Indie Photobook Library » Down These Mean Streets

Down These Mean Streets

Title: Down These Mean Streets

Photographer/s: Will Steacy

Date of publication: June 2010

Place of publication: New York City, NY

Dimensions: 17 x 11 in.

Edition size: 2000

Type of binding: Newsprint, quarter fold

Number of pages: 16

Type of paper: #30 Newsprint

Number of pictures: 11 photographs, 16 graphic reproductions

Type of printing: 4-color web-fed offset

Printer: Joe Novellino, Printing Systems, Inc., NYC

Publisher: Michael Paris Mazzeo

Designer: Bonnie Briant

Editor: Will Steacy and Michael Paris Mazzeo

Language: English

Category: Newspaper

Price: 5 bucks

Summary: Down These Mean Streets provides us with photographic evidence of America’s abandonment of its inner cities. Prompted by the pervasive fear gripping the country and our preoccupation with homeland security, America has diverted its attention and resources away from those most in need, divesting itself of the basic responsibilities of affordable housing, medical care and essential infrastructure.

Working only at night, Steacy walks alone from the airport to the central business district of each city he explores. With map in hand, he follows a loosely planned route through the barren streets and neighborhoods routinely avoided by all but local inhabitants, while stopping to document his observations and chance encounters on film. Illuminated by the saturated, artificial colors of the urban night and marked by long, patient exposures with his large-format view camera, Steacy’s images seductively draw us into a country of foreclosed homes and vacant lots, broken economies and neglected people. With a combination of carefully composed urban views, subtly precise detail images, and insightful portraits, he allows us the time and space to enter this world and question our role in it.

This project marks a continuation of Steacy’s extended paean to the American working class.

The accompanying newspaper, conceived by Michael Paris Mazzeo and Jörg M. Colberg, makes use of photographs, journal entries, notes and maps to help elucidate Mr. Steacy’s practice, experiences and influences.

Date and place of birth of photographer/s: American, b. 1980, Philadelphia, PA

Website: http://www.michaelmazzeo.com/Exhibition_Archive/Will_Steacy_DTMS_Exhibition.html

Book link: http://www.michaelmazzeo.com/DTMS_Newspaper.html

Donated by: Will Steacy and Michael Mazzeo Gallery

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Published on September 27, 2010 5:53 pm.
Filed under: Books Tags: Down These Mean Streets, Michael Mazzeo Gallery, Michael Paris Mazzeo, newsprint, offset, USA, Will Steacy

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The Indie Photobook Library is TWO!

This past weekend, the Indie Photobook Library celebrated its 2nd Anniversary. Thank you to all the photographers/artists/bookmakers that have made the collection what it is today! I’d also like to thank Advisory Board members Darius Himes, Andy Adams, Shane Lavalette, and Gabe Reed and all the venues that have welcomed the iPL. In the last two years, the collection has grown to almost 1000 books. The iPL continues to promote and showcase the books in the collection through international pop-up and feature-length exhibitions, articles, conferences, guest lectures, and also preserves them as a non-circulating public library. Having a specific collection dedicated to this contemporary movement in publishing allows for the development of future discourse on trends in self-publishing, the ability to reflect on and compare books in the collection, and for scholarly research to be conducted years, decades, and centuries to come. I am looking forward to continuing the iPL mission.

Cheers,
Larissa Leclair
Founder, Indie Photobook Library