HOEDT, Axel. Once A Year.

Göttingen: Steidl, 2013. First edition. Hardcover. 22 by 18cm. 104 pages. Illustrated throughout in colour and black and white. With a contribution by Heike Geissler. A remarkable photographic study of the Swabian-Alemannic Fastnacht, the traditional pre-Lenten carnival of southwestern Germany. In towns including Endingen, Sachsenheim, Kißlegg, Singen, Wilfingen and Triberg, elaborately carved masks and fantastical costumes are brought out each year for the celebrations, representing a highly distinctive body of local customs and characters. Rather than photographing the revelry itself, Hoedt isolates the masked figures and their extraordinary disguises, presenting them in formal studio portraits, against rural buildings and in wintry landscapes, alongside Polaroid snapshots and still-life photographs. His restrained, often unsettling images strip away the familiar spectacle of carnival photography and reveal the strange, theatrical personalities concealed within these centuries-old traditions. A near fine copy in dust jacket.