CORY REYNOLDS | DATE 1/10/2023

Why Omaha?

Featured image is from one-of-a-kind new release, Darius Koehli : Why Omaha? Collecting 150 glorious, action-packed Kodak Instamatic snapshots that the then-nine-year-old Swiss-born photographer made at American Wrestling Association matches during the summer of 1969, which he spent with his father in Omaha, Nebraska, this 114-page hardcover captures a "fascinating, illustrious universe" with all of the unselfconscious vitality and curiosity of a kid caught somewhere between slapstick and baffling heroism. "Memories rise up in my mind," Koehli writes, "the old photographs tell of rousing battles, stuffy arenas and lurid announcers, excited crowds hooting and hollering, sweat and blood, mysterious masked accomplices and steely bodies. Magical names, magical images—welcome to a world long forgotten… Welcome back to Omaha 1969!"