Gerry Johansson - Maine Los AngelesThe Ice Plant 2024 In 2023, Swedish photographer Gerry Johansson roamed the state of Maine with a Rolleiflex, curious to make new pictures in a region of America he first encountered in the work of Paul Strand five decades ago he found Strands views of New England boring at the time and also wondering, Why is American photography so focused on the west? Johanssons Maine echoes the formal restraint of his earlier books, notably American Winter, Spanish
everything pulses alive and trembling
the images reflect the silence and shared tension between the generations
But Arboreal is no simple environmental diatribe
truth is the first casualty and Centralia explores the unsteady relationship between reality and fiction and how our perceptions of reality and truth are manipulated
P & B take turns in transmitting and receiving
gives the photographs the chance to vindicate their real and their fictional aspects
including the middle and working classes
that the world isn’t such a bad place
while retaining Shore’s studied formal sensitivity
and reverberated within the family
Book with pure and raw analog black & white photographs in 6×6 format taken with classic Rolleiflex and Hasselblad cameras
but ultimately its meaning remains subjective and personal
