When he was twenty-one, in 1986, Emmanuel Georges visited the US for the first time to see the American Dream close-up, twelve photos from this trip illustrate his front of the book essay, three further trips, starting in 2011 produced the sixty-five plates that make up his book. Like so many European photographers before him Georges was fascinated by the visual material culture that makes up American commonplace in cities and along the highway.
As he says in his essay "My style leans towards narrative and frontal photography" and there are several excellent shots straight onto the front of empty buildings with their peeling paint and flaking signage. The street corner with building at angles is another of his favorite shots and there is the obligatory abandoned highway gas station that no commonplace photobook can do without.
I thought Georges photos carry on the best traditions of a European's road trip across of the Nation though as he designed the book (it has the pictures on the right-hand page facing a blank one) he probably included the seven smaller photos, for a change of pace but as they are not really connected to the landscape or building shots I thought they could easily have been be left out
As he says in his essay "My style leans towards narrative and frontal photography" and there are several excellent shots straight onto the front of empty buildings with their peeling paint and flaking signage. The street corner with building at angles is another of his favorite shots and there is the obligatory abandoned highway gas station that no commonplace photobook can do without.
I thought Georges photos carry on the best traditions of a European's road trip across of the Nation though as he designed the book (it has the pictures on the right-hand page facing a blank one) he probably included the seven smaller photos, for a change of pace but as they are not really connected to the landscape or building shots I thought they could easily have been be left out
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