Totems

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North Dakota, 2011 thumbnail
Western Nebraska, 2011 thumbnