Photobooks

I collect photobooks. The one that arrived most recently was Vinny Martin’s Every iPhone Photo I Made 2012-2016. I learned of the book sometime after it was published in 2017. It sounded very interesting, but at seven volumes, nearly 2500 pages, and more than 20,000 images, it seemed like a major commitment, one I wasn’t initially prepared to make. But I never forgot about this book, and since it was out of stock at Photo-eye, I contacted the photographer and ordered a copy through him. What drew me to the book was something in the publisher’s description: “Feeling simultaneously frustrated and inspired by the ease and ubiquity of cell phone photography, the books are a way for me to come to terms with the proliferation of image-making in contemporary culture and an outlet for my own obsessive need to photograph.” I share with Martin the obsessive need to photograph, and also end up taking thousands of photos every year. My interest in picture-taking started when I was twelve or thirteen. I can’t imagine what I might have done if the iPhone had been around then. 

The most recent book I ordered is Michael Vahrenwald’s The People’s Trust, a collection of photographs of re-purposed 19th and 20th-century banks. I am trying to do something similar in photographing streamlined modern buildings. Streamlining was most popular in the 1930s and 40s, and lasted until after the war when midcentury modern became the dominant trend. The rounded corners and smooth lines of streamline modern was seen as an antidote to the rough edges of the times, something to ease our way into the future (it’s perhaps no coincidence that the greatest expression of streamline architecture was at the 1939-40 New York World’s Fair, the theme of which was “The World of Tomorrow”). The stripped down style, using simple and readily available materials, was well-suited for the Depression. While there are streamlined houses scattered throughout the country, most streamlined structures were commercial and industrial buildings, particularly those associated with the transportation industry.  The best examples would be the Greyhound bus stations designed by Louisville architect W.S. Arrasmith. What interested me in photographing these buildings now is exploring what happened to this once popular architectural style. What became of these buildings? What condition are they in? How were they altered?