Sunshine Hotel
Steidl Verlag, Göttingen 2019
ISBN 9783958296091,
Gebunden, 264Seiten, 68,00 EUR
Klappentext
America, as a place and an idea, has occupied Mitch Epstein's art for the past five decades. With the first photographs he made in 1969 at 16-years-old, Epstein began confronting the cultural psychology of the United States. Although he started working in an era defined by the Vietnam War, civil rights, rock and roll, and free love, he responded hardily to each radically different era that followed-from Reaganomics to surveillance after 9/11, to the current climate crisis and resurgence of white supremacy. More than a single era or issue, it is the living organism of American culture that engages Epstein; no matter how much the country changes, he describes something mysteriously and persistently American.Conceived of and sequenced by Andrew Roth, Sunshine Hotel assembles 175 photos made between 1969 and 2018-more than half previously unpublished. Yet the book is not simply a retrospective. It traces both the evolution of an artist and the development of a country, revealing Epstein's formal and thematic shifts in tandem with America's changing zeitgeist and landscape. Sunshine Hotel is a visual immersion that forgoes linearity and a classical layout, as it sets forth Epstein's evolving understanding of his country's pathologies and promise.
America, as a place and an idea, has occupied Mitch Epstein's art for the past five decades. With the first photographs he made in 1969 at 16-years-old, Epstein began confronting the cultural psychology of the United States. Although he started working in an era defined by the Vietnam War, civil rights, rock and roll, and free love, he responded hardily to each radically different era that followed-from Reaganomics to surveillance after 9/11, to the current climate crisis and resurgence of white supremacy. More than a single era or issue, it is the living organism of American culture that engages Epstein; no matter how much the country changes, he describes something mysteriously and persistently American.Conceived of and sequenced by Andrew Roth, Sunshine Hotel assembles 175 photos made between 1969 and 2018-more than half previously unpublished. Yet the book is not simply a retrospective. It traces both the evolution of an artist and the development of a country, revealing Epstein's formal and thematic shifts in tandem with America's changing zeitgeist and landscape. Sunshine Hotel is a visual immersion that forgoes linearity and a classical layout, as it sets forth Epstein's evolving understanding of his country's pathologies and promise.
Rezensionsnotiz zu
Süddeutsche Zeitung, 26.11.2019
Andrian Kreye begegnet der schieren Gewalt der USA und all ihren falschen Versprechen in Mitch Epsteins detailreichen Fotografien aus den Jahren 1969 bis 2018. Unter dem Eindruck der Ära Trump lassen sich die ikonografischen Bilder aus den Randzonen des Landes noch einmal neu und anders anschauen, findet er, nämlich sozusagen mit historischem Zuckerguss. Dass den Band keine Chronologie oder sonstige Kontextualisierung ziert, gibt dem Betrachter Rätsel auf, so Kreye.
Andrian Kreye begegnet der schieren Gewalt der USA und all ihren falschen Versprechen in Mitch Epsteins detailreichen Fotografien aus den Jahren 1969 bis 2018. Unter dem Eindruck der Ära Trump lassen sich die ikonografischen Bilder aus den Randzonen des Landes noch einmal neu und anders anschauen, findet er, nämlich sozusagen mit historischem Zuckerguss. Dass den Band keine Chronologie oder sonstige Kontextualisierung ziert, gibt dem Betrachter Rätsel auf, so Kreye.