A book by Magnum agency photographer Alessandra Sanguinetti recommended to me by my tutor for the final year, Euripides. We had been discussing my project idea of revisiting areas of my childhood and youth to take photographs that capture what is there today, what isn’t there today, the condition of the place, the sights, the smells and sounds of where I grew up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the rear of the book, importantly after the photos, there is an explanation of the idea. The photographer visited Black River Falls in Wisconsin between 2014 and 2022. She linked herself to Wisconsin through reading Wisconsin Death Trip by Michael Lesy whilst growing up in Buenos Aires. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
In remembering the book she remembered that everyone in the book was most likely dead and at the age of nine had the realisation that the photographs in the book were the only way she would ever get to see the eyes of the people. She uses the idea of photography to “keep us all from disappearing”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It is a purely black and white book with an embossed front cover and a label within the indented area that appears to be a reference book in a library or a catalogue for something to do with a science experiment. The rear of the book displays a pair of hooves possible from a donkey or a horse. One of only a few photos in the book to stretch across the bindings into the opposite facing page is another image, sideways on, of the same equine animal ( I assume it is the same) but it is cropped to not show the head or extremities of legs, feet or tail. In fact there is only extremity visible and that is the animals penis hanging under the belly. The animal looks wet and cold but appears to be indoors. This is the second image in the tome after the first showing a wheel of fortune styled birthday board in a school or similar establishment where kids names and dates of birth are grouped into the months of the year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The book contains over 30 portraits, either singles, duos or groups, that show faces of people in the community. There are many more images though that are portraits without showing the whole person, an image of someone cleaning a revolver, clear detail showing on the hands but nothing further up than the wrist. Another shows the hands of a manual worker, possibly a press operator as many of the fingers on the left hand appear to have been shortened by industrial accidents. Another pair of hands entering the frame the top is wearing thick leather gloves and appearing to set or load a small spring trap. These photos bring to mind images of Christ’s stigmata and the religious iconography of his hands.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Religion features all the way through the book, there is a run down building like a wooden shack that has religious mantras on the outside in hand scrawled text, such as “Dress Modestly”, “Pray”, “Men Wear Pants” and “God Have Mercy”, joined in this case with posters of pro-life campaigns. Other images show a young girl seemingly held by her father or a priest whilst holding her hand up. A young man in another photo prays with his hands clenched together on the bottom bunk of his bed, a group of choir girls in white robes stand ready to move out and sing. They are wearing wintery footwear and none of them are smiling. Some seem to take it seriously, and a girl in the centre has her book on the floor at her feet as if she is rebelling. Other members of this choir appear to be ready to cause mischief. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
I think it is telling a story about religion in this small community, that all are made to adhere to the ways of religious life, but some are just paying it lip service and doing their duty as a member of the group. It’s a wonderful image in which three of the seven are looking at the camera and the others appear to be losing patience. Interestingly, the pair in the centre of the photo are facing in opposite directions, similarly to the painting of the Last Supper by Leonardo in which Jesus and his disciple to his right are facing away from each other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Religion features in crosses drawn on blackboards, a bible that has been rescued from a fire, a coffin being prepared and a portrait of a well dressed man with a cross around his neck. Most likely to be a man of the cloth I think that the photographer is capturing all the different types of people that make up the community and the religious community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In one superb set of prints half way through the book, a head and shoulders portrait of an elderly woman with two pairs of glasses on her face, looking really stern and disapproving, looking towards the right hand empty page. A field of white.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
However, when you turn the page the blank page is blank on both sides and what follow on the opposite facing page is almost a glamour photo of a young woman. She is looking up above the camera and has no clothes on her top but seemingly suffering from freckles or blackheads on her upper arms and shoulders. She wears make up and is apparently doing this in defiance of the stern woman from the previous page. It seems to represent the younger generation moving on from the old ways and being more comfortable with their own body image.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Another two pages contain images of guns or ammunition, leading me to think that this is an important skill rather than a hobby to have in this community. Maybe there are wild animals that are a threat, in fact another page shows a lifeless wolf on the porch of a house. Animals pop up time and time again with calves and fawns appearing a couple of times each. Again this appears to be a demonstration of the life in these places, but also serves as a common symbol of language used in the church and bible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There are portraits of people ready to partake or partaking in their hobbies too, a scout or a piano player ready to get going, seemingly point out that it is not all work and no play. Each of these seems to also have a use in the community too, maybe the piano player is playing in the church and the scout group is based in the church as many are in the UK too. A fisherman