Mitch Epstein’s photographs are in numerous major museum collections, including New York’s Metropolitan Museum, Museum of Modern Art and Whitney Museum of American Art, the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles, and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.
Epstein’s seven books include American Power (Steidl, 2009) the retrospective monograph, Mitch Epstein: Work (Steidl, 2006), Recreation: American Photographs 1973-1988 (Steidl 2005), Family Business (Steidl 2003/Kraszna-Krausz Photography Book Award).
A Guggenheim Fellow, Epstein has also worked as a director, cinematographer, and production designer on several films, including Dad, Salaam Bombay!, and Mississippi Masala.
Mitch Epstein
American Power
Artist’s statement:
American Power investigates notions of power, both electrical and political. Who has it, what do they do with it, and how does it affect other people? From 2003 to 2008, I traveled across the United States to photograph in and around sites where fossil fuel, nuclear, hydroelectric, wind, solar, and other alternative power are produced. The resulting pictures form a portrait of the United States as it clings to past comforts and gropes for a more sensible future. American Power underscores the intersection between energy production, energy consumption, and climate change. In short, I hope to illuminate the relationship between American society and the American landscape.
American Power is also about the deepening of my political convictions. While making this body of work, I encountered Homeland Security obstacles, environmental contamination, corporate impenetrability, and a culture of excess. These experiences turned my initial curiosity into rage and sadness. American Power has led me to think harder about the artist’s role in a country teetering between collapse and transformation.
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