On my Bookshelf | Nancy Rexroth – IOWA

On my Bookshelf

In this column, I occasionally present a photo book that is close to my heart. It is not – or not necessarily – a new publication. It is simply a book that somehow fell into my hands and that I would like to recommend to others. And yes – of course it’s on my bookshelf.

It’s a bit of a continuation of my “Photo book of the month” column – just not necessarily as regular as before. And I’ve generally made the column a bit shorter and tighter. I hope you’ll enjoy it!

Prologue

Every now and then I come across a book that is not so typical for me. Nowadays, however, that’s not so hard. You can find an incredible number of reviews and references to great photographers and great books on the internet and on YouTube. I came across this book on the (unfortunately no longer active) YouTube channel of Alec Soth. Even though there are no new videos there anymore, I can still warmly recommend him to anyone who loves photo books. It’s a real treasure trove for great and interesting photo books.

I chose this book on purpose this month to put an end to some discussions about my switch to a Leica and the importance of resolution and sharpness. Nancy Rexroth’s images show once more how little this sometimes matters. 🙂

The Photographer | Nancy Rexroth

Nancy Rexroth, born 1946 in Washington D.C., is an American photographer. She initially studied and completed her bachelor’s degree in English, but then quickly developed a keen interest in photojournalism. In 1971, she completed her master’s degree in photography at Ohio University. During her studies, one of her professors drew her attention to a serious toy camera. To be precise, it was the Diana, a medium-format plastic camera with a plastic lens. Long before the world (re)discovered lomography, Nancy Rexroth used this camera for what would become very iconic in the 90s and later.

The pictures taken with the Diana between 1970 and 1976 were then used to create the IOWA series, which was published in her book of the same name in 1977. The photography community responded very quickly and very strongly to this book and celebrated her work. This also led to a series of exhibitions over the next few years.

Incidentally, I don’t know much more about Nancy Rexroth. Except for a second publication (The Platinotype 1977), a pamphlet about the process of platinum printing, her public trail largely fades after that. Maybe apart from a Q&A with her in 2011 as well as an interview in 2017.

As far as I know, she continued to take photographs in Ohio for many years and also taught photography to many young people. But she never published another photo book.

The Photo Book | IOWA

The original book is now more than 45 years old and hard to find. Fortunately, the University of Texas Press reissued it in 2017 in a new hardcover edition – which even includes 23 additional photos compared to the original (20 of the old ones were removed, though). This article is about the new edition from 2017, which Nancy Rexroth, by the way, worked on very significantly.

The 158 pages of the new book contain more than 70 photographs in three sections, as well as several forewords, short essays ans postscripts, including ones by Alec Soth and Mark L. Power. There is also an introduction by Nancy Rexroth herself.

The photographs themselves are – like the pictures in the exhibitions, by the way – comparatively small. This is simply due to the fact that the Diana camera does not produce high-resolution images. At first I thought they were medium-format contact prints – but the pictures are a bit larger (about 10×10 cm). You get used to it and somehow it’s good – you just have to look at the pictures more slowly and carefully. Otherwise, you might not even recognize what you’re looking at.

The Images

In terms of content, the images defy categorization – which is fitting for this series and Nancy Rexroth’s idea. The images for IOWA come from a series that – contrary to the name – were all taken in the US state of Ohio between 1970 and 1976. The title IOWA is rather derived from the underlying emotions – namely Rexroth’s memories of many visits to relatives in Iowa during her childhood. So, it reflects her memories – not necessarily of specific situations, but rather of moods, types of situations and certain periods of time. And they describe the special “nature” and the course of things in the American Midwest, which is very recognizable for many people.

It all happens in a very exotic place. It is the Midwest, that strange land where déjà vu is an everyday occurrence.

Nancy Rexroth, 2017

The photos are often blurred, mostly out of focus, sometimes bleached, and occasionally a bit creepy. But they bear witness to Nancy Rexroth’s unmistakable visual voice. “My own private landscape,” she called IOWA, “a state of mind.”

And over time, I found that Iowa could be anywhere, for me……Iowa was a state of mind.

Nancy Rexroth, 2011

What I like about it

Of course, what I like at first glance is the total imperfection of Nacy Rexroth’s images. They look like as if they have been made by someone naively experimenting with a camera for the first time – which is not the case. The blurring, the shakiness, the wrong exposure – it is simply a welcome contrast to our world, which strives for more and more perfection. But something else is much more important to me. 

I find the emotionality of the pictures simply overwhelming. They show that photography – like writing and painting – is not just a documentary medium, but can also create dream worlds. And it can do so with the simplest of means, in the truest sense of the word.

Even if it is Nancy Rextroth’s IOWA, her state of mind, her memory – somehow I can also see my own memories in one or other of the pictures. They take me back to another time, to another place – to my IOWA. No matter where that was…

Final Words

To anyone who would like to go on a trip like this, or who sometimes despair of too much perfection in photography, I can warmly recommend Nancy Rexroth’s IOWA.

• Price: inexpensive (~45 €)
• Availability: available new
• Printing and binding: OK
• Photography: Dreamy and experimental
• Inspiration: +++ (of 5)
• Teaching: ++ (of 5)