The 40th Anniversary of Nancy Rexroth's 'Iowa'

I was delighted to learn the other day from old pal Jim Sherwood that Nancy Rexroth's Iowa has been republished on the 40th anniversary of the original.

Forty years ago this was an important book: maybe not the first, but perhaps the highest example of an artistic project shot with a Diana camera, the precursor of the Holga. Both the Diana and the Holga were very inexpensive plastic cameras with very poor plastic lenses. The Diana was known for having plentiful light-leaks that obligated its penniless ur-hipster users to swathe their cameras in black electrical tape. It was an anti-tech statement in the hands of artists. My memory is that the Diana cost $5.95 when I was in art school, and people were later scandalized when their rising popularity drove the price all the way up to $29.95. Robbery!

Nancy Rexroth used the Diana to create an imaginary world that conjured up her girlhood Summer vacations in Iowa. Most of the actual photographs were taken in southern Ohio. The book, originally published by The Violet Press and distributed by Light Impressions, gained immediate attention when it came out, and was widely famous for many years. It's nice to see that it still is. It influenced many other Diana photographers at the time, as well as the Lomography and toy camera movements of later years.

I don't suppose this is a "must buy" for most TOP readers of today, but it's a book that has always charmed me. I've lost access to most of the Diana camera work that I once treasured—I've even forgotten the names of many of the photographers—so being able to have a new copy of this is a treat. Original editions were in softcover and now go for anything from $75 to $475 depending on condition and whether they are signed. The new edition, published by the University of Texas, is much fancier—hardbound, with twenty-two previously unpublished images, a new foreword by Magnum photographer Alec Soth, and an essay by the distinguished curator Anne Wilkes Tucker. There are also new postscripts by Nancy Rexroth and old friend Mark L. Power, who wrote the essay in the first edition, still included.

A veritable classic of lo-fi, high-concept photography. Here's the link. I'll add a few notes about the quality of the bookmaking once it gets here.

Mike
(Thanks to Jim Sherwood)

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(To see all the comments, click on the "Comments" link below.)
Featured Comments from:

Henry Richardson: "I got a Diana as a gift when I was a kid in 1968. It was the first camera I ever owned. The package even included a roll of 120 Kodak B&W film. I think the whole thing cost $2 or $3. It was just a toy back then and bought at a dime store (remember them?). You can still buy them here in Japan at Yodobashi Camera and Bic Camera. I saw one just this week for about $50, but it didn't include a roll of film.  :-) 

"About five years ago I found an old roll of exposed but undeveloped 120 B&W film in a box at my mother's house. After developing it I discovered that it was that original roll from my Diana! The photos were ones I took, all taken in 1968 around the house with my sisters. A real time capsule! Here is one of the photos with my sisters and the neighbor boy. Note that the viewfinder was horrible. I placed them near the center but, as you can see, they were off to the right.  :-)  "

Stan B.: "Iowa should be a must buy for anyone interested in photography—particularly when one wants to explore the power of mystery and suggestion once inherent in a medium now dominated by sterile digital meticulousness...."

JAYoung: "I still have my Diana from my days at Ohio University in Athens in the early 1970s, where it was used in the Photo 101 classes. I think mine cost $1.99 at the Seigfred Hall art supply store, where we purchased photo supplies, matt board, dry mounting tissue and watercolor paper for matting. I was surprised as anyone when the Holga craze took hold a quarter-century later. The lesson I learned was that gear doesn't matter—if you've got the 'eye.'"

Comments

[James Weekes]

How wonderful. This book did exactly what you said and sent me out to buy a Diana. Actually, two friends and I ordered a gross of them, kept twelve each, and sold the rest at our cost. That’s how popular they were at the time, we had no trouble selling them...in Vermont. I loved the look and feel of the unreliable lens smearing here and oddly sharp there.

Then, along came digital and I closed my darkroom and missed the look. I tried the Lensbaby but it wasn’t the same. Then Holga started selling just the lens from the old Holga camera and making it mountable on almost any Dslr. Joy! I have been using one on both Micro 4/3 cameras and Sony’s. The look is still there, but what it does to color is even better. It sort of smears them and the results are lovely. On Olympus cameras especially.

We go to Provence every summer and I shoot about half of my pictures there with the Holga lens. People who saw my pictures liked the Holga ones as much as ones shot with the Panasonic 12-35mm. They never said anything about the lack of sharpness.

[Henry Richardson]

I wrote: "Note that the viewfinder was horrible. I placed them near the center but, as you can see, they were off to the right."

One more comment. I am very glad that the viewfinder was poor in this case. I like the photo much more than I would have if I had gotten what I had thought I was framing. :-)

[James M]

Ever wondered what Nancy Rexroth's A Woman's Bed, Logan, Ohio, 1970 sounds like? Blake Andrews obliges: http://blakeandrews.blogspot.com.au/2009/06/i-took-nancy-rexroth-shot-of-womans-bed.html

[Richard Man]

I have the book sitting in front me. Lovely thing.

[Blake]

Thanks James M. for posting that strange audio file, which I'd nearly forgotten about. I was on a serious Iowa kick at the time I wrote that. The images were often near the top of my thoughts but the actual book was hard to find. And so was Nancy. But I wound up tracking her down eventually, and a lengthy interview a few months later. It might be of interest for Iowa fans. (http://blakeandrews.blogspot.com/2011/02/q-with-nancy-rexroth.html).

I'm happy to see the book republished. It's long overdue and very welcome. I will have a full review of the book posted on the Photo-Eye blog sometime in the next week or so.