Down These Mean Streets.

Down These Mean Streets. By Will Steacy. b. frank books, 2012. 112 pp., illustrated throughout, 9,5x12". Edition of 400 copies. Images from here.

Book description:

"Amidst the noise and rhetoric of the 2012 US presidential campaign comes a sobering visual account of politics, capitalism, social priorities and the collapse of the American Dream.

b.frank books presents 'Down These Mean Streets', the first monograph by the Philadelphia-raised, artist and writer, Will Steacy.

In combining his own celebrated photographs of America’s inner cities with journal entries, maps, and a preponderance of text and imagery from newspapers and magazines, Steacy presents an imposing collage depicting the downward spiral of the American economy in which 30 years of misguided economic policies have transferred a nation’s wealth and power to a privileged few at the expense of the middle and working class.

Rich with iconic imagery of American culture layered with carefully edited clippings from national and regional media, he presents the portrait of a changing nation struggling to adapt to a 21st Century post-industrialist global economy."

The House That Burns Every Day.

The House That Burns Every Day. By Marina Gadonneix. Text by Christian Milovanoff. RVB Books, 2012. 32 pp., illustrated throughout, 28x35cm. Edition of 900 copies.

Book description:

"Marina Gadonneix’s work weaves a complex link between documentary and fiction through photographs of places given over to temporary neglect.

'The House That Burns Everyday' recalls a fable whose story, in ashes, would no longer reach us.

Marina Gadonneix has chosen to haunt a dummy house used by firemen to become familiar with fire and fighting it. In short, a room of fiction. Fire has raged, soon it will flare up again.

In this interstice, Gadonneix collects these artificial ruins. From a distance, the spectator can cope with the worst. The worst, in this work, is always yet to come."

Alla helgons dag

Image source.

Family is very important to me, and this is an important day.

"In Western Christian theology, the day commemorates all those who have attained the beatific vision in Heaven. It is a national holiday in many historically Catholic countries.

[...]

Other Christian traditions define, remember and respond to the saints in different ways."

In many European countries, including Sweden, the tradition is to light candles and visit the graves of deceased relatives.

Read more here or here for example.

Quote from here.

River Phoenix

River Phoenix reading.

I can't believe it - 20 years ago...