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August 20, 2008
A couple more clips
Here are a couple more clips from the 60 minute DVD-R that I've put together as a limited time promotion for my new book Who We Were: A Snapshot History of America. Remember, you have to order before August 26th to get the video! You can see more clips and find out the full line-up and see more clips here
Here's a short excerpt from a reel filmed by a very creative family.
And just in time for the Olympics, here's another short excerpt- this one's of some very beautiful synchronized swimming.
Posted by nick at 03:15 AM | Comments (0)
August 18, 2008
Who We Were: A Snapshot History of America
It's been more than two years since Mike Williams and Rich Cahan of City Files Press initially approached me with the idea of doing a snapshot book so I'm very pleased to announce that the book is finally done and available for pre-order now (click here for a preview and ordering details). It goes to press early next week and barring any unforeseen problems we should have them in hand on August 15th and we'll begin shipping the next day.
The book truly was a collaborative effort with Mike and Rich contributing every bit as much (and probably more) to the final product as me. Only about half the photos come from my collection and of those many haven't been posted to Square America so most of the book will be new to everyone. What really separates this book from Square America (and just about every snapshot book that's been done) is the amount of effort we put in to research every photo in order to place it in it's proper historical context.
When the book opens in 1888, the population of the United States was approximately 62 million people spread out across 39 states and 7 territories. Just 28 cities have a population of greater than 100,000 and 2/3s of the population live in rural areas. The Indian wars largely over, the U.S. is well on its way towards claiming the last of the Native American’s land and fixing the boundaries of the 48 states as we now know them. While the U.S. economy is the most productive in the world, we’re also less than 20 years removed from the completion of the transcontinental railway and the gas-powered automobile has yet to introduced.
By the close of the book in April of 1972 the population has more than tripled to approximately 210 million, nearly 75% living in urban areas. The U.S. leads the world economically, diplomatically, and militarily but we’re still embroiled in Vietnam and the Watergate break-in is less than two months away.
In the intervening years every story we’ve told ourselves about America, the cradle of Democracy, the land of freedom and opportunity, has been proven both true and false. In this book we’ve tried to chart some of that trajectory--thematically as much as chronologically-- as it has played out in the lives of ordinary people. In snapshots we see history as it was experienced at ground level. During WWII, for instance, just over 10% of the population served in the military, for the other 90% the ordinary life of work and family continued on. The grand events that fill history books usually appear in snapshots obliquely, or often not at all. What we do see is how those events and the relentless forward momentum of technological change and even fashion gradually change those most ordinary aspects of life-- work, family, relationships-- that seem most permanent.
Of course the book does cover the big historical events but hopefully in a unique way. This is one of the many photos in the WWII chapter:
With pilots in short supply during the war the "Women Flyers of America" ferried planes from the assembly lines to Air Force bases both in the U.S. and overseas.
Here's a photo taken by a soldier in Korea:
The back reads "This is one of the mosquitos here. That is my hand. You can see how big they are."
Here's what the very fine writer Luc Sante said about the book:
Who We Were is the most intimate kind of history--the past with all
the laughs and chills and hesitations left in, and all the unresolved
contradictions as well. It's a lovely collection of amateur
photographs, some of them truly inadvertent in their glory, some
potential candidates for high-art stature if they were matted and
framed. Overall it's as close to a true self-portrait of the American
people as you're likely to find between covers.
The fantastic photographer Alec Soth had this to say:
With the medium of photography, anyone can make a masterpiece.
The cell-phone snapshooter is just as likely of capturing the next iconic i
mage as the celebrated photojournalist. The higher challenge, the art – if
you will, is assembling a collection of great images. With Who We Were:
A Snapshot History of America, Richard Cahan, Michael Williams, and
Nicholas Osborn have done just that. From hundred of brilliant fragments,
they’ve pieced together a breathtaking view of the puzzle of America.
(By the way Sante's translation of Felix Feneon's Novels in Three Lines is one the best and strangest books I've come across in years. And Soth's Sleeping By The Mississippi, one of the finest photo books of the last 50 years, has just been reprinted and if you don't already have it you better grab yourself a copy. A big thank you to both of them for taking the time to look at the book and saying such nice things!)
In 1937 Walker Evans wrote, “And then one thinks of the run of the social mill: these anonymous people who come and go in the cities and on the land. It is on what they look like now, what is in their faces and in the windows and the streets beside and around them, what they are wearing and what they are riding in and how they are gesturing, that we need to concentrate, consciously, with the camera.” Of course, many of those anonymous people had cameras of their own and used them to take photos of themselves and of each other, of the places they lived and worked and visited. And this, I think, is the great legacy of the snapshot and what I hope the book captures; this visual diary in photographs both mundane and extraordinary, the annals of everyday life.
(thanks to Reservatory for reminding me of the Walker Evans quote.)
Posted by nick at 10:56 AM | Comments (1)
August 09, 2008
Extended!
I've extended the deadline to get the free DVD through Friday August 15th so you stragglers get busy and order my book! Also I just added a pretty great (if I do say so myself) new show over at Square America called The Eternal Sunshine of Fred & Anne, excerpts from a series of albums of an Iowa couple where any evidence of former loves has been conspicuously and imperfectly erased.
Posted by nick at 04:57 PM | Comments (1)
August 04, 2008
Special Offer!!
If you saw my last post then you know the book I've been working on is finally available for pre-order. It's being printed this week and we'll start shipping them out on August 16th. As a special incentive to get your order in early I'm putting together a DVD of some of my favorite home movie clips from my collection and I'll be giving them away to anyone who places their order in the next two days (that means any orders placed before 12:01am Saturday August 9th). After that we'll be raffling one of for every 100 books sold. You can order the book here. I have no plans to sell the DVD on it's own- it's just something I'm throwing together in IMovie and will basically be a no-frills DVD-R (all silent films, probably about 30-45 minutes total). That said there'll be some great footage
Here's some footage of a Cowboy vs. Indian Tug-of-War (the Indians are Arapahoe) from a rodeo in Dubois, Wyoming in 1927. If only this was how the west was really won.
Here's some footage from a blindfolded boxing match that took place on a trans-Atlantic cruise in 1926. I should note that the DVD will feature more footage of both the cruise and the rodeo- these clips are just to whet your appetite.
Finally, here's a late 50s/early 60s home movie of a solar eclipse. Shot in time lapse and through through some kind of filter it turns the eclipse into a psychedelic pink apocalypse. His Majesty The Sun Indeed!!
These are just a few of the wonders that await if you order now!!
Posted by nick at 12:18 AM | Comments (8)