E.U.S.A. - Softcover

Harris, Naomi

Softcover

ISBN 10: 3868288252 ISBN 13: 9783868288254

Publisher: Kehrer Verlag, 2018

Synopsis

EUSA documents American-themed places in Europe and European-themed places in America. Primarily portraiture, the photos are sentimental and idealized, a reaction to the homogenized, indistinguishable common world community, a direct result of globalization. In »Olde-World« towns in California, Wisconsin or Iowa the respective Danish, Swiss, or Dutch heritage being celebrated is ostensibly that of a significant segment of the local population and reflects a desire for authenticity. In other places the »heritage« is blatantly designed and marketed purely for its entertainment and touristic value. This is also the case with many of the Western theme-parks visited in Europe. Many of the pictures make it hard to locate when and where they where taken: are we in the US or somewhere in Europe? EUSA is an ambitious project that raises questions about authenticity, cultural identity, and appropriation, about the function of »other-directed« places and their enduring appeal.

About this title

About the Author:

Naomi Harris is a photographer from Toronto, Canada. She studied at the International Center of Photography in New York. Naomi has lived and photographed at a Miami Beach senior citizens hotel and attended thirty-eight swingers’ parties for the book "America Swing"s (published by TASCHEN and presented by Richard Prince). Naomi has driven across Canada and photographed the oldest citizen, the world’s largest coffee pot, albino twins and rescued a pregnant Shih Tzu. Naomi lived in her car traveling across the United States for nine months while becoming an American citizen. Naomi has visited more American-themed amusement parks in Europe and European themed towns in America than any other person for her project EUSA, coming 2017. Naomi currently splits her time between Los Angeles and Toronto.

Erik Kessels (1966) is a Dutch artist, designer and curator with a particular interest in photography, and creative director of KesselsKramer, an advertising agency in Amsterdam. He is "best known as a book publisher specialising in absurdist found photography",extensively publishing his and others' found and vernacular photography. Notable works include the long-running series Useful Photography, which he edits with others, and his own In "Almost Every Picture."

Carolina A. Miranda is a columnist for the Los Angeles Times, covering arts and culture.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.:

My goal with photographing these various maudlin locations was to illustrate the enthusiasm we have for each other’s cultures―but also to demonstrate the universal phenomenon that is a reaction to the homogenization of our cultures. These exaggerated reconstructions are not authentic, but are rather perceptions of imagination. And yet through this spirit of camaraderie, if only for that moment, the participants are granted membership to another culture.
I began this project in June 2008 with my photographs of High Chaparral, a wild-west theme park in southern Sweden. Since then I’ve visited over 25 locations on both sides of the Atlantic: “Indian” festivals in Germany; a Tulip Festival in Orange City, Iowa; an American Civil War reenactment in the Czech Republic; a Maifest in Leavenworth, Washington; numerous Oktoberfests around the United States; and a variety of “Cowboy and Indian” amusement parks throughout Europe.
Naomi Harris

About this edition

• Publisher: Kehrer Verlag
• Publication date: 2018
• ISBN 10: 3868288252
• ISBN 13: 9783868288254
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 190