Same Sum

A new photobook by Peter Happel Christian that playfully explores observation, chance, and the everyday magic of ordinary life.

The included photographs are part of an ongoing, expansive project of the same name that began as intentional exercises in observation. The result is a vast collection of subjects and situations—some found, others constructed—that occur in parallel to Happel Christian’s daily life. The title takes inspiration from an Italo Calvino essay wherein experience is fluid and meanings are flexible—that within the finite is an infinite. Similarly, the images in Same Sum have no fixed sequence, allowing for the possibility of seemingly endless experiences of the same images.

The book’s interactive design is inspired by card games and magic tricks; the double coil bound format creates two decks of photographs to riffle shuffle, creating a unique set of image combinations determined by chance with each read.

Published by Conveyor Editions, 120 pgs, 17.5 × 13 cm, Double Coil Bound, 2023

About the author  
Peter Happel Christian is an artist whose work studies time, processes, and chance at the intersection of photography, sculpture, installation, and artist books. Common subjects in his work are nature, the “ordinary” world of his own life, and a conflation of the two. His works range from intuitive projects, to research-dependent projects, to collaborative projects with artists and non-artists alike.