John Gossage: Should Nature Change

by John Gossage (Artist)

In John Gossage's words, this is a book "with a particular context, of photographs to settle the feeling that I did not understand my home. To do that I set out, starting in 2003, to see what clarity my pictures might bring." And so came into being these photos of scenes, things, minor events and the look in the eyes of the young, all taken in everyday non iconic places throughout his travels across America. "Should Nature Change," taken from the Book of Isaiah, is for Gossage both a declaration and a "I am a humanist, like most of us are, I can't really step back to see the beauty and order of all this; closeness brings chaos and dread in this case. We have done harm to the place we live, I'm told, but it seems to me that we have done the most harm to ourselves and our best-laid plans. The planet has a plan to fix this, if we don't."

Genres: Photography

144 pages, Hardcover

Published October 29, 2019

Reviews

[Brian · Rating 2 out of 5]

Have you read the essay by Michel Foucault "What is an Author?" The idea is that signification begins before you start reading, and that the author's name is the first way we begin making meaning. Apt to think of here, because if this weren't Gossage this book wouldn't have been published. There are undoubtedly some great pictures here, but many not so much. I don't know whether or not I give this 2 or 3 starts, but something like that.....