Landfill : elegy for the Santa Maria Valley / Brett Kallusky ; with an afterword by Matthew Coolidge.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Kallusky, Brett, author, photographer.

Contributor:

Coolidge, Matthew, contributor.

Rosengarten Family Fund.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Kallusky, Brett.

Photography, Agricultural--California--Santa Maria Valley American Viticultural Area.

Photography, Agricultural.

Agricultural wastes--California--Santa Maria Valley American Viticultural Area--Pictorial works.

Agricultural wastes.

California--Santa Maria Valley American Viticultural Area.

Genre:

Illustrated works.

Physical Description:

95 pages : illustrations (black and white), map (black and white) ; 23 cm

Edition:

First clothbound edition.

Place of Publication:

Staunton, VA : George F. Thompson, 2022.

Summary:

Landfill is a collection of eye-opening photographs made by Brett Kallusky in California's historic Santa Maria Valley, one of the world's great wine-growing areas. This body of work, however, directs our attention to a small section of the landscape: to the entwined systems of vast agricultural production and the waste it creates. The photographs reveal scenes that are literally hidden from public view and knowledge, underscoring their nature as evidentiary documentation: a microcosm with ramifications far beyond its geographical boundaries. Kallusky's interest does not end there, for his depiction of this famous Central California landscape creates an opportunity for contemplative reflection of our complicit involvement, if only by eating the strawberries, carrots, and cauliflower that is grown here and transported to grocery stores throughout the U.S. Thus, despite the cool formalism and detached documentary style of the pictures, assembled together as they are in this book, they engage in an extended consideration, drawing viewers into a new relationship with this place. Addressing the current, human-centered epoch known as the Anthropocene, the quiet but powerful imagery of Kallusky's 'Landfill' examines important questions of how the land is used and regarded. The landscape reveals who we are, as he brings these invisible spaces into visibility, showing how the earth supports our food needs on a massive scale, fueling a massive engine of consumption. What is left in the wake of that system to which we all belong?

Local Notes:

Acquired for the Penn Libraries with assistance from the Rosengarten Family Fund.

ISBN:

1938086872

9781938086878

OCLC:

1240412689