Last time I was on a cross-country trip I found myself in Nephi, Utah (pop. 5,000) with time to kill. I went walking and found the Nephi museum, staffed by white-haired woman pushing an ancient vaccuum. The place was loaded with photographs, and even had a case full of vintage photo equipment. The white-haired lady, who was a terrific guide, told me that a recently-deceased museum supporter had been the proprietor of the town’s photo studio — as has his dad before him. The photos went back to the founding of the town, a very Mormon place. After driving 9 hours from Los Angeles, I felt like I’d stumbled into another world.
Chances are you’re not running to Utah anytime soon, but you can have the same experience, in book form, with Laporte, Indiana. I picked up this terrific photo book at BEA and met its compiler, Jason Bitner; he’s one of the founders of Found Magazine. Bitner’s discovery of the treasure trove of midcentury studio portraits happened, as mine would later, on a roadtrip. Carrie has just reviewed it for Bookslut.
In the review, she mentions a striking engagement photo — the couple is seated face to face, in profile. In doing a piece on the book, the Chicago Tribune had the still-married couple recreate the photo, 35 years later.
