The individual prints are breathtaking, such as the one here – almost 4×5 feet. It was shot, like most of the book, with a large-format digital camera, in this case, with focus-stacking. The fine hairs on the girl’s right forearm are flawless.
The photographs chosen for the exhibit seem very eclectic. It’s hard to imagine they are from a book with a clear theme. (There is a hand-out with a short biographical Q&A, also an insert in the book, but it doesn’t discuss the photos.)
Fortunately, Soth’s hour-long YouTube video on the making of the book (https://youtu.be/qQUs8cNmDOI?si=RIJ0RGvr_AeB-Igj)) reveals a very coherent story, how working with students inspired Soth – now in his 50’s – with the liberating freedom of youth. All the images in the book are eclectic, too, in that youthful spirit.
I recommend watching the YouTube video before you go; the experience of the images prints will be much richer.
“American Reflections” was named one of the top seven photobooks of 2023 by Le Monde. It’s a rich retrospective of Tom’s career, showcasing his dedication to honest and personal captures of people in the Midwest and their lives. Tom’s caring approach to the people he shoots speaks clearly in these images.
A late and little-known representative of American street photography, in black and white, Tom Arndt (born in 1944) was able to extend this tradition in the 1970s and 1980s, adding an irony and a subjectivity that are not without evoking the work of Lee Friedlander. This first monograph in French, well printed, shows his art of composition, which he practiced in different places, in particular in his hometown of Minneapolis (Minnesota). Playing on the reflections of the windows and on what can be read there, he extracts strange messages, slightly absurd visions, full of emptiness and melancholy, where he sometimes integrates his own reflection. And when he moves away from humans to focus on cars and trucks, Tom Arndt treats machines as a set of features and lines, as a sculptor or an abstract painter. This does not prevent him from taking an empathetic look at the countryside of his state, populated by cowboys who seem to have been in the wrong era.
Tom Arndt is one of Minnesota’s great photographers emeritus (even allowing for the fact that John Szarkowski began his career in Minnesota and published his own superb photobook about the state, The Face of Minnesota.) Tom still hosts an occasional salon in Minneapolis, commenting on prints displayed by local photographers, and his informal comments always probe deep into what photography is. His book, Home:Tom Arndt’s Minnesota, marries rural and urban Minnesota in the 1970’s through documentary portraits and street photographs.
Garrison Keillor, longtime friend of Arndt, describes the people pictured as “… the crucial DNA of our culture… The heart and soul of American culture is all about outsiders and poor people… culture is what exists on street corners and in cafes, in how people treat each other and how they make small talk.”
The appendix includes a selection of photos with Tom’s personal reflections, like this one about the photo “Man outside Mickey’s Diner, St. Paul, 1970.”
“This is another touching moment for me. I remember seeing this man, and I asked if I could make his portrait; he wondered why, and I probably said something about respecting his strength of character. He took off his hat, which was so telling. I will never forget him.”
However, the real power of the book is as a sequence of 83 photographs. Some individual photos have great power, like the two below, but the true impact is in the poetic arc of the Frank’s vision.
The original Grove edition is published without page numbers, which makes it difficult to match individual photos to various commentaries. I found an index of Frank’s output at the National Gallery of Art – https://www.nga.gov/content/dam/ngaweb/press/exh/0263/0263-list.pdf and extracted this index, for anyone who might find it useful.
The Americans, Robert Frank, Steidl Edition 2019 (Copy of Grave edition, 1959) 01 Parade—Hoboken, New Jersey, 1955 02 City fathers—Hoboken, New Jersey, 1955 03 Political rally—Chicago, 1956 04 Funeral—St. Helena, South Carolina, 1955 05 Rodeo—Detroit, 1955 06 Savannah, Georgia, 1955 07 Navy Recruiting Station, Post Office—Butte, Montana, 1956 08 En route from New York to Washington, Club Car, 1955 09 Movie Premiere—Hollywood, 1956 10 Candy store—New York City, 1955 11 Motorama—Los Angeles, 1956 12 New York City, 1955 13 Charleston, South Carolina, 1955 14 Ranch Market—Hollywood, 1956 15 Butte, Montana, 1956 16 Yom Kippur—East River, New York City, 1954 17 Fourth of July—Jay, New York, 1954 18 Trolley—New Orleans, 1955 19 Canal Street—New Orleans, 1955 20 Rooming house—Bunker Hill, Los Angeles, 1956 21 Yale Commencement—New Haven Green, New Haven, Connecticut, 1956 22 Cafe—Beaufort, South Carolina, 1955 23 Georgetown, South Carolina, 1955 24 Bar—Las Vegas, Nevada, 1955 25 Hotel lobby—Miami Beach, 1955 26 View from hotel window—Butte, Montana, 1956 27 Metropolitan Life Insurance Building—New York City, 1955 28 Jehovah’s Witness—Los Angeles, 1955-1956 29 Bar—Gallup, New Mexico, 1955 30 U.S. 30 between Ogallala and North Platte, Nebraska, 1956 31 Casino—Elko, Nevada, 1956 32 U.S. 91, leaving Blackfoot, Idaho, 1956 33 St. Petersburg, Florida, 1955 34 Covered car—Long Beach, California, 1956 35 Car accident—U.S. 66, between Winslow and Flagstaff, Arizona, 1955 36 U.S. 285, New Mexico, 1955 37 Bar—Detroit, 1955 38 Barber shop through screen door—McClellanville, South Carolina, 1955 39 Backyard—Venice West, California, 1955-1956 40 Newburgh, New York, 1955 41 Luncheonette—Butte, Montana, 1956 42 Santa Fe, New Mexico, 1955 43 Bar—New York City, 1955 44 Elevator—Miami Beach, 1955 45 Restaurant—U.S. 1 leaving Columbia, South Carolina, 1955 46 Drive-in movie—Detroit, 1955 47 Mississippi River, Baton Rouge, Louisiana, 1955 48 St. Francis, gas station, and City Hall—Los Angeles, 1956 49 Crosses on scene of highway accident—U.S. 91, Idaho, 1956 50 Assembly line—Detroit, 1955 51 Convention hall—Chicago, 1956 52 Men’s room, railway station—Memphis, Tennessee, 1955 53 Cocktail party—New York City, 1955 54 Salt Lake City, Utah, 1956 55 Beaufort, South Carolina, 1955 56 Funeral—St. Helena, South Carolina, 1955 57 Chinese cemetery—San Francisco, 1956 58 Political rally—Chicago, 1956 59 Store window—Washington D.C., 1957 60 Television studio—Burbank, California, 1956 61 Los Angeles, 1955-1956 62 Bank—Houston, Texas, 1955 63 Factory—Detroit, 1955 64 Department store—Lincoln, Nebraska, 1956 65 Rodeo—New York City, 1954 66 Movie premiere—Hollywood, 1955 67 Charity ball—New York City, 1954 68 Cafeteria—San Francisco, 1956 69 Drug store—Detroit, 1955 70 Coffee shop, railway station—Indianapolis, 1956 71 Chattanooga, Tennessee, 1955 72 San Francisco, 1956 73 Belle Isle—Detroit, 1955 74 Public park—Cleveland, Ohio, 1955 75 Courthouse square—Elizabethville, North Carolina, 1955 76 Picnic ground—Glendale, California, 1955 77 Belle Isle, Detroit, 1955 78 Detroit, 1955 79 Chicago, 1956 80 Public park—Ann Arbor, Michigan, 1955 81 City Hall—Reno, Nevada, 1956 82 Indianapolis, 1956 83 U.S. 90, en route to Del Rio, Texas
Richard C Hudson 