Upstate

by Tema Stauffer (Photographer), Xhenet Aliu (Foreword), Alison Nordström (Essay)

UPSTATE looks at the lingering legacy of American industrial and agricultural history in and around Hudson, New York. Combining poetic landscapes and interiors with portraiture, the images in Upstate express a quiet mystery and beauty while they revel in the vernacular. Like the Hudson River School painters who worked in the area in the 19th Century, Stauffer captures sublime elements while also revealing the shifting economic realities of the region.

84 pages, Hardcover

Published January 1, 2018

Reviews

[Davy · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a pleasant surprise this turned out to be! Upstate came onto my radar because a friend of mine wrote the foreword (and did an exceptional job with it). I regret that it took me so long to spend quality time with the images, which I had assumed would be uniformly drab and grey. And I mean, there's a lot of grey here, to be sure, but these pictures are anything but drab. Stauffer has a deep familiarity with (and connection to) the Hudson River area, that much is clear, and she's so incredibly adept at finding the signs of life admidst the grey (which, after all, is a very pleasant color, when you get down to it). The bright yellow of downtown curbs and heavy industrial equipment. The bright red of front doors, diner booth vinyl, sumac blossoms, and in one breathtaking portrait, that shirt collar! The blue of flaking paint in an abandoned house -- and everywhere, the light lavender blue of cold. And orange -- both the burnt orange of rust, and the watery orange of winter sunlight painting the faces of houses, falling through holes in the roof. There is decay in the Upstate, but I want you to know this is, in fact, a very vibrant book of pictures, and I recommend it highly.