We welcome back Ashley Gilbertson who recently spent time “embedded” in Pontiac, Michigan, a city of 60,000 that is heavily reliant upon the economic presence of General Motors. It is a picture of the effect of the economic crisis on a small, upper midwestern town. Ashley is now affiliated with VII Photo and you can see some of his more recent work there, including some of his work on Wall Street for Vanity Fair. The slide show below was originally part of a multimedia show at the NYT.
Interesting you should post this now. I just made a trip to Indiana University to see the gallery of Gilbertson’s images they had from “Whiskey Tango Foxtrot.” And I actually found out about your blog because I saw it on a computer in the gallery. Guess things do come full circle.
Had some interesting images from the book. These from Pontiac are cool too. Working and shooting in a small Indiana town for a newspaper that has a similar background in the auto industry, it’s always nice to see how someone like Gilbertson approaches a subject like this. I think the one I like best is the third one, it’s a candy or toy dispensing machine I think, but it could just as well be the “crystal ball” that used to hold all the promises for Pontiac but now has no magic left.
Erik: Welcome to NCN. Too bad you missed Ashley’s lecture last week he was very good. And very engaged (and engaging). I agree with you about image #3, though my sense of irony attracts me most to #10.