Hans Hickerson – A Year in Avignon

Review by Lee Halvorsen •

This charming book is a time capsule, Hickerson’s pictorial coming-of-age story. Hickerson hit the trifecta of a learning experience…he loved studying the culture and language of the French, he was studying & living in France, and he was forward looking enough to be taking images of that year. Most of us don’t have many pictures of those years. In today’s world of phone cameras, it’s not quite the same, but Hickerson had only a few selfies which are the most common type of travel photo. Most of his images were of the world around him, the experience of living in a place that was just right for the moment. For most of us, the teens and twenties are the years of invulnerability, years that will never end. Except, they do.

During the first few pages the images are, well, just everyday life, nothing spectacular, but a few pages in, the connection among the images evolves. I transitioned from a “looking at a yearbook” frame of mind to “following Hickerson’s journey.” The very few, but very helpful, snippets of text provide the context of his life in a strange land with new people, new culture and a new way of seeing. For me and I posit others, the images were triggers to my memories when I was the same age.

His journey began in Portland, Oregon, then off to France with a brief stop in London. His photographic eye was tuned to the everyday scene…not the snapshot/postcard scenes typically seen in a travel journal. He describes his role as an observer and a participant in the urban and rural scenarios. He roomed with a family in Avignon until he became disenchanted with the program’s lack of exposure to the actual French experience…he’d discovered most instruction, most experiences were taught and explained in English, not French…so off he went, on his own.

The images and text help us imagine what it must have been like for Hickerson. Structures older than anything in his experience, people and customs probably quite different than anything in his background, and a dizzying hustle and bustle of international travel, youthful energy, and expectant immortality. In all of this, his eye found the human dimension, the common human experience, the connections between people and places. His story is not about the tourist experience, it’s about the personal experience of who he was with and how he was experiencing the relationship in the place.

The images of his friends and acquaintances are interspersed with street views from the city to the sea and to the mountains. Although he lived in the heart of a wine region, surprisingly only two images with wine bottles and one vineyard are included. Made me smile. Rather, Hickerson presented the environment he lived in, the people he lived with, studied with, played with and the places they frequented.

And then, Hickerson returned to Oregon. No doubt he was filled with the enthusiasm of the French culture, full of energy from his travels, a new life perspective, and hopes for the future. But…he noted in ending the book, his excitement was not contagious, others just didn’t seem to care very much about his travels.

I recommend this book to relive some of your own past and to enjoy Hickerson’s journey, a journey highlighted by the human experience rather than tourist landmarks. It’s a fun book, very human.

Lee Halvorsen is assistant editor, writer and visual artist.

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Hans Hickerson, Photobook Journal

Artist: Hans Hickerson, currently working and living in Portland, OR

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

Printed by Edition One Books, Richmond, CA

Book design, Hans Hickerson and John Laursen

Language: English

Hardcover, 144 pages hardbound, 114 B&W images and text by author 10 x 9 inches, ISBN 979-8-9872805-2-2

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Other PBJ reviewed books by Hans Hickerson: Photobook Journal, Transgressions.

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