Aperture Foundation Book Announcement: THE OPEN ROAD
Aperture Foundation announces:
THE OPEN ROADPhotography and the American Road TripBy David Campany
“Joyrides, voyages of discovery, surveys, wanderings, migrations, polemics, travel diaries, and assessment of the nation. Is America even imaginable without the road trip?” —David Campany
New York—The Open Road is the first survey book to consider the American road trip as a photographic genre. Featuring such key figures as Robert Frank, Lee Friedlander, Inge Morath, Ryan McGinley, Ed Ruscha, Stephen Shore, and Alec Soth, among many others, the book presents some of the best-loved photography, and the story of the road as photographer’s muse.
The road trip is an enduring symbol in American culture. Ever since cars became widely available, the road stretching over the horizon has represented a sense of possibility and freedom, discovery and escape—a place to get lost and find yourself in the process. While the American road trip has appeared prominently in literature, music, and movies, it has had an especially powerful influence on photography. As photographers have embarked on trips across the United States with the express purpose of making work, they have created some of the most important photographs in the history of the medium.
The book opens with a comprehensive introduction to the genre by David Campany, tracing the rise of road culture in America, and photographers on the move across the country and across the century, from the early 1900s to present day: from Walker Evans, Henri Cartier-Bresson, and Berenice Abbott to Taiyo Onorato and Nico Krebs. Each chapter explores one body of work in depth through informative texts and a portfolio of images, starting with Robert Frank’s The Americans, and including such renowned series as Garry Winogrand’s 1964, William Eggleston’s Los Alamos, and Alec Soth’s Sleeping by the Mississippi.
The Open Road is a visual tour de force, and a powerful look at both the history of America and the history of photography.
Photographers featured in The Open Road:
Robert Frank, Ed Ruscha, Inge Morath, Garry Winogrand, William Eggleston, Lee Friedlander, Joel Meyerowitz, Jacob Holdt, Stephen Shore, Victor Burgin, Joel Sternfeld, Shinya Fujiwara, Alec Soth, Todd Hido, Ryan McGinley, Justine Kurland, Taiyo Onorato & Nico Krebs
Following the book’s release, Aperture Foundation will present a traveling exhibition, to debut in fall 2015 at the Detroit Institute of Arts, with additional venues to be announced.
David Campany is one of the best-known and most accessible writers on photography. His books include Walker Evans: The Magazine Work (2013), Jeff Wall: Picture for Women (2011), Photography and Cinema (2008), and Art and Photography (2003). His essays have appeared in numerous books and he contributes regularly to Aperture, Frieze, Photoworks, and Oxford Art Journal. Campany lives and works in London, where he is a reader in photography at the University of Westminster.
Press contact:Barbara [email protected]@aperture.org
