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Kodachrome Memory: American Pictures 1972-1990
As America huffed its way to the end of the '70s, a change more profound than any one cultural trope's evolutionary death knell was taking place. Perceptively distilled in a new volume of photographs by longtime National Geographic shooter Nathan Benn, Kodachrome 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, traveling globally for National Geographic magazine for two decades. In revisiting his archive of almost half a million images, and editing his photographs with a 21st-century perspective, he discovered hundreds of unpublished American pictures that appeared inconsequential to editors of the 1970s and 1980s, but now resonate-in beautiful Kodachrome color-with empathic perspectives on everyday life in forgotten neighborhoods.
Kodachrome Memory exemplifies forthright storytelling about everyday people and vernacular spaces. 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.
"Mr. Benn's [Kodachrome Memory] is a study of regional texture, the fruit of two decades as a photographer for National Geographic. Mr. Benn's unshowy compositions and the rich, clear colors of his Kodachrome slide-film make his images seem both timeless and particular."
-The Wall Street Journal
"Kodachrome Memory celebrates the significance of American regional diversity as it was 30 or 40 years ago, before the advent of Internet culture and before the country became one vast strip mall stretching from sea to sea. The seemingly inconsequential subjects 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
"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 American Pictures 1972-1990 feels like an instant classic."
-Vince Aletti
Nathan Benn embraced color photography before it was considered an acceptable medium for serious documentary expression, traveling globally for National Geographic magazine for two decades. In revisiting his archive of almost half a million images, and editing his photographs with a 21st-century perspective, he discovered hundreds of unpublished American pictures that appeared inconsequential to editors of the 1970s and 1980s, but now resonate-in beautiful Kodachrome color-with empathic perspectives on everyday life in forgotten neighborhoods.
Kodachrome Memory exemplifies forthright storytelling about everyday people and vernacular spaces. 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.
"Mr. Benn's [Kodachrome Memory] is a study of regional texture, the fruit of two decades as a photographer for National Geographic. Mr. Benn's unshowy compositions and the rich, clear colors of his Kodachrome slide-film make his images seem both timeless and particular."
-The Wall Street Journal
"Kodachrome Memory celebrates the significance of American regional diversity as it was 30 or 40 years ago, before the advent of Internet culture and before the country became one vast strip mall stretching from sea to sea. The seemingly inconsequential subjects 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
"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 American Pictures 1972-1990 feels like an instant classic."
-Vince Aletti
- GenresPhotographyArt
168 pages, Hardcover
First published October 29, 2013
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
April 18, 2014
After a babbling introduction about how
everyone now thinks they are a photographer
since you can take a photo with your phone
or shoe, you get a lot of pretty pics in this
coffee table collection. Despite the claims of
nostalgia for the time period 1972-1990, they didn't
evoke much for me. Maybe you'll find them
more enchanting?
everyone now thinks they are a photographer
since you can take a photo with your phone
or shoe, you get a lot of pretty pics in this
coffee table collection. Despite the claims of
nostalgia for the time period 1972-1990, they didn't
evoke much for me. Maybe you'll find them
more enchanting?
Read
June 27, 2018Stunning documentary photography that, considering the "make America great again" movement, begs the question: "is this the America that many wish to return to?" Regardless of one's opinions on these matters, the photos in Kodachrome Memory seem all the more moving and important in light of these debates.
May 15, 2014
Photos taken by former National Geographic photographer Nathan Benn, culled from thousands of photos, naturally, and it't a beautiful book, a portrait of middle America, largely, and the photos are, (cue Paul Simon) Kodachrome, with those bright colors, which he was one of the first to use for documenting life. And it's sort of Raymond Carver, Richard Ford, slice of life. There's a couple nice essays about Kodachrome, taking pics slice of life, Benn, etc. Cool stuff. Lovely book. Not many pics blew me away, but I guess that is precisely the point, in a way.
September 21, 2013
AMAZING!! I am completely in love with this photographer's work & this is an elegant & beautiful compilation.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews