A photographic reverie on the anxieties of the human condition, from the author of Dive Dark Dream Slow
A wild, insomniac cousin to her somnambulist classic Dive Dark Dream Slow, Pittsburgh-based Melissa Catanese’s (born 1979) The Lottery reads like a work of speculative fiction: a glimpse into an anxious human civilization suspended between uncertain futures and the aftermath of its distant and recent past. Seamlessly combining her own recent photographs with anonymous vernacular photos, press images and NASA archival imagery, Catanese’s intuitive editing reanimates the pictures’ dormant surfaces, evoking the mob mentality and tribalism of Shirley Jackson’s short story "The Lottery," as well as the cosmic indeterminacy at the heart of our unfolding present. Throughout the sequence, we see catastrophic forces punctuated by scenes of serenity, tenderness and fragility. Crowds gather to gawk, passively entertained by unseen horrors. Lone figures claw, swim and bend, haunted and creaturely, isolated and immersed in primordial landscapes. Brief fragments of text from Virginia Woolf hint at a glimmer of hope for regeneration.
PRAISE AND REVIEWS
C4 Journal
Andy Pham
The Lottery is a successful photobook because it eschews a traditional narrative structure in favor of a mysterious and emotionally evocative edit. The book allows the reader to continuously experience perspective shifts – zooming in and out from micro to macro phenomena.
FORMAT: Hbk, 6.5 x 9.5 in. / 80 pgs / 11 color / 55 b&w. LIST PRICE: U.S. $38.00 LIST PRICE: CANADA $55 ISBN: 9791280177247 PUBLISHER: The Ice Plant/Witty Books AVAILABLE: 8/15/2023 DISTRIBUTION: D.A.P. RETAILER DISC: TRADE PUBLISHING STATUS: Out of stock indefinitely AVAILABILITY: Not available TERRITORY: NA ASIA
A photographic reverie on the anxieties of the human condition, from the author of Dive Dark Dream Slow
A wild, insomniac cousin to her somnambulist classic Dive Dark Dream Slow, Pittsburgh-based Melissa Catanese’s (born 1979) The Lottery reads like a work of speculative fiction: a glimpse into an anxious human civilization suspended between uncertain futures and the aftermath of its distant and recent past. Seamlessly combining her own recent photographs with anonymous vernacular photos, press images and NASA archival imagery, Catanese’s intuitive editing reanimates the pictures’ dormant surfaces, evoking the mob mentality and tribalism of Shirley Jackson’s short story "The Lottery," as well as the cosmic indeterminacy at the heart of our unfolding present. Throughout the sequence, we see catastrophic forces punctuated by scenes of serenity, tenderness and fragility. Crowds gather to gawk, passively entertained by unseen horrors. Lone figures claw, swim and bend, haunted and creaturely, isolated and immersed in primordial landscapes. Brief fragments of text from Virginia Woolf hint at a glimmer of hope for regeneration.
