, lost in the photographer’s attempt to bring into question their original function and cultural meaning.

Beyond the boundaries of the comfort zone, colorful cardboard pages find room, dragging the viewer into a brand new intriguing environment.

Paul Salveson, Between the Shell
76 pp., € 48.50
MACK, 2013