{"title":"Matt Black","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eMatt Black\u003c\/strong\u003e offers a compelling exploration of contemporary American life through his evocative visual narratives. His work delves deep into the fabric of the nation, capturing the subtle interplay between landscape, culture, and identity.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eReaders can expect a rich blend of photojournalism and artistic insight that illuminates often overlooked corners of American geography and society. His books invite reflection on the interconnectedness of place and experience within the broader arts and culture discourse.\u003c\/p\u003e","products":[{"product_id":"american-artifacts-by-matt-black-9780500027752","title":"American Artifacts","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe companion volume to Matt Black's critically acclaimed \u003cem\u003eAmerican Geography\u003c\/em\u003e presents a deeper view of his six-year odyssey documenting poverty in the United States of America.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eDuring his six-year journey across the United States creating the project that became \u003cem\u003eAmerican Geography\u003c\/em\u003e, Matt Black collected objects in the locations he visited. Each location is designated as an area of 'concentrated poverty' - a US Census definition for places with poverty rates of 20% or higher. Over time, the objects he found and collected began to take on symbolic significance.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eAs Black crisscrossed the United States, his collection grew into the thousands: plastic spoons and forks, lottery tickets, liquor bottles, lighters, and matchbooks. Some items were important, like job applications, medical paperwork, and driver's licences; some were lost personal effects, like family photographs, bracelets, eyeglasses, notes, and letters. There was the detritus of labour: work gloves, broken tools and supplies, wire, bolts, padlocks, and bent nails.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThis new monograph, presented as a companion volume to Black's seminal photobook, \u003cem\u003eAmerican Geography\u003c\/em\u003e, showcases photographs of these objects, assemblages, and collages, previously unpublished images from \u003cem\u003eAmerican Geography\u003c\/em\u003e, and the voices of those who are cut off from the 'American Dream'.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThese humble, discarded objects form a portrait of America assembled from its roadways and sidewalks, an archaeology of dispossession. For those who follow Black's photographic work and his unflinching critique of inequality in the United States, this book is an essential volume.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Thames and Hudson (Australia) Pty Ltd","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47075881550060,"sku":"9780500027752","price":100.0,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/98383482366.jpg?v=1765188530"},{"product_id":"american-geography-by-matt-black-9780500545355","title":"American Geography","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eAmerican Geography\u003c\/i\u003e is the visual record of Magnum photographer Matt Black's five-year, 100,000-mile road trip across 46 states of the United States, plus Puerto Rico. It examines the conditions of powerlessness, prejudice, and pragmatism among America's poor.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThe project originated in Matt Black's exploration of his own hometown in California's rural Central Valley—a place that has been called 'the other California'—where one third of the population lives in poverty. Travelling out from that location in 2015, he went on to visit designated 'poverty areas', places with poverty rates of above 20% as defined by the US census. He found that, rather than being anomalies, 'poverty areas' are never more than a two-hour drive apart. They are woven throughout the fabric of the country yet are cut off from the 'land of opportunity'.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eMatt Black's compelling black and white photographs, from which one can trace a line back to the FSA Photographers of the 1930s and 1940s, such as Walker Evans and Dorothea Lange, are accompanied by his own travelogue. This travelogue is an eclectic combination of observations, overheard conversations in cafés and city buses, diner menus, bus timetables, historical facts, and echoes from daily news reports, which enrich the vivid portrait of these 'states of un-America'.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eWith 100 illustrations in colour.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Thames and Hudson (Australia) Pty Ltd","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47455515476204,"sku":"9780500545355","price":100.0,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/61Ia1sehB2S._SL1500.jpg?v=1774777314"}],"url":"https:\/\/bookhero.live\/collections\/matt-black.oembed","provider":"Book Hero","version":"1.0","type":"link"}