Mateo Ruiz Gonzalez
Seventh Summer is a meditation on the memory of love. Rather than recounting the story as a narrative, Mateo Ruiz González works through gesture, landscape, and domestic intimacy to construct a visual language for experiences that resist description. Made over seven years, the photographs move between observation and introspection, accumulating into an atmosphere shaped by closeness, absence, and the recognition of an ending. Like memory, they emerge as partial and associative, acting as a testimony to the emotions between two lovers and the solitude that lingered even within their companionship.
An original text by George Weld opens the book through the act of naming. Weld uses fragmented sentences and compound words to evoke the imperfect and evolving language between lovers, extending the photographs into a parallel meditation on the fragile world they inhabit. In addition, excerpts from a poem by Richard Siken from his acclaimed book Crush accompany the work throughout—as if spoken by the artist to his former partner.
At the center of Seventh Summer is the act of tending: to a relationship, to memory, and ultimately to the work itself. From image-making to self-publishing, creation becomes a means of reflection and healing for the artist. Like the seventh day, Seventh Summer becomes a period of contemplation: Creation found its quiet end, and there was rest. The peace that followed was spent in contemplation of the divine work—a stillness in which to reflect on what had been shared, what had been built with care, and the ache that arrives with letting go.
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9.45 x 12.5in. 80 pages. 1 monotone and 35 duotone plates. UV image varnish. Vellum jacket with foil stamp text. Swiss binding with exposed spine. Lilac thread. Soft cover with tipped-in print. Edit by Mateo Ruiz González. Design by Beginner Swimmer Works and Cody Haltom. Production and pre-press by Pablo Mejia. Printed in Bogota, Colombia by TorreBeta. Edition of 250. Self Published. Developed during the 2024 LTP Photobook Program by Penumbra Foundation, and with the support of Trespasser during their 2025 photobook workshop in Marfa, Texas.
PRE ORDER * All pre sale orders (across all editions) will be signed by the artist. First 30 orders will come with one of a kind black and white or color SX-70 Polaroid. These will be chosen randomly.
EDITIONS
Standard: Signed book
Special: Signed book + 8x11in signed archival pigment print. Two different options, both edition of 10 + 2 AP.
Collectors: Signed hard cover book with vellum jacket + Signed 8x10in gelatin silver print + little summer souvenir. Edition of 10 + AP.
Special edition option #1: Scraped Knees, 2019
Special edition option #2: Pip’s Backyard, 2019
Collectors edition: Ponytails, 2024
PRE-ORDER
ISBN
978-628-02-6322-9
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