Clark Winter

Consisting of images photographed from the pages of antique ornithological volumes, this book is Clark Winter’s tribute to the glorious world of exotic birds. In the 18th and 19th centuries, explorers wandered the planet in search of the unknown, sometimes traveling for years with little communication and guidance. When they returned home with specimens of hitherto unknown species of flora and fauna, people were astounded by such visual extravagance. Of birds in particular, their shapes, intricate color patterns and feathers were overwhelming—alternatively described as divinely inspired or the result of evolution and the battle for survival: a debate that continues to this day. With documentation of their intricate hand-colored illustrations, Birds is a testament to this lost sense of awe, one difficult yet not impossible to access in today’s connected world.

From 1973, Robert Frank’s Bleecker Street studio and home was the crucible of his creativity. Yet just as important was the weather-beaten fisherman’s cottage he bought in 1969 with his wife, artist June Leaf, in Mabou, Nova Scotia. Here they spent much of the year working for the following half-century. Frank the photographer is revered for his ability to explore and record the world with unprecedented understanding. Less known are his remarkable sculptures, which he made using found objects, old photographs and the camera itself.
Clark Winter captures the energy of the Cape Breton landscape and documents Frank amid his creative process. Seen throughout are talismans and mementos: faded postcards, trinkets and bric-a-brac, a photo of a younger Leaf and Frank laughing at us from a joyful day. Seen together, Winter’s photographs reveal yet unknown facets of a creative mind ever fearlessly at work.

Since their invention, cars have been one of the driving forces behind America’s constantly changing culture. Not only have they helped shape the country’s sprawling cities and suburban society, but they have inspired films (from American Graffiti to The Fast and the Furious) and songs (from the Beach Boys’ zippy Fun, Fun, Fun to Bruce Springsteen’s anthemic Thunder Road) and an endless parade of road-trip books.
Over the course of half a century, Clark Winter captured images of the car as a symbol of Americana. More intriguingly, he also found a global spirit in this form of transportation in countries such as Spain, Italy and China. Winter’s photographs, made in both color and black and white, are not simply focused on the vehicles but rather on the way people physically relate to cars, turning each image into a stage upon which a drama quietly (and sometimes comically) unfolds between owner, passenger and passerby. And because these dramas are universal—eating ice cream in the back seat, waiting for a pump at the gas station, stuck in traffic, busted for speeding—Winter’s wide-eyed, often lighthearted pictures invite us to recall and relive our own days of adventure, romance and speed.
Clark Winter is a trustee of several cultural institutions, including the June Leaf and Robert Frank Foundation in New York. His previous photobooks include Birds and Free Air.