New York photographer Lyle Owerko told Abrams, the publisher of his coffee-table book "The Boombox Project," not to mention anything in the back-cover biography about his acclaimed image of the World Trade Center under attack on Sept. 11, 2001.
The heart-wrenching plane-hits-tower photo appeared on the front of Time three days later and was ranked as one of the 40 most important magazine covers of the past 40 years by the American Society of Magazine Editors in 2005. Owerko wasn't suffering from false modesty but didn't think the profound pain of one picture jibed with the sunny celebration of loud sounds, outdated technology and blocky design of "Boombox," which is subtitled "The Machines, the Music and the Urban Underground."
But during a recent visit to open an exhibit on the book at Jackson Fine Art, it was clear how connected the tragedy and his ode to boomboxes, which he's come to think of as "sonic campfires" with the power to pull people together, are for the 42-year-old photographer.
On what attracted him to boomboxes as a subject: "I wanted to have something to work on that reflected the values I felt were being lost. It was like celebrating youth, celebrating ingenuity, celebrating empowerment when the news is feeding us so much anger and hatred. ....
"And the boombox [became a] metaphor for community. When there was an opportunity to gather, the boombox was that central element. If a game was on, important news, the boombox was there. Even during the blackouts in New York eight years ago, with the Internet and all these other amazing ways to communicate down, people pulled their boomboxes out."
On why in this time of rapidly advancing personal technology, boombox images are popping up on handbags, T-shirts and, now, as art photographs: "Going to analog in one regard means authentic. We're living in these uncertain times, and every time you open the paper there's some new crisis you can't wrap your head around, whether it's financial or a thousand-year tsunami. So when all of this stuff is going on, people just reach out to something that has some gravity and history to it. And even if you didn't grow up with it, you're still trying to find something that will help set you aside from your friends."
On whether he thinks they'll make a comeback as music players: "There are a few manufacturers trying, but I don't think they've hit it yet. Sometimes designers tend to overdesign something or overthink it. If I was to design a boombox, I'd go in a different direction. I think there's still a huge market for things that feel rough and tumble."
On old technology vs. new: "Today we talk about file sharing, music sharing, we talk about sharing, sharing, sharing. But it's an individual thing of people in bedrooms or basements or cubicles, wherever they are, isolated. You see them in New York: people with their headphones on, closing things out, putting out that 'don't interrupt me' vibe.
"Vs. the boombox, which represents that place to go back to, the sonic campfire where people gathered around, stories were created, songs were created. There was that shy kid no one really knew, and someone put a beat down, and suddenly everyone found out he could rhyme real good. Some of our biggest stars right now, that was their way out."
On how a photographer best known for portraiture approached shooting an inanimate music player: "When I started taking pictures of them, they looked like standard portraitlike product photography. It was like, this isn't an ad for an old boombox, and it doesn't feel right because it's a beatup object. ... I started thinking, 'What if you photographed this like it was a building at night?' I started thinking of these boxes in terms of being epic. It was like how ... to convey the emotional feeling we've had for them.
"It [ended up being] such a mad-scientist process. ... The end result is more like a painting. It's using light, not paint brushes, but in the same way."
On the enduring perils of boomboxes: "There's a guy in Tribeca that walks around with a boombox, and some nights he decides to smoke on the stoop across the street from my apartment and play loud punk. It's like, 'Oh, man, I'm paying in karma!'
"You go, ‘Oh, dude, can you turn it down a little bit?’ But he has his point of view, and I have my point of view. And [the book] was an opportunity to put as many different points of view in as big a pot as possible and get all these different types of memories."
On view
"The Boombox Project"
10 a.m.-5 p.m. Tuesdays-Saturdays. Through Aug. 27. Jackson Fine Art, 3115 E. Shadowlawn Ave., Atlanta. 404-233-3739, www.jacksonfineart.com.
Lyle Owerko's photographic prints range from 16 by 20 inches ($500) to 60 by 90 inches ($9,500).
VISUAL ART
Talk focuses on collecting
Trying to help a younger audience get the picture on collecting photography, Jackson Fine Art and WonderRoot arts center will present a free talk 10 a.m.-noon July 30 featuring the gallery's Anna Walker Skillman and High Museum of Art photography curator Brett Abbott. They will provide perspective on how to develop a collector's eye, differentiating printing processes, understanding editioning and provenance, determining the collectability of a photograph and how to build a collection to suit one's taste and passions. (To reserve: cristina@jacksonfineart.com or 404-233-3739.)
At 1 p.m. that day, Skillman, Abbott and other experts will offer a portfolio review for 36 photographers (cost is a WonderRoot annual membership, $60). To register: www.wonderroot.org. Questions: Chris Appleton, chris@wonderroot.org. Jackson Fine Art is at 3115 E. Shadowlawn Ave., Atlanta. -- HOWARD POUSNER
About the Author
