America by Zoe Strauss (February 24, 2010) 
(20 votes, average: 3.80 out of 5)
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Curator Statement by Michael Itkoff
Another wanderer, Zoe Strauss’s fantastic book ‘America’ updates this popular trope with a vision all her own. Strauss has an amazing ability to connect with people from all walks of life and, as her own commentary makes clear, it is the process of creating relationships that she most values. We, as viewers, benefit from the empathic gaze and intimacy conveyed by Strauss’s lens. These landscapes and portraits do not evidence the glossy but vapid beauty we have become accustomed to seeing in advertising and fashion magazines. In fact it is the elegant grittiness of this work, a celebration of Strauss’s engagement with things as they are, that serves as the visual anchor.
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Our poll "A photo essay always needs a great written story" closed. 267 people voted, 28% agrees, 72% disagrees. 233 people answered our follow-up question "Are you a photographer?" 82% indicated they are, 18% said no. Initially, negative answers to question #1 were almost 100% as was the pecentage of photographers among respondants. Then, when the level of non-photographers started to rise, the percentage of people indicating good text is always essential started to rise too. This seems to indicate that non-photographers think that adding good text to your photo essays is essential. In my opinion: if you want non-photographers to dig your work, you know what to do...
Zoe Strauss's America shines a light on the often unseen people and places in the United States today.
Once in a great while, a photographer and their photographs break new ground and people sit right up and take notice. Zoe Strauss is such a photographer. The Philadelphia native who has brought us searing images of that city's marginalized people and places on the fringe of society, has taken her no holds barred, up close and personal style of photography to the roads less traveled across America. At times witty, touching, poetic, and downright shocking, Zoe Strauss's photographs capture the beauty and struggle of everyday life and resonate as a social document of our time, and as sheer and powerful art.
Zoe Strauss picked up a camera on her 30th birthday, but in only eight years, has generated a huge body of work that has been exhibited in the Whitney Biennial, and has garnered her a United States Artists grant and a Gund Fellowship. Text taken from Amazon. com.
Ms. Strauss's images are not without tenderness, but their harsh, unblinking force is like a punch in the face. --The New York Times
Zoe Strauss (1970) lives and works in Philadelphia, USA.
Click weblink zoestrauss.blogspot.com or browse our archives
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