Omen: Phantasmagoria at the Farm Security Administration Archive
1935–1942
Edited by León Muñoz Santini, Jorge Panchoaga. Text by Lucy Ives.
Dark, surreal scenes hidden in an iconic photographic archive of Depression-era America
Drawing from approximately 40,000 works of the Farm Security Administration Photographic Archive (1935–42) housed at the New York Public Library, Omen reviews and reframes this landmark project of modern American documentary photography. The monumental project features works by storied photographers such as Russell Lee, Dorothea Lange, Ben Shahn, Walker Evans, Carl Mydans, Arthur Rothstein, Gordon Parks and Jack Delano. Many of the more iconic images that arose from this initiative were instrumental in constructing a hegemonic narrative of triumph against adversity in Depression-era America. In scrutinizing the backgrounds and secondary characters of some lesser-known photographs, however, a more turbulent story emerges. Omen is co-edited by Mexican artists León Muñoz Santini and Jorge Panchoaga, providing a fresh perspective on this quintessentially American study. The image sequence amplifies the eerie details in enlarged, stark black-and-white images, creatively cropped and abutted together to form insidious connections. These hidden stories are premonitions of the visible and invisible specters of systemic injustice that characterize American society, their cycles renewing with each successive generation. Thus, Omen at once serves as a mirror for the anguished reality of today, and as a device for reflection on how historical and documentary photography is read and understood: taking the editorial gaze to its ultimate consequences. The book includes a narrative text by novelist and poet Lucy Ives.
PRAISE AND REVIEWS
Bookforum
Ania Szremski
In 'Omen,' documentary photographs are not only imprints of something once present, now lost, but also portents of futures near and distant.
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Featured spreads are from Omen: Phantasmagoria at the Farm Security Administration Archive. Drawing from approximately 40,000 works of the FSA Photographic Archive (1935–42) at the New York Public Library, and gorgeously printed in the deepest of black inks, this oversized paperback tells the darker version of the American story under the stark terms of injustice. “It is an uncovering of a more or less literal grave, a grave made out of light, to borrow a phrase from the poet Alice Notley. And it is a reanimation of the bodies found there, who are also figures of brightness and shadow. … The horror of Omen is not that this is happening to someone over there. The horror of Omen is that this is happening to me. This picture was already inside me. I can’t get it out.” Photographs are by Russell Lee, Dorothea Lange, Ben Shahn, Walker Evans, Carl Mydans, Arthur Rothstein and Gordon Parks. continue to blog
FORMAT: Pbk, 9.25 x 13.25 in. / 168 pgs. LIST PRICE: U.S. $50.00 LIST PRICE: CANADA $72 ISBN: 9788419233103 PUBLISHER: RM/Gato Negro Ediciones AVAILABLE: 9/17/2024 DISTRIBUTION: D.A.P. RETAILER DISC: TRADE PUBLISHING STATUS: Active AVAILABILITY: In stock TERRITORY: NA ONLY
Omen: Phantasmagoria at the Farm Security Administration Archive 1935–1942
Published by RM/Gato Negro Ediciones. Edited by León Muñoz Santini, Jorge Panchoaga. Text by Lucy Ives.
Dark, surreal scenes hidden in an iconic photographic archive of Depression-era America
Drawing from approximately 40,000 works of the Farm Security Administration Photographic Archive (1935–42) housed at the New York Public Library, Omen reviews and reframes this landmark project of modern American documentary photography. The monumental project features works by storied photographers such as Russell Lee, Dorothea Lange, Ben Shahn, Walker Evans, Carl Mydans, Arthur Rothstein, Gordon Parks and Jack Delano. Many of the more iconic images that arose from this initiative were instrumental in constructing a hegemonic narrative of triumph against adversity in Depression-era America. In scrutinizing the backgrounds and secondary characters of some lesser-known photographs, however, a more turbulent story emerges.
Omen is co-edited by Mexican artists León Muñoz Santini and Jorge Panchoaga, providing a fresh perspective on this quintessentially American study. The image sequence amplifies the eerie details in enlarged, stark black-and-white images, creatively cropped and abutted together to form insidious connections. These hidden stories are premonitions of the visible and invisible specters of systemic injustice that characterize American society, their cycles renewing with each successive generation. Thus, Omen at once serves as a mirror for the anguished reality of today, and as a device for reflection on how historical and documentary photography is read and understood: taking the editorial gaze to its ultimate consequences. The book includes a narrative text by novelist and poet Lucy Ives.
