LaPorte, Indiana [Paperback]

Jason Bitner (Author), Alex Kotlowitz (Foreword)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 1, 2006

FOUND magazine editor Jason Bitner has made it a habit of picking up after us, walking down the back alleys of our lives, and accumulating all that we've thrown away or mislaid. One afternoon not long ago, after lunch at a small Midwestern diner, he stumbled onto a forgotten archive. In the back of the restaurant were box upon box of studio portraits of the townspeople of LaPorte, Indianaover 18,000 in total.

Taken over four decades, the photos marked important milestonesa sailor in uniform, a graduate in cap and gown, a couple newly engagedwhile others simply made modest attempts at posterity. Each in their unique way reveals both a public and private face, a story untold, a secret to reveal. They are admittedly brief moments and ones in which people have purposefully posed for the camera. Smiling. Caring. Loving. Pensive. Serious. These are pictures of all of us in a way, reflections in a mirror of the everyday moments and events that define all of our lives. LaPorte, Indiana is a major cultural excavation and an opening into these lives, into this town, and into the heart of our nation.

"These are real people. The grace and dignity one sees in their faces should be a source of hope for us all."
John Mellencamp

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

LaPorte, Indiana also presents a rare and striking collection of portraits meant to preserve memories and serve as tokens of affection. Bitner, cocreator of Found Magazine, an inspired showcase of lost-and-found items, was astonished to find a cache of 18,000 professional black-and-white photographs in the backroom of an Indiana diner. As Kotlowitz notes in his introductory essay, these carefully posed portraits of the townspeople of LaPorte taken during the 1950s and 1960s capture the idealized self-images of middle-class midwesterners. Bitner describes the photographer, Frank Pease, as an "accidental historian." One might also say that Pease created what art critic Michael Kimmelman calls "accidental masterpieces." Certainly, the 200 lustrous portraits of people at every stage of life possess a mesmerizing power, running the gamut from sweet to hilarious, poignant to beautiful.

Donna Seaman
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Review

The minimal text and method of organization allows for a surprisingly emotional response. -- Folk Art, Winter 2007

purposely leaves us with unanswered questions about true nature of life in the halcyon days of post-World War II America. -- Photographic Resource Center Magazine, April 2006

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 192 pages
• Publisher: Princeton Architectural Press; 1 edition (March 1, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1568985304
• ISBN-13: 978-1568985305
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 6.9 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,126,946 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #19 in Books > Travel > United States > States > Indiana

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A gorgeous and compelling book, March 16, 2006

By 

Kerri Harrop (Seattle) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: LaPorte, Indiana (Paperback)

Upon your initial flip through this beautiful book, you will immediately understand why photographer Frank Pease didn't have the heart to toss out the treasure trove of portraits that are compiled here.

Lucky for Jason Bitner, whose past exploits at Found and Dirty Found offer proof of his eye for the lost, the forgotten, and the bizarre. Bitner has whittled down the collection of over 18,000 photographs into a fascinating look at the people of Small Town, USA.

While wending through the pages of LaPorte, Indiana, the reader can almost feel the excitement Bitner must have had at finding such an amazing archive. Each page tells a story and that story is only inferred by the brief moment captured on film. It's an incredibly compelling book, filled with images of a time that seems to be lost forever.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Americana, March 16, 2006

By 

Bonnie Gee "Reading is Hot" (Brooklyn, NY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: LaPorte, Indiana (Paperback)

I am a huge fan of the Found crew, I find their unironic sentiment, enthusiasm and respect for people's findings to be utterly refreshing.

The format of the book is goregous, the paper stock wonderful and so appealling to either flip through or go page by page to view the juxtopositions the author (or finder?) intended. It is a wonderful "coffee table" book and so intriguing for so many different kinds of people in your life to give as a gift.

I inherited a large box of black and white photographs that my grandfather had left to me at his death years ago. As a 15 year old, shifting through photos of both his life and strangers was emotionally overwhelming. He was an amateur photographer and had made a darkroom from a closet in his suburban PA home. There are so many similar photos of children and women of the photographer of La Porte, Indiana and my own! Yet I am glad to see Jason was able to reproduce that sense of wonder at the joy and oddness of everyday people through the lens of an everyday man.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Beauty & simplicity give the reader room to explore, February 10, 2006

By 

mike (NYC) - See all my reviews

This review is from: LaPorte, Indiana (Paperback)

Jason Bitner's LaPorte, Indiana offers a glimpse of the small-town Midwestern personality that is touching in its simple elegance. The layout--one portrait per page, sized to occupy the full page--draws no attention to any one picture, makes no editorial comments designed to influence. Each portrait is given equal status to the others, leaving the reader to draw his own conclusions, intuit what he will about the soundless characters presented within.

This lack of commentary (aside from a brief introduction and forward) is LaPorte, Indiana's second-strongest point, behind the selection of portraits themselves. We are shown what we were never meant to see--castoffs from a portrait studio, the shots that didn't quite make it. Still, we do not have completely candid shots. These are the just-less-than-perfect pictures of people who have presented perfect versions of themselves. This doesn't make them any less true, but the portraits' subjects are editorializing themselves, in a way, and any additional layers of comment by the author would be too much.

The enjoyment and beauty of this collection goes beyond just the subjects, however. Comparisons and juxtapositions arise; the young from one page cascade into the old on another; men and women on facing pages, who may never have met, stare at each other across the book's binding. Beyond the individuals held in this book are the interactions held within it. One can trace a theoretical life through the pictures of the newborn, the youth, the adolescent, the middle aged, and the ederly. The reader can impose, discard, and impose anew themes and groupings on sections of the book, looking for what may connect these people.

Overall, this is a gorgeous work. It's a wonderful preservation of a specific, overlooked bit of America. And it's beautiful way to pass an afternoon, reading it alone or sharing it with friends.