Less Américains

Mishka Henner
Less Américains

Photographs: Mishka Henner

Publisher: self-published

180 pages

Year: 2013

Comments: Hardcover. First edition, 2013. 190 x 215 mm. Limited edition of 350 copies. Copy in new condition.

Like the vast country it depicts, the power and influence of Robert Frank's The Americans has spread far and wide in the 55 years since its first publication. To many photographers working to this day, the book has taken on almost sacred significance. In the black & white candidness of the imagery and in the unflinching and all-encompassing portrait of 1950s America, a notion of authenticity endures.

But just as the idea of America has changed immeasurably in those five decades, the idea of photography has also changed beyond recognition. In the current empire of images, I can't help but imagine that photographs move very differently than the way they did back then. And in their constant occupation of our physical and emotional landscape, the capacity for images to move us has also undoubtedly been changed. I wonder if their powers have gradually diminished over time, like the dreams that once fuelled America's - and our - aspirations.

A remake of Robert Frank’s classic photobook, The Americans, erasing the old to make something new.

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