{"id":7578,"date":"2025-08-14T20:40:10","date_gmt":"2025-08-14T12:40:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/glutenfreepleasure.com\/__proxy_domain\/staging.objectifs.com.sg\/?post_type=product&#038;p=7578"},"modified":"2026-01-05T15:01:49","modified_gmt":"2026-01-05T07:01:49","slug":"surat-by-atong-atem","status":"publish","type":"product","link":"https:\/\/glutenfreepleasure.com\/__proxy_domain\/www.objectifs.com.sg\/product\/surat-by-atong-atem\/","title":{"rendered":"Surat by Atong Atem"},"content":{"rendered":"<table class=\"table table-stripped\" style=\"height: 243px;\" width=\"640\" cellspacing=\"0\" cellpadding=\"0\">\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td valign=\"middle\">BY<\/td>\n<td valign=\"middle\">Atong Atem<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td valign=\"middle\">PUBLISHED BY<\/td>\n<td valign=\"middle\">Perimeter Editions x Photo Australia (Melbourne)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td valign=\"middle\">DETAILS<\/td>\n<td valign=\"middle\">28 x 20.8 cm, section-sewn hardcover<br \/>\n48 pages<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>We have few things that travel continents with us as familial practises. We have recipes and textiles, crocheted doilies and Majok beads, and we have photo albums. Some faces in our photographs are drawn over with a marker, some cut out entirely. Some photos are much, much older than me, others were printed from an iPhone. Photos are gestures, examples of culture in flux. \u2013 Atong Atem<\/p>\n<p>Surat is the first photobook by South Sudanese \/ Australian artist Atong Atem and the second in the PHOTO Editions series, co-published by Photo Australia and Perimeter Editions.<\/p>\n<p>Commissioned by Photo Australia for PHOTO 2022 International Festival of Photography, Surat (which translates from Sudanese Arabic as \u2018snapshots\u2019) is a homage to family photos and the characters within them. Working on the series throughout 2021, Atem revisited her family photo albums, which span decades and continents, restaging and reimagining the scenes and players they depict. The resulting book is a series of performances as self portraits, documenting the act of photographing and being photographed, framing and being framed. It is a performative depiction of photography, utilising the repetition of dressing, sitting, posing, changing, testing, adjusting and capturing that is so often implicit in the medium.<\/p>\n<p>But beyond this, Surat is a celebration of the visual language of family photographs and photography as an extension of our oral traditions. \u2018We sing songs to tell history and we dress up and sit for photographs to mythologise our histories,\u2019 says Atem. This body of work honours the Dinka tradition of record-keeping and archiving as an intimate cultural practice.<\/p>\n<p>For Atem, the book is also about movement, both geographic and historic. As she explains, \u2018It\u2019s about South Sudan, so-called Australia and everywhere else in between that I\u2019ve rested my head to dream about my people \u2013 or rather, the depictions of people I don\u2019t know but am connected to through photographs.\u2019<\/p>\n<p>Featuring an essay by Atem\u2019s father, former South Sudanese Deputy Minister of Information and journalist Atem Yaak Atem, Surat will be launched at the PHOTO 2022 Photobook Weekend (21-22 May 2022).<\/p>\n<p><strong><span style=\"color: #008000;\"><a style=\"color: #008000;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.1854.photography\/2022\/06\/atong-atem-surat-photobook\/\">Featured in British Journal of Photography<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><strong>About Atong Atem<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #008000;\"><a style=\"color: #008000;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.atongatem.com\/\"><strong>Atong Atem<\/strong><\/a><\/span> is a South Sudanese artist and writer from Bor living in Narrm, Melbourne.<br \/>\nShe primarily works with photography and video.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":7627,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}}},"product_brand":[],"product_cat":[179,267],"product_tag":[],"class_list":["post-7578","product","type-product","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","product_cat-books","product_cat-international-titles","desktop-align-left","tablet-align-left","mobile-align-left","ast-product-gallery-layout-horizontal-slider","ast-product-tabs-layout-horizontal","first","instock","shipping-taxable","purchasable","product-type-simple"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.8 - 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We have recipes and textiles, crocheted doilies and Majok beads, and we have photo albums. Some faces in our photographs are drawn over with a marker, some cut out entirely. Some photos are much, much older than me, others were printed from an iPhone. Photos are gestures, examples of culture in flux. \u2013 Atong Atem  Surat is the first photobook by South Sudanese \/ Australian artist Atong Atem and the second in the PHOTO Editions series, co-published by Photo Australia and Perimeter Editions.  Commissioned by Photo Australia for PHOTO 2022 International Festival of Photography, Surat (which translates from Sudanese Arabic as \u2018snapshots\u2019) is a homage to family photos and the characters within them. Working on the series throughout 2021, Atem revisited her family photo albums, which span decades and continents, restaging and reimagining the scenes and players they depict. 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As she explains, \u2018It\u2019s about South Sudan, so-called Australia and everywhere else in between that I\u2019ve rested my head to dream about my people \u2013 or rather, the depictions of people I don\u2019t know but am connected to through photographs.\u2019  Featuring an essay by Atem\u2019s father, former South Sudanese Deputy Minister of Information and journalist Atem Yaak Atem, Surat will be launched at the PHOTO 2022 Photobook Weekend (21-22 May 2022).  Featured in British Journal of Photography    About Atong Atem  Atong Atem is a South Sudanese artist and writer from Bor living in Narrm, Melbourne. 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