Essay von Douglas Copland. Ex-fashion photographer Christopher Griffin had nothing less than a radical reinterpretation of American iconography in mind when he assembled a crew to travel the sideways and byways of a forgotten America to shoot everyday, utilitarian things dotting our contemporary landscape. Searching out abandoned gas stations, remote industrial plants, budget motels, strip mall car lots, utility fields, roadside ditches, and even material graveyards, Griffin and his team constructed huge backdrops around each painstakingly selected specimen, creating stark, decontextualized, and utterly magnificient renderings of the myriad things we see and forget without noticing. An airplane engine cow. An old pickup truck. A massive earth mover. A sterling fire engine. A weathered traffic sign. A pil rig. A satellite dish. A defunct burger barn. A motel sign, basketball hoop, dock crane...
