The ParkeHarrisons and “The Architect’s Brother” - Calypso Taylor
The above photograph is “Burn Season,” from the book The Architect’s Brother, by Robert and Shana ParkeHarrison.
In some ways, The Architect’s Brother is a narrative work. The photographs tell the story of a man the ParkeHarrisons call the “Everyman,” and his desperate efforts to halt the destruction of our planet. He restitches rifts in the ground with a giant needle and thread; he puts tree back together with medical bandages. When he is not rebuilding, he is recording. One photograph features the Everyman writing furiously as dead trees dictate to him through headphones. Each picture is a very private moment between the Everyman and our Earth, yet each moment also encompasses the topics that loom largest in our public consciousness: the effort to reverse the environmental damage we have done; the struggle to maintain human identity in the face of rapidly advancing technology; isolation and loneliness. The Everyman is very notably alone throughout The Architect’s Brother. He works by himself to revive the environment, and it seems almost cruel to watch his dedicated yet somewhat hopeless efforts. The photographs in The Architect’s Brother are private moments that ask the public: “What are you doing to help?”
“Imaging a Shattering Earth: Contemporary Photography and the Environmental Debate” http://www2.oakland.edu/shatteringearth/artists.cfm?Art=37
Robert & Shana ParkeHarrison: http://www.parkeharrison.com/slides-architechsbrother/index.html
Image: http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2287/2417475258_237d100d04.jpg
For anyone interested in more photographs: http://www.geh.org/parkeharrison/index.htm
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Cultural Map
"The Original Topography of Manhattan Island from the Battery to 155th Street" From Report on the Social Statistics of Cities, Compiled by George E. Waring, Jr., United States. Census Office, Part I, 1886. (Perry-Castañeda Library Map Collection, University of Texas-Austin)
