Mitch Epstein

Mitch Epstein Synopsis

Twenty years of images by the acclaimed American photographer, pioneer of color art photography

Mitch Epstein (Holyoke, Massachusetts, 1952) is a photographer who helped pioneer fine-art color photography in the 1970s. Focusing primarily on America as a place and an idea over the last five decades, Epstein produced iconic images of his country and immersive, visually arresting stories on the urgent political and cultural challenges America has to face as a nation. American Nature presents three seminal series (American Power, Property Rights and Old Growth) and premiers two multimedia works: Clear Cut, a projection of Darius Kinsey's early 20th century photographs of logging in the Pacific Northwest forests of the United States set to a modern soundtrack; and Forest Waves, a multi-channel video-sound installation made in the old growth forests of Massachusetts.

The book is an inquiry into the consumption of resources by American industry and the risks that individuals undertake to preserve what is left of precolonial land for future generations. It includes a selection from all three photographic series, Darius Kinsey's photographs from Clearcut and film stills from Forest Waves. Together, they tell the story of the resilience and fragility of the natural world. Also included are essays by acclaimed art historians Makeda Best and Robert Slifkin and curator Brian Wallis, and an in-depth interview between Wallis and Epstein, which delves into the artist's practice, and his evolving artistic and political resolve.