muzi quawson

amanda jo williams is this really quirky country/folk/defies definition musician (listen at your own risk, my specialty is pictures not music). the pictures on her myspace page are sort of all over the place: some from her modeling days (taken by photographers like paolo roversi and nathanial goldberg no less), snap shots of her and her twin girls, but most interestingly a set of images taken of her by muzi quawson.

quawson is a london based artist/photographer who documents unusal aspects of american society. this series of amanda, called "pull back the shade", was recently shown as a slideshow at the tate britain. her use of symbolism and her point of view as a foreigner with cultural perspective who documents some of the sadder aspects of american culture reminds me of robert frank (especially the use of music as a symbol for the american dream). but the frank influence is subtle (no grainy black and white film noir-esque pictures here), mostly she shoots her vision of america with a unique and quiet eye, and by presenting the images as a slideshow she references both frank and cinema in a contemporary and fresh way. this interview was pretty interesting.