America

Poised to be the most important photography book of 2008, Zoe Strauss' AMERICA shines a light on the often unseen people and places in the United States today. Following in the famed footsteps of Robert Frank: The Americans, but 50 years later, Zoe Strauss traveled across the country as a Gund fellow documenting what she calls "the beauty and struggle of everyday life." In highly formal compositions, she uses photography to create epic narratives that pursue "a hopeful quality in adverse conditions and how people manage to live their lives." Strauss' photographs depict the bittersweet beauty of everyday life and lay bare the human comedy.