By Elin Spring
There was a time before camera phones. It was a time when a person with a camera and film could wander the streets and countryside without being suspected of nefarious motives. Pictures made during that lengthy timespan reveal much about the trust and openness of the photographed, the intentionality of the photographer and a shared history that can still help us aim toward a better future. Here, we delve into the work of two such photographers and their recently published photo books: “Passing Time” by Sage Sohier (Nazraeli Press, 2023) and “The Orange Line” by Jack Lueders-Booth (Stanley/Barker, 2022).
“Worcester, Massachusettts, 1983” from the book Passing Time by Sage Sohier (Nazraeli Press, 2023).
Sage Sohier’s Passing Time is an elegant publication, featuring rich and complex B&W environmental portraits with a deceptively simple conceit: people at leisure outdoors. Sohier made these portraits from Maine to Florida in the early 1980’s, an era when people spent more time outside and interacting with each other than indoors, mesmerized by electronic screens.
“Mill Creek, West Virginia, 1982” from the book Passing Time by Sage Sohier (Nazraeli Press, 2023).
“Dania, Florida, 1981” from the book Passing Time by Sage Sohier (Nazraeli Press, 2023).
“Pittsburgh, Pennsylavania, 1983” rom the book Passing Time by Sage Sohier (Nazraeli Press, 2023).
It is a jolt to see so many people resting or gathered outside, along with the charmingly dated clothing and hairstyles. However, Sohier’s entrancing portraits are not just a trip down memory lane and the real treasures lie below the surface.
“Illinois, 1985” from the book Passing Time by Sage Sohier (Nazraeli Press, 2023).
“Tallahassee, Florida, 1981” from the book Passing Time by Sage Sohier (Nazraeli Press, 2023.)
Sohier’s compositions highlight intricate associations, exploiting surrounding visual elements to accentuate interpersonal attractions and tensions. Each image leads the viewer to cardinal connections: some lost to a daydream or glooomy boredom, individuals escaping into an urban patch of nature, a couple negotiating a truce, or groups goofing on each other – sometimes all in the same frame. Sohier’s intuitive knack for honing in on expressive gestures and emotions create narratives with empathy and resonance.
“Perrine, Florida, 1981” from the book Passing Time by Sage Sohier (Nazraeli Press, 2023).
“East Boston, 1981” from the book Passing Time by Sage Sohier (Nazraeli Press, 2023).
“Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, 1983” rom the book Passing Time by Sage Sohier (Nazraeli Press, 2023).
Sohier’s keen receptivity sparks a sense of charitable recognition, one that builds as we spend time passing through her book’s images. A marvelous truth becomes self-evident: that these offhand, outwardly mundane interactions were teaching us how to get along. Granted, most of the gatherings pictured are self-segregated and, undoubtedly, a multitude of social ills plagued the world then, as they do now. But maybe, just maybe, these memories of a more community-oriented past could serve us again as a guide back from the blights of senseless violence and cultural polarity.
“Chelsea, Massachusetts, 1983” from the book Passing Time by Sage Sohier (Nazraeli Press, 2023).
From the book The Orange Line by Jack Lueders-Booth (Stanley/Barker, 2022).
Originally commissioned to document a Boston community destined for urban renewal, Jack Lueders-Booth’s The Orange Line, not only preserves a slice of Boston history but makes it personal. The project was undertaken in 1985, with the participation of local photographers David Akiba, Lou Jones, Melissa Shook and Linda Swartz, who helped enliven and humanize what could have transpired as a faceless infrastructure development. Intermingled with empty street scenes featuring rickety, elevated MBTA stations and dilapidated neighborhood buildings are Lueders-Booth’s genuinely affecting portraits.
From the book The Orange Line by Jack Lueders-Booth (Stanley/Barker, 2022).
From the book The Orange Line by Jack Lueders-Booth (Stanley/Barker, 2022).
From the book The Orange Line by Jack Lueders-Booth (Stanley/Barker, 2022).
Lugging an 8”x 10” view camera that required both an introduction and an extended interaction, Lueders-Booth photographed an impressive cross-section of people who lived and worked along the southern stretch of Boston’s Orange Line. Municipal workers and residents, shopkeepers and passersby, T-riders and bench-sitters comprise a remarkable cultural and socioeconomic quilt.
From the book The Orange Line by Jack Lueders-Booth (Stanley/Barker, 2022).
From the book The Orange Line by Jack Lueders-Booth (Stanley/Barker, 2022).
From the book The Orange Line by Jack Lueders-Booth (Stanley/Barker, 2022).
Some photographs have dark arcs produced by shutter lag and others a prevalence of deep shadows that seem to foretell the impending demolition. But Lueders-Booth leverages his empathy with strong compositional elements to dignify each subject, whether meeting the photographer with curiosity, humor, reticence, resignation, or defiance.
From the book The Orange Line by Jack Lueders-Booth (Stanley/Barker, 2022).
From the book The Orange Line by Jack Lueders-Booth (Stanley/Barker, 2022).
The whole seems greater than the sum of these gathered photographs, leaving us to wonder what became of these real people with real lives from this lost community? Every time a renewal project is planned, the express mission is impreovement. Lueders-Booth’s images contend that much is also lost to such development. As more and more communities gentrify, The Orange Line implores us to guide our urban planning more intentionally and inclusively.
From the book The Orange Line by Jack Lueders-Booth (Stanley/Barker, 2022).
FOR MORE INFORMATION
Passing Time
Photographs & Text by Sage Sohier
Nazraeli Press, 2023
https://www.nazraeli.com/complete-catalogue/cyf5no4ls6q3fyuo8wanscyns8z00r
NOTE! A solo exhibit of Passing Time is on view at Joseph Bellows Gallery in LaJolla, California through April 27th, 2024. For more information, go to: https://www.josephbellows.com/exhibitions/sage-sohier3
In Boston, Sage Sohier is represented by Robert Klein Gallery, where her photographs and books may be viewed and purchased: https://www.robertkleingallery.com/
The Orange Line
Photographs & Text by Jack Lueders-Booth
With participation by David Akiba, Lou Jones, Melissa Shook & Linda Swartz.
Stanley/Barker, 2022
https://www.stanleybarker.co.uk/products/the-orange-line
In Boston, Jack Lueders-Booth is represented by Gallery Kayafas, where his photogaphs and books my be viewed and purchased: https://www.gallerykayafas.com/
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