LaPorte, Indiana (Paperback)

by Jason Bitner (Author), Alex Kotlowitz (Foreword)

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

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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: 8.5 x 6.7 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #226,742 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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  #7 in	Books > Travel > United States > States > Indiana
  #18 in	Books > Arts & Photography > Photography > Travel > United States > Midwest
  #20 in	Books > History > United States > State & Local > Indiana

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Aren't We All From La Porte, Indiana?, April 4, 2006

By	M'Hannah "Chapter Chaser" (Michigan, USA) - See all my reviews

I grew up on Michigan Avenue in La Porte, and went to La Porte High School with the owner of the diner who inherited all those many boxes of black and white photos that so eloquently reveal my town. Every time we visited La Porte, we went to the diner to spend a little time in the back room browsing the boxes, looking for family members, neighbors, grade school friends. Finding someone we knew would evoke a shriek of delight. More often, however, we weren't sure. Was that Pammie's mom and dad, or people we didn't know? Did that guy run the shoe store during the early 60s, or was he someone else? Didn't that girl go to our church? I could tell you that these pictures tell a story of my town. But they tell the story of anybody's town, evoking instantly the feel of the middle of the last century, the slight artificiality of the photographer's studio, the "special occasions" that were at once unique and commonplace. You will look at a young couple and wonder if you knew them. We may all be just ourselves, but we are everybody else, too.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A gorgeous and compelling book, March 17, 2006

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

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 8 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

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.