Where We Live: Photographs of America from the Berman Collection

Where We Live Photographs of America from the Berman Collection presents a visual tour through the lonely crossroads, dusty fields, and dirty alleys that cover our country. The book works as a collection of photographers using their own aesthetic to describe the same landscape. Though the photographs span many different states, seasons, and artists there is a strong link running through the book. The theme of Americana and the intent to grasp onto the cultural signposts that we take for granted tie all these photographers and their photographs together. The landscapes and subjects are picked from the bottom of the barrel, the leftovers and side notes of progressive travel. It seems to focus on a part of America left along the roadside on the hunt for the American dream, the abandoned barns, mobile homes, and sticky diners that we've all passed through. Instead of becoming over self-conscious the photographs are done in a relatively documentary fashion, while the collection holds a more nostalgic grip. Maybe nudging at an idea of who we are and where we've been as Americans. The title of the book, Where We Live asks the reader to consider all the cultural threads that make up our country as a unified whole. By dissecting our everyday surroundings, our alleys and dead overgrown gardens, movie theaters, factory workers, and farmers the book presents the subtle beauty of our country and people. All the colors and cars, dishes, and jewelry in these photographs are simply and purely American made.

The 198 photos in the book are part of the 450 that have very generously been given to the Getty by LA collectors Nancy and Bruce Berman. This lovely book was published in conjunction with an exhibition of the photos at the museum in 2006 and 7. The twenty-four photographers featured are probably the leading contemporary exponents in the US of this landscape image capture and one reason I like this type of book is that I get to discover photographers I was not aware of. My main discovery here was Jim Dow. In the back of the book there is an excellent biography of the photographers which nicely lists their books, I've already got my eye on one by Mr Dow. If you are familiar with recent landscape photography (and I think it's worth stating that this means the man-made landscape rather than natural) you'll most likely have seen some of the photos included: 'Petit's Mobil station' by George Tice, 'Red building in forest' by William Christenberry or '2nd Street, Ashland, Wisconsin' by Stephen Shore are three I've frequently seen but I feel the strength of the book is the opportunity to compare how these twenty-four photographers interpret the same subject. The impressive page size: about eleven inches square, screen: 250dpi+ and quality paper and printing mean the photos sparkle on the page though I did wonder if maybe a few images had been taken from chromo prints rather than the original transparencies. I noticed a softness and lack of detail in a Stephen Shore photo of Easton, Pennsylvania for instance. The book cannot be considered a definitive survey of contemporary landscape photographers, only those in the Getty Collection have been included so no Lewis Baltz, Jeff Brouws, Gregory Conniff or David Graham for example but those that are presented are clearly part of the top creative interpreters of man-made America ***FOR A LOOK INSIDE click 'customer images' under the cover.

I saw this show at the Getty Museum in LA and it was one of the best contempory photography show I have seen. the book is great!