the Reds, the Whites and the Blues
A satire/celebration of the American craze for painting the Colors of the flag all over the landscape
(The original images from which the book was made will be exhibited at the OK Harris Gallery in Soho, September 11 thru October 16, 2010.)
visit the photographer's gallery page
64 pgs
paperbound
0-915090-02-3
2009
$12.95
buy now
the exhibit
OK Harris Gallery
Soho, New York
September 2010
the film
5 minutes
0-915090-76-7
tba
A visual book - theme and variation on the flag in 90 color photographs.
The resurgence of American folk art combined with the need to assert our freedoms produced a wide variety of images during the Bicentennial. The imagery depicted individual celebrations of our most common symbol. In photographs, collectively and in counterpoint, they not only individualize our approach to the flag and create a standard of design, but take many rigid associations for an imaginative ride.
This book then is a design experience in social and political definition. Many of the photos appeared in magazines and in film previously, but the interplay that the book’s design offers enhances the experience. In the end, the book is a political Rorschach. The images blot both ways, are meant to. People see what they believe. They define themselves. Vision, in short, is a Mindset.
These images are historical now, but history doesn't go away; it insists on itself; it seeds the ground, it scents the air, it becomes part of our language. Simply, this small book deserves a place both in the archives of our time and in the lights of our consciousness.
Photographer: Elihu Blotnick's photographs appeared in Esquire, Camera, Harpers and Life. His work was exhibited at the Stedelijk (the museum of modern art in Amsterdam), and at the Photokina in Cologne (the world's largest photographic trade show). He has photographs in special collections at the Library of Congress and the California Historical Society. The New York Times wrote about his first book (SALTWATER FLATS, BBM Associates, 1975), "Powerful and very personal images of contemporary America."
Designer: Barbara Robinson won Awards of Excellence from the American Institute of Graphic Arts, the New York Society of Illustrators, Book-Builders West, the Chicago Book Clinic, and Communication Arts. She is the Illustrator of MYSTERIOUS MR. BLOT and NEVER DISTRUST AN ASPARAGUS (California Street, 1979), a series of whimsy for children and adults. The design of FREE-FOR-ALL is more than the slotting of images. The placement and juxtaposition of the photographs in relation to their content and internal design form a conceptual whole. In a visual book, the designer is the co-author.
Notes and Background: The images for FREE-FOR-ALL, derive predominantly from the film: WEBFOOTED FRIENDS, a film that has nothing to do with ducks. The film is only 5 minutes and is in effect, due to the minimum of animation, a slide show on film. Nevertheless, the film has had numerous theatrical and television showings, on a continuing basis. The film in short is a montage of individual expressions of our national identity, in terms of the colors of the flag. The imagery was made, for the most part, before personal computers and digital applications, and for the most part, the images say flag even when none is in the picture or, by displaying a spirited individual approach, are a vote for freedom waved in public. Click here for the publicity sheet for the original film.©1976, 2005, 2010 firefallmedia, all rights reserved.
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