Book, size 19x19cm, 48 pages, edition of 250 copies, incl. a 7″ record

Photography: Marco Bakker

Text: Gianni Menichetti

7″ record, 45 R.P.M.

Jodi Phillis, Gianni Menichetti

AN ODE TO WINNIE 

In 2000 Dutch photographer Marco Bakker (1959) went to Italy to portraited Vali Myers. After her death in 2003 the idea poped up to use the photos to make a book about her. But with the book, which appeared with the title Running before the Wind, it was not over for Marco yet.

Several times he had contact with Gianni, Vali’s lover, in Italy and that is how he heard that almost all the pets had died. Except for one, an ancient turtle named Winnie. Then Winnie a year later also passed away, Gianni realized that the only living memento of Vali had died with that. He dedicated five poems to the turtle. ‘More or less jokingly, I suggested that I would also like to make a book about it,’ says Marco. “But that idea was picked up and has become much bigger than initially thought.” The project is a textbook example of how things sometimes get rolling: Marco shared one of the poems on Instagram and then Jodi Phillis, a Australian songwriter, praising it. “I asked if she could turn it into a song and less than two hours later I received a demo!” The music gave the project a third dimension, the photographer saw the project getting bigger and bigger and got stuck in finding a good shape. “We could have made a book with a digital download, but it didn’t feel right. I thought it should be more analogue and that’s how it became a booklet with a single on vinyl,’ says Marco proudly. “Vali Myers is a cult figure and I sell the books all over the world, but by far most of them in her native country, Australia.”

Marco Bakker is affiliated with photo agency Lumenphoto.