Phil Bergerson - American Artifacts

1st edition published by Black Dog, 2014
Format: Hardback with dustjacket, 310x280mm
Pages: 144
Condition: Very Good

American Artifacts is a poetic photographic portrait of America as it simmered its way through the first decade of the twenty-first century. It reflects that span of years some have called the 'lost' decade. American Artifacts is a personal exploration by an empathetic neighbour-the Canadian documentary photographer Phil Bergerson (Born Toronto, 1947). Bergerson describes his approach as sifting through the remains of a culture-through the shards of artifacts left behind by a rushing humanity as it made its way through the streets of a tumultuous America. His book is a collection of these message shards-often ironic, sometimes full of pathos. All represent the concerns of a struggling humanity: their fears, desires, and hopes with many images vibrating between reality and metaphor. A variety of recurring themes are reflected in photographs of shop window displays, and in the objects and signs from the forgotten corners of hundreds of towns and cities he visited. The book's photographic sequence is bracketed by two powerful pieces of writing, beginning with Margaret Atwood's brilliant writing on debt from Payback, and ending with Nathan Lyons' insightful essay on 'Sequencing'.