Recycled Realities (Center for American Places - Center Books on American Places) - Hardcover

Willis, John; Young, Tom

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1930066481 ISBN 13: 9781930066489

Publisher: Center for American Places, 2006

Synopsis

Near the homes of photographers John Willis and Tom Young is a paper mill that sits in the otherwise pristine and picturesque climes of western Massachusetts. For Willis and Young, this site is one of both aesthetic and philosophical contradictions: despite its verdant locale, the mill—with its ominous smoke stacks and countless bales of discarded paper—brings to mind the dreariness of industrialization and the impermanence of life itself. But the factory is actually one where such litter is reborn as reusable paper.  

Willis and Young’s stunning black-and-white images, collected in this unforgettable volume, transform this mill and the innumerable mounds of recyclable waste it processes daily into an indelible and evocative landscape. Recycled Realities is not a jeremiad foretelling the consequences of excessive waste, rampant pollution, or unbridled consumption, but rather a profound meditation on the hidden meanings and connections that linger beneath the debris and detritus of everyday life. These astonishing and often surreal photos of discarded paper from the printed world trace the processes of emergence, revelation, and redemption that make the cycle of life possible. In their photographs, Willis and Young take that which we have discarded and create new forms of being in and of themselves: vibrant and ultimately life-affirming portraits of who we are as people and the realities that we constantly build—and rebuild—all around us.

About this title

About the Author

John Willis is professor of art at Marlboro College. His photographs are in the permanent collections of the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, and the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston, among others. Tom Young is professor of art at Greenfield Community College. His photographs are in the permanent collections of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, the Polaroid International Collection in Germany, and the Fogg Museum at Harvard University.

Review

“Recycled Realities is a book by two true visual poets, and it is difficult to imagine a richer or more fortunate collaboration. . . . John Willis and Tom Young have made splendid, positive, lyrical images out of the waste and debris left over from our busy lives.” (Emmet Gowin, Princeton University 2006-04-01)

About this edition

• Publisher: Center for American Places
• Publication date: 2006
• ISBN 10: 1930066481
• ISBN 13: 9781930066489
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 72