Holy Bible, Adam Broomberg and Oliver Chanarin

‘Right from the start, almost every appearance he made was catastrophic … catastrophe is his means of operation, and his central instrument of governance.’
– Adi Ophir

For their version of the Holy Bible, Adam Broomberg and Oliver Chanarin mined the Archive of Modern Conflict with philosopher Adi Ophir’s central tenet in mind: that God reveals himself predominantly through catastrophe.

The format of Broomberg and Chanarin’s illustrated Holy Bible mimics both the precise structure and the physical form of the King James version. By allowing elements of the original text to guide their image selection, the artists explore themes of authorship, and the unspoken criteria used to determine acceptable evidence of conflict. Inspired in part by the annotations and images Bertolt Brecht added to his own personal bible, Broomberg and Chanarin’s publication questions the clichés at play within the visual representation of conflict.

Winner of the 2013 Deutsche Börse Photography Prize

Includes 8 page booklet attached to inside back cover.