Hans Hickerson – Photobook / Journal

Review by Lee Halvorsen ·

This photo book is delightful and fun…a trip back in time at the author’s side where we meet the author’s father, his mother and look through the eyes of a 22-year-old artist at the world around him. Hickerson brings to life 105 black & white images from 1978-1979…a significant time in his life; the sequencing is subtle, yet powerfully rhythmic…marching onto the next life event. The minimalist text is like a pebble in a quiet pond, the few sentences ripple through the images bringing additional context and emotion to the story.

The book is dual purpose. Primarily, it provides a peek back 50 years into the author’s life, while also providing inspiration to collect images and put them in a book, something easy and doable. For the story component of the book, Hickerson’s images provide us chronological references pinpointing the year of the book. He is fascinated by cars and shows us many makes and models and modifications suggesting cars echo individual personalities while providing temporal reference points. And, there’s that filling station sign with gasoline at 74 cents per gallon. Hickerson’s images taken together provide a texture of the time…the clothes, the vehicles, the haircuts, the gatherings…all signs of days long gone but well remembered.

The author’s tale begins in the woods of the Pacific Northwest…rural forest, rugged isolation, a sharp break from his previous, excitement filled year studying in France. Hickerson gives us an idea of the rapid change in his life…from the student-filled, storied Provence, France, region to the comparatively remote Corvallis, Oregon, forests and town. Stark, different, perhaps even overwhelming. We meet his father and gradually the rest of the community, a community of ordinary people doing everyday things. Hickerson’s sense of shutter clicks was perfect, each of the images introduces us to one more dimension of the community and the people.

Hickerson’s few text blocks add dimension, emotion, and context to the images. For instance, when he says, “My mother was a bit of a social St. Bernard, connecting stranded souls and offering hospitality…” paired with the facing image, the reader assumes the image is his mother and immediately appreciates the welcoming gesture displayed by others in the image. The text seems to carry into the next several pages and we’re left with a “feeling” of knowing his mother.

Many pages in the book are captures from Hickerson’s time at the local university. They bring the joy, excitement, and wonder of being that age just before going into the “real world” to the book’s pages. He carried a small camera with him everywhere and his candid pictures were spot on, finding deep connection with those he photographed.

Hickerson closes the book with a suggestion, he asks all of us to take pictures and someday put them in a book. He posits we can choose what we want…after all, the photographer/bookmaker is the final decision maker on what to put in the book. And in this book, Hickerson made some wise and wonderful choices.

____________

The PhotoBook Review also published a review of Hans Hickerson’s book Transgressions.

____________

Lee Halvorsen, assistant editor of PhotoBook Journal, is a writer and visual artist.

____________

Hans Hickerson –Photobook / Journal

Artist: Hans Hickerson, lives and works in Portland

Website for Fishpond Press and Hans Hickerson: www.hanshickerson.com

Printing: Edition One Books, Richmond, CA 94804

Book design: Hans Hickerson and John Laursen

Prepress: Pushdot Studio

Language: English

Hardcover, 132 pages, perfect binding, 105 black and white photographs, images and text by author 10 x 9 inches, ISBN 979-8-9872805-3-9

____________

Articles and photographs published in the PhotoBook Journal may not be reproduced without the permission of the PhotoBook Journal staff and the photographer(s). All images, texts, and designs are copyright of the authors and publishers.