Kodachrome Memory: American Pictures 1972–1990
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©Nathan Benn
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Even if you've never seen Nathan Benn's photographs from the 1970s, they feel somehow familiar--like the refrain of a half-remembered song. With a uniquely American mix of formality and ease, and a color palette so tart you can almost taste it, Benn makes the past vividly--even painfully--present. So there's nothing nostalgic about his pictures of parades, homecomings, and town meetings, juke joints and barbershops, front porches and back roads, because you are there. Maybe that's why KODACHROME MEMORY: American Pictures 1972-1990 feels like an instant classic. --Vince Aletti |
As America huffed its way to the end of the '70s, a profound cultural change was taking place. Kodachrome Memory: American Pictures 1972–1990 depicts an America of boisterous legend and vibrant regionalism, teetering on the cusp of the coming Information Age's great cultural flattening.
Nathan Benn embraced color photography before it was considered an acceptable medium for serious documentary expression. Revisiting his archive of photography for National Geographic Magazine, he discovered hundreds of unpublished pictures that appeared inconsequential to editors of the 1970s and 1980s, but now resonate with empathic perspectives on everyday life in forgotten neighborhoods.
The photographs, organized by geographic and cultural affinities (North East, Heartland, Pittsburgh, and Florida), delight with poetic happenstance, melancholy framing, and wistful abandon. The past, an era heavily eulogized, comes alive again in its deliciously homely demeanor, and glorious Kodachrome hues. Yes, this is your father's America. An essay by scholar Paul M. Farber contextualizes the creation and selection of these images, offering a fresh perspective about color photography on the eve of the digital revolution. Published by Powerhouse Books, Kodachrome Memory: American Pictures 1972–1990 was selected as one of the best photo books of 2013 by American Photo Magazine and Amazon.
The seeming inconsequential subject of Benn’s photographs - which are keenly observed and evocative of a time and place - act as metaphors for American culture and values. Although much of Benn’s work was done for a magazine and not gallery walls, his use of color throughout holds its own with artists of the period such as William Eggleston and Stephen Shore.
-- Richard Buckley
Number of photographs:51
Frames sizes:17x22in, 21x28in, 27x35in
Rental fee: $4500 for 8 weeks
Publication:
Kodachrome Memory: American Pictures 1972—1990
Photographs by Nathan Benn
PowerHouse books, 2013
Press:
Nathan Benn embraced color photography before it was considered an acceptable medium for serious documentary expression. Revisiting his archive of photography for National Geographic Magazine, he discovered hundreds of unpublished pictures that appeared inconsequential to editors of the 1970s and 1980s, but now resonate with empathic perspectives on everyday life in forgotten neighborhoods.
The photographs, organized by geographic and cultural affinities (North East, Heartland, Pittsburgh, and Florida), delight with poetic happenstance, melancholy framing, and wistful abandon. The past, an era heavily eulogized, comes alive again in its deliciously homely demeanor, and glorious Kodachrome hues. Yes, this is your father's America. An essay by scholar Paul M. Farber contextualizes the creation and selection of these images, offering a fresh perspective about color photography on the eve of the digital revolution. Published by Powerhouse Books, Kodachrome Memory: American Pictures 1972–1990 was selected as one of the best photo books of 2013 by American Photo Magazine and Amazon.
The seeming inconsequential subject of Benn’s photographs - which are keenly observed and evocative of a time and place - act as metaphors for American culture and values. Although much of Benn’s work was done for a magazine and not gallery walls, his use of color throughout holds its own with artists of the period such as William Eggleston and Stephen Shore.
-- Richard Buckley
Number of photographs:51
Frames sizes:17x22in, 21x28in, 27x35in
Rental fee: $4500 for 8 weeks
Publication:
Kodachrome Memory: American Pictures 1972—1990
Photographs by Nathan Benn
PowerHouse books, 2013
Press:
| Wall Street Journal book review 2013 |
| The Independent, by Peter Popham 2013 |
| New York Times, By Matt McCann, 2013 |