John Gossage Libri

John Gossage, the renowned American photographer and photography book-maker, presents two companion volumes and his first ever books in color. Engaged in a dance, neither book comes first, there is no hierarchy or sequence to the pair of volumes. Gossage is one of the most literary of photographic book authors and in The Thirty-Two Inch Ruler, the narrative, whilst not autobiographical, is about a neighborhood in which he lives; one that is singular in the United States. At the same time provincial and international, it is a neighborhood populated by ambassadorial residences, embassies, and the lavish private homes of those who are in positions of power and influence in Washington. A project he began with the arrival of a new neighbor, the Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and made over a full year’s cycle of seasons, these are images from the drift of privilege. The streets, cars, homes and yards of this neighborhood are photographed on perfect spring or autumn days, with sparklingly clear blue skies, and flowers or foliage accenting the order. These are photographs about how one might wish the world to be, how beauty might be seen as desire. In the same year Gossage made the Map of Babylon, photographing digitally from Washington, to Germany, to China and places in-between. This look away, to places beyond the immediate and local, is a classic exploration of particulars of the outside world.

An exercise in the art of seeing and bookmaking, this 464 page tome explores the Berlin Wall as a repository for 20th century history and as a symbol of a divided, dangerous and polarized world. By asking us to look at what we have misplaced or abandoned as well as what we intended Gossage brings us face to face with the present as it becomes history. The production of the book, from its weight (at over 8 lbs), design (case bound, slip cased, acetate dust jacket) and printing (lush duotone) makes it a physical as well visual experience.

In John Gossage words this is a book “with a particular context, of photographs to settle the feeling that I did not understand my home. To do that I set out, starting in 2003, to see what clarity my pictures might bring.” And so came into being these photos of scenes, things, minor events and the look in the eyes of the young, all taken in everyday non-iconic places throughout his travels across America. “Should Nature Change,” taken from the Book of Isaiah, is for Gossage both a declaration and a warning: “I am a humanist, like most of us are, I can’t really step back to see the beauty and order of all this; closeness brings chaos and dread in this case. We have done harm to the place we live, I’m told, but it seems to me that we have done the most harm to ourselves and our best-laid plans. The planet has a plan to fix this, if we don’t.” To be continued…

“Things, people and events harbor within them more than we can know or understand, until looked at with slight inflection. If you get it right, you don’t have to explain.”—John Gossage. With this characteristic off-kilter curiosity John Gossage continues his loving yet critical, generous yet ironic vision of America; I Love You So Much!!!!!!!!! is the fourth book in his ongoing series on this theme, following Should Nature Change (2019), Jack Wilson’s Waltz (2019) and The Nicknames of Citizens (2020), all published by Steidl. Gossage is as always open to the wonders of the everyday, be he making a portrait of a young artist or a tree; and he relishes the poetry of pattern in his subjects—the ripples of a tablecloth, a grid of tiles, the serpentine curls of an electrical cord. The title of the book (with not one exclamation mark too few) is taken from a handwritten inscription Gossage found on an old but beloved car in Rochester, Minnesota, for him a moment of gritty glory: “It read like an afterlife, a murmur of its inhabitants long after they had parked the car and left.”

In John Gossage’s words this is a book “with a particular context, of photographs to settle the feeling that I did not understand about my home. To do that I set out, starting in 2003, to see what clarity my pictures might bring.” And so came into being these photos of scenes, things, minor events and the look in the eyes of the young, all taken in everyday non-iconic places throughout his travels across America. Gossage’s ongoing look at his country within these pages is like a dance: rhythmic, redeeming, restorative, intuitive; but tentatively hopeful. “I would like to believe all of it,” he writes, “that we will be saved, but on Connecticut Avenue there is graffiti that says ‘Where is Lee Harvey Oswald when we need him?’ All I can hear is the faint echoing gun shots coming from Wounded Knee.” To be continued…