Mitch Epstein: Sunshine Hotel

(Hardback)

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America, as a place and an idea, has occupied Mitch Epstein's art for the past fi ve decades. With the first photographs he made in 1969 at 16-years-old, Epstein began confronting the cultural psychology of the United States. Although he started working in an era defined by the Vietnam War, civil rights, rock and roll, and free love, he responded hardily to each radically different era that followed-from Reaganomics to surveillance after 9/11, to the current climate crisis and resurgence of white supremacy. More than a single era or issue, it is the living organism of American culture that engages Epstein; no matter how much the country changes, he describes something mysteriously and persistently American. Conceived of and sequenced by Andrew Roth, Sunshine Hotel assembles 175 photos made between 1969 and 2018-more than half previously unpublished. Yet the book is not simply a retrospective. It traces both the evolution of an artist and the development of a country, revealing Epstein's formal and thematic shifts in tandem with America's changing zeitgeist and landscape. Sunshine Hotel is a visual immersion that forgoes linearity and a classical layout, as it sets forth Epstein's evolving understanding of his country's pathologies and promise. Epstein raises the more challenging question of how inherently abstract political concepts about the nation and the culture as a whole can be represented photographically ... he addresses this crucial question head on, offering a new, non-didactic approach. - Brian Wallis

Reviews

retrospective look at five decades of work that demonstrates even more dramatically than any single exhibition could the breadth and depth of his questioning of the troubled beauty of our shared and divided histories.--Barry Schwabsky "Brooklyn Rail"
[Sunshine Hotel] threads recent photographs ... into an anachronistic sequence that heightens the connections between new and archival photographs.--Rebecca Bengal "Aperture"
Arranged out of chronological order by the editor Andrew Roth, the photos portray an artist with abiding curiosity, able to see both the personal and the political.--Hilary Moss "New York Times: T Magazine"
Epstein's study, aided by his large-format camera, combines topographic and social realism with picturesque conventions in ways that analogize the relationship between close observation and distant speculation, between the specificities of local realities and the abstractions of politics.--Drew Sawyer "Document Journal"
Sunshine Hotel is a much needed survey of Mitch's work in 175 images which span the timeframe from 1969, with an emphasis on America during the Vietnam War, through to 2018 [...] If you do not have Mitch's single titles, this book is pretty invaluable and an excellent entry point.--Brad Feuerhelm "Nearest Truth"
Sunshine Hotel, is a linear exploration of past and present reality, told through a visual narrative of the United States. Through his artistic craft, Epstein's work spans across the cultural, environmental, political, and social shifts of the nation, offering a detailed visual recounting of events, people, and places. As a pioneer of color photography, Epstein's cumulative work offers detailed insight into the complexities of America: the place, its ideas, and its people.--Rachel Cheung "Document Journal"
Sunshine Hotel, offers a deftly curated selection from his complete oeuvre, all characterized by the timeless and multifaceted beauty Epstein is known for.--Amanda Benchley "1stdibs"
What emerges is that Epstein's deepest feelings are for the compromised landscape, and that he takes beautiful photographs...--Luc Sante "New York Times: Book Review"

Author Bio

A pioneer of 1970s color photography, Mitch Epstein has photographed for half a century how we engage with our landscape. Epstein has won numerous awards including the Prix Pictet, the Berlin Prize and a Guggenheim Fellowship. His work is held in collections including the Museum of Modern Art and Tate Modern, and in 2013 the Walker Art Center commissioned a theatrical rendition of his "American Power" series. Epstein has conveyed the cultural and physical evolution of the United States from 1973 to the present in his Steidl books Family Business (2003), Recreation (2005), American Power (2011), New York Arbor (2013) and Rocks and Clouds (2017).