PHOTO BOOKS: RADAR Vol.1: RED CLAY BY FALL LINE PRESS

Have you ever tried to support an editorial project on Kickstarter? I did it once, and it was worth it!

Back in 2023 I saw a advertise on instagram from Fall Line Press, 5 upcoming photography books of great authors at an unmissable price, knowing already the publisher I said: why not!

After one year and some trouble with the Italian Custom I had my books and, as I expected, was a great deal.

Fall Line Press is an American independent press dedicated to publishing limited edition art photography books.

RADAR Vol.1: Red Clay is an ensamble of photo books and writings exploring one place, region or territory. Red Clay, the first volume of the series, examines the south eastern United States trough photographers or projects based there. .

In this first collection we have 5 photographers with 5 different projects and one poem each, by the Pulitzer Price winner poet Forrest Gander.

The photographers are: Nydia Blas, Tim Davis, Maury Gotemiller, Laura Noel and Anderson Scott.

The Red Clay box contains all the five soft covered books plus one, 17 by 23,5 cm in a limited edition of 375 copies. With the box you can choose a limited edition print from one of the authors, I choice the Tim Davis one. Every book has an illustration that resume the general meaning of each work.

The first project is “I came into this world high as a bird” by Nydia Blas:

When she moved to Atlanta, in 2014, she “has no choice but to connect the experience of black folks to what I’m watching, seeing, experiencing.” The trees she saw landing in Atlanta are connected with murders and stories of violence against “Black Folks”. The whole story in the project is a weaving of present and past of a black girl between white people.

The second book is “Hypoluxo Road” by Tim Davis:

It’s a brilliant and acid journey down Hypoluxo road.

“I am not ashamed of the pictures of this book, but they give me that little heave of rollercoaster nausea you get remembering something embarrassing you did as kid.”

At that time, in Florida, he was shooting mostly at night. Artificial light has its own meaning, is more human, he says. It was put there by someone, so it means something. Artificial light is the essence of what we have built.

In the pictures of Tim Davis, in several moments, you start to ask yourself “what am I looking”, unrational reality in a rational and gently compositions. It opens a new maze of paths in front of us, exploring new directions for contemporary photography, like Stephen Shore did before him.

The third is “Make Believe” by Maury Gortemiller.

In this book photographs are paired with reconfigured texts from Donald Trump’s book The Art of The Deal, as a direct response.

This is not mean to refer to the president or the political climate; is more a parody of the surliness of the authorial voice. Is a deep work od decontextualization and reordering of word, digging into latent incongruities, fear, humility and capacity of wonder. The photographer built an antidote to the contemporary public environment of toxic masculinity, egotism and nationalism.

The forth is “Smoke Break” by Laura Noel:

At first impact is a series of people smoking, but after few pages questions start to come over, like: who are them?

At the end there are the names of those people but than you understand that the question was wrong.

This is a work of psychological investigation about the people who still smoke, widely limited in the US. (Not that much for us in southern Europe).

The author is fascinated by the people who still smoke, between rebellion and compulsion. For many is a getaway to a state of contemplation and this escapes are a difficult value to understand for a nonsmoker.

The fifth photo book is “Tama-Re” by Anderson Scott.

This series is more like a traditional reportage, if compared with the others. The series of photos tell us the story of Tama-Re, the last base of the cult called United Nuwaubin Nation. That organisation started in 1967 in New York and went through many incarnations and name changes. In 1993, the group sold their property in Brooklyn, New York and moved to the site that would become Tama-Re, in Georgia, US. The Nuwaubians are an offshoot of Islam, headed by Dwight “Malachi” York, currently serving 135 years in a federal supremacy prison for child molestation and racketeering. This Egyptian like, fundamentalist sect was based in Georgia since 1993. The photos has been shot some time before the demolition.

Another case of a religious cult going too far, hidden in the shadow of a disturbed guru. Over a hundred people followed him and lived in this crazy place until the federal government intervened, uncovering stories of abuse and racketeering.

There is also a extra book, without any illustration, collecting five different poems by Forrest Gander, one per book, named Rad Clay. The poems are closely related to every project giving us another prospective of reading either its own keys.

Before to receive the book I got also a collection of small prints, like present for the waiting. All great pictures buy the authors.

I believe supporting an independent publishing house is extremely important nowadays, especially when it comes to such high-quality works. I was fascinated by the result, and if I can, I will do it again.

I recommend you take a look at Fall Line Press's catalog, some copies of Radar Vol. 1 are still available.

Also, check out my YouTube channel, where you can find videos about the books covered on this blog.