Rob Hann

Rob Hann

DIESEL FRIED CHICKEN

Cloth Bound Hardcover
128 Pages
Edition of 1000
2018
The Artist Edition

From the artist:

One dark and rainy winter’s night in 1999 I sat at home in London watching a tv show called “This is Modern Art”. The presenter was driving an empty road under a clear blue sky near the high desert town of Marfa, Texas. He was talking about the artist Donald Judd. It was very beautiful and I thought “I want to be there”.

In October 2001 I flew to Los Angeles and drove a rental car through the desert states of the American Southwest to Marfa and then back again following a different route.
I travelled with my camera and a bag of film and took photos along the way. It was a thrilling experience. That trip and those photographs were the beginning of this body of work.

When I returned home, I was pleased with the photos and I thought I could make a book but needed to take one more trip to complete it…

Almost seventeen years later, having moved to New York City in 2003, and after a great many more road trips, driving thousands of miles, this is that book.
The mythology of the American road first started to take hold of my imagination in the mid 1970s through reading books, listening to records and watching movies.

Now driving those endless roads, camera by my side, I’m still searching for that mythic country… and sometimes finding it.
I’m not documenting the brutal creeping sprawl of corporate America. I’m seeking the magic that still exists in the spaces in between.

Book review by Dana Stirling |

Americana. Americana is “artifacts that are related to the history, geography, folklore and cultural heritage of the United States of America. Americana is any collection of materials and things concerning or characteristic of the United States or of the American people, and is representative or even stereotypical of American culture as a whole.” (From Wikipedia) 

Americana is the word that comes to mind in this body of work, and the short text above defines it perfectly – this book is a collection of images that characterize America and the American people’s culture and what best to describe it than taking a road trip? 

The Road and the “road trip” photographic style/genre is one that embraces an American nostalgia of the past while creating the future nostalgia for photographers to come. Many artists have been influenced by the road trip not only because it is a liberating physical experience of crossing this large land and seeing its monumental landscapes, but because everyone can relate to this nostalgia. If you were born in the U.S or not, we have all grown up with movies, tv shows, music and public figures that have embodied these cultural phenomena’s that define this nostalgic Americana visuals. 

For me, as an alien resident in the country, I always feel comfort when looking at images of this sort. It immediately makes me feel connected to the place, makes me feel a part of the tapestry of humans that build this land and leave a mark on it. I feel that, although I probably have not placed foot in these locations, I know them in one way or another. We all have a pre conceived notion of what the U.S is and what it looks like even if we haven’t seen it in person, we allow our self to share a collective understanding and visual bank of these places based on all the visual references we have banked during the years. What we saw on TV has become our own memory, a false reality we embrace as absolute truth. 

Having said that, the great experience about bodies of work that tackle this notion of photography is, that no matter how many people photographed it, they all capture something slightly different in their own way. Each book and work capture what it means to drive down these great roads, stop at these gas stations, talk to these people. Each book is a trip of a photographer and his camera. Documenting the lives, scenes and colors around him that are familiar and new at the same time. All these images, in the end, are added to that bank of collective visual the define Americana. Books like these become future canon’s for next generations of visual makers- shifting and shaping their perceptions of what these roads looked like in a time before they could see for themselves. 

As time moves on, things change, places close, people die, politics shift and the landscape changes. What we photograph today might not be there the day after. A building might come down, a person might leave something will change. That is why it is important to keep documenting these roads, places and people, as they are part of our visual history. 

In his book, Rob Hann, shares what America is for him and how he was able to experience it for himself. What started as a journey based on seeing a TV Show has become a visual documentation of itself that might inspire another photographer to go and do that same. With beautifully crafted images, that are packed with vibrant colors and peculiar situations, Hann has brought the road trip into our laps while allowing us to daydream about taking a trip like this our self. 

Whimsical and sometimes humoristic, Hann is creating a narrative of places and people that are playful yet serious in their own right way. We are able to see the duality of life on the road and in these places and enjoy the simplicity of these events. 

To sum up – I think this book is a rich book that has beautifully crafted images that represent the Americana and the road trip. This book is a must have in any photo lover’s library. Get a copy, get inspired and perhaps go travel this country yourself. 

Image by Rob Hann