is photographed in his home on his own couch with a taxidermied fish in his hands, again another hobby but fish play heavily in the story of Christianity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Not many people in portraits are making eye contact with the lens of the camera and this feels to distance the photographer from the community. Stepping outside into the streets Sanguinetti takes photographs of buildings. A law office with a handwritten sign on the steps shows who is in charge and other buildings are shown covered in a thick coating of snow. In some images there are items under the snow that are impossible to know their meaning, but to me one looks like a coffin that is buried under the cold white material. A big silo containing cobs of corn tell the story of a farming community but in another there is a front on photograph of a building called “The Club” which looks like a social club or even a working mans club as they might be called in the UK. All without colour so it is difficult to gauge the overall appearance but the shadows make it appear harsher and less welcoming than it probably should be.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
One photo of the Black River laundromat shot at night like som eof the other buildings, appears to almost be a Hopper-esque picture. The narrow windows show the washers and dryers within the brightly lit building with the outside being surrounded by snow and slush from a winter storm. It is another of my favourite photos from the book.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
What’s it all about though? The publisher Mack Books suggest on their catalogue that this book is about photography and death. There are certainly elements of death within the book, literal coffins, dead and taxidermied animals, guns and bullets as well as people in prison. If it is about death I think it is about the contents of life before the end. There has been much talk of Memento Mori, whether it is in the film 28 Years Later or even in The Streets’ single of the same title. It simply means that you must remember we all will die and these appear throughout the book, whether it is the symbols already mentioned or the young and old women facing off over a blank page, Many of the portraits also have the energy of a post-mortem style photograph that I discussed in my dissertation last year. It seems to paint the sitter as already dead, the flash causing the skin to wash out and become pale. The shops and buildings and even kitchens and lounges in the book appear to be abandoned even though they are in use.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Yes, I think that the book is telling the story of a part of America that is struggling to survive in the modern age. Fingers missing in accidents would not be so readily accepted in todays world of health and safety, a glass pickle jar full of bullets does not seem like the safest place to keep them. It tells us that religion is holding on in these small communities, even if it is struggling in the main stream world of populous cities across the US and although there is nothing immediately sinister on display I cannot help but think of the scandals that have rocked the church over the decades when it comes to safeguarding and the health and wellbeing of young people associated with the church.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I think it is a brave book, Sanguinetti obviously got close to the people in the towns, close enough to get som every intimate portraits of young children, religious leaders, prisoners, soldiers and buisnessman.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
She has a great technique at all the different types of photos in the book, whether they’re external shots of buildings in the cold or intimate photos of people in their small rooms. The flash is well done, and I think used to create a style of the photos to accentuate the black and white more.
According to Magnum she used a Digital Leica Medium Format camera for this book, most likely an S model camera. I don’t see the images as obviously from a digital camera, they may have been altered a little in post production obviously, but they all have a filmic quality to me. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The group photos she includes are seldom straightforward images, and a particular photo, like the choir, of a basketball team shows off a non-smiling group of young women looking this time at the lens, but one girl is looking off to the side where her teammate is standing with her leg held up. Maybe this shot was made before or after the seemingly normal group portrait. It is a wonderfully dour shot though, with very little joy showing. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
In terms of relating it to my project, it highlights the benefits of not just sticking with wide shots of buildings, but maybe doing as Euripides suggested, “People, Places, and Things”. It is also not easy to tell what focal length she used for the book, but some reports have her using a 40mm lens, which on a medium format is close to being a 31mm equivalent lens on a 35mm full frame camera. The book feels very consistent in this regard, the portraits appear to be shot on the same lens as the exterior shots of buildings and landscapes etc.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Euripides mentioned that I should probably replicate this practice in my own work as mentioned at the end of the notes made in the tutorial in this post.<\/a> So far I have been out twice and used only 28mm lenses on my digital and 35mm film cameras, as well as a drone for shooting from above to provide some context and an angle that was not so easily achieved in the past. During my tutorial Euripides also suggested I look into Sebastiao Salgado’s work which I will do in the coming week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n NOTE: I have not included any images from the book as I am concerned about copyright strikes as has happened in the past with Magnum photographers. If you want to read more about Sanguinetti’s other works, click here for the website.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A book by Magnum agency photographer Alessandra Sanguinetti recommended to me by my tutor for…<\/p>\n
I will need to photograph people too, possibly in their local settings, without getting into trouble. I’ll see if I can take my flash and use it either on camera or off camera for a different effect. <\/p>\n\n\n\n