Rodeo, 2008
Graceland, 2008
André Lützen
Before Elvis there was nothing – book + print, 2008
50 years after Robert Frank’s The Americans, the German photographer André Lützen sets off on his own odyssey through everyday life in America. His road movie takes us from Colorado to Mississippi, from the desert to subtropical climes – always carefully bypassing Hollywood. The series radiates Lützen’s own singular style: documentary photography that derives its vitality from atmosphere and movement while also evoking aspects of self-imposed solitude. The mood here is a strange mix of poetic tranquility and aimless restlessness. Focusing on commonplace things, these images unflinchingly expose the depths and shallows of the American dream. (Kehrer)
Hardcover book, 30×24 cm, 112 pages, 70 color images
Available with one of the above signed and numbered prints, 24×30 cm, edition of 25 each.
Price: 250,- Euro if ordered before August 31, 2008.
after August: 280,- Euro
Get them directly through KEHRER.
2 other books on my shelf that I liked this year are also dealing with a contemporary view of the myths (and ironic truths) surrounding the american west are
Andreas Horvath, Heartlands (fotohof)
Peter Granser,Signs which is in the archive
All three of these books are made by european photographers heading west, each in their own way. This seems appropriate timing as Robert Frank is highlighted this month at the Photo-Eye Magazine as it is the 50th anniversanry of The Americans.