Cape Cod-based ASMP Life Member Mark Chester has just completed his latest book, Roadshow Anthropology. The collection of 251 engaging black-and-white photographs captures America from the driver’s seat. Offering fresh perspectives on the United States’ iconic highways, byways, back roads, and small-town main streets, Mark Chester puts America’s unique spirit of innovation on full display. With humor and pathos, Roadshow Anthropology explores high and low culture and the worlds of commerce, architecture, design, advertising, and fashion. As a social commentator and a connoisseur of Americana, Chester pays homage to a range of influences, including the work of photojournalist Lee Friedlander.
©Mark Chester
PRAISE FOR ROADSHOW ANTHROPOLOGY
“Behold: it is all here. Alpha to omega, soup to nuts. Or maybe more like nuts and bolts. Definitely nuts.” —Roy Blount Jr., American writer, speaker, reporter, and humorist
“Compiled with perception and wit, Mark Chester makes Roadshow Anthropology a noteworthy contribution to the long history of great American photographs that were created on the road. More than a pictorial record of America’s people and places, the photographic collection is a study of humanity and culture as told through billboards, bumper stickers, roadside attractions, fellow travelers, and vernacular architecture. By capturing fleeting scenes as they rushed by his window, Chester has honored the ever-changing nature of America’s landscapes and urban spaces.
With amusing sequences, clever juxtapositions, and arresting observations, this publication encompasses a body of work that is surprising and endlessly insightful. A new take on a storied American genre, Roadshow Anthropology proves that there are always new roads to travel.” —Maggie North, Curator of Art, Springfield Museums
About the Author
Raised in Springfield, MA, Mark is a Cape Cod–based photographer and journalist. His work is in permanent museum collections nationwide. His previous books include Dateline America, a collaboration with Charles Kuralt, and a mirthful collection of photographs called Twosomes. From 2015-2020, a traveling exhibit of Mark’s photographs, The Bay State: A Multicultural Landscape, toured the Commonwealth.
The book will be available on September 29. Please find more information here.