Blake Andrews is a photographer based in Eugene, OR. He writes about photography at blakeandrews.blogspot.com.
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Maine
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Blake Andrews selects Maine Photographs by Gary Briechle, published by Twin Palms, Santa Fe, USA, as Book of the Week.
"Subject-wise, Maine covers similar territory to [Briechle's 2012 debut monograph], but the approach is radically different. Instead of long exposures, Maine catches subjects in the moment, snapshot style, with digital color. Whereas the debut slyly hinted at subversive doings, Maine puts them on full display, sometimes with the help of flash (a near impossibility with wet collodion). There are photos of guns, scabs, butts, tats, needles, debris, cash, filth, malaise, cobwebs, and one beautifully frosted butterknife. While most photographers might bypass such things, Briechle seizes them as narration devices…
The mix of innocence and experience is the same concept used to great effect in Larry Clark's Tulsa, both extremes tangled together in a foreboding blend. As we know, Tulsa did not end well. Maine too ends on a sour note, with a grim finishing sequence: a prone smoker, an aging invalid, and a blood-soaked animal. Then the final photo, a grim winter domestic scene. Lobster roll, anyone? "—Blake Andrews Read more
Read Blake Andrews's entire post on our blog
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