Flexi, 11 X 9 In. / 136 Pages / Illustrated throughout
ISBN 9780988983182
List Price: $39.95
“Like the photos of William Eggleston or Stephen Shore, these images can’t help but discover visual pleasure among the surfaces of vernacular culture...",
- ARTnews, June 19, 2014
“… The images of Hyers and Mebane are highly compelling, and the book is recommended to anyone interested in the history of street photography or American visual culture ...”,
- Library Journal, July 2, 2014
Photographs by Martin Hyers and Will Mebane
Text by Karen Irvine
Between 2004 and 2007, American photographers Martin Hyers and Will Mebane made a series of road trips through the American South, West and East to create a photographic archive of objects. The project, titled Empire, yielded more than 9,000 photographs captured in 25 states. Using two hand-held 4x5 view cameras, Hyers and Mebane ventured out into public places, met strangers and accompanied them back to their homes, offices and factories to photograph. Working in a deliberately forensic fashion, they photographed the objects they encountered -- stoves, family photographs, computers, trophies and the like. Many of the objects included in their project are discomfiting because of their impending obsolescence: an overhead projector rests on a table; a typewriter sits on a desk; a set of encyclopedias waits, well-organized, on a yellow bookshelf.
Text by Karen Irvine