Somewhere Out There, Something Is Happening

 

Change is the law of life. And those who look only to the past or the present are certain to miss the future.

President John F. Kennedy, June 26 1963

 

There’s something about the American spirit – inherent in the American spirit – we don’t hang on to the past. We always move forward….

President Barack Obama, October 15, 2009

 

While walking around on Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington D.C. in 2009, I kept thinking about the phrase boldly embedded into the stone facade of the National Archives – a place of our collective national being and history.

 

WHAT IS PAST IS PROLOGUE

 

 

 

 

Somewhere Out There, Something Is Happening is an ongoing series of artist books of photographs and fragmentary text that meditates on the physical places and psychological spaces of the contemporary American social landscape. Each book considers our inescapable history and whether what is past is a prologue of something happening now.

 

Titles

 

 

 

And Then The Sky Turned Angry – the seemingly organized placement of personal effects after an EF-5 tornado in Joplin, Missouri.

Beneath the Dirt of Great Men – exposes the carbon landscape of oil pumping jacks and waste water fracking ponds in the Permian Basin of Southeast New Mexico and West Texas.

Dance All Night – remembrances of victims in the aftermath of the Pulse Nightclub mass shooting in Orlando, Florida.

Gardens of Paradise – examines the selling of companionship and “glamour shot” images of women on escort cards that become discarded the fountains and gardens of the Las Vegas Strip, an area known as “Paradise.”

It Was A Beautiful Dream – reflections on the Native American experience and the history of Little Big Horn & Wounded Knee.

Lest We Forget To Remember – memorializing the assassination of President John F. Kennedy in Dallas, Texas.

Lift Every Voice – retracing the locations of the 1964 voting rights movement tragedy in Philadelphia, Mississippi.

There Shall It Be – contemplates the beauty and destruction of old growth forests and clear cutting along the Oregon coast.

Whispers from the Apple Orchard – impressions of stillness and quiet contemplation at the Manzanar War Relocation Center in the Eastern Sierra Nevada.

 

Artist Book Details

14 – 3/8 x 11 – 3/8 x 7/8 inches

Chiyogami silkscreened paper covered binders board with archival folder

Each artist book has approximately 20 – 25 broadsides, including 6 – 12 archival inkjet prints, 5 – 6 text sheets, reflective statement, map, colophon and index sheet.

 

 

Download Artist Book Catalog

 

 


 

 

 

And Then The Sky Turned Angry

 

 

Beneath the Dirt of Great Men

 

 

 Dance All Night

 

 

Gardens of Paradise

 

It Was A Beautiful Dream

 

 Lest We Forget To Remember

 

Lift Every Voice

 

 

There Shall It Be

 

 Whispers from the Apple Orchard

 

 

 

 

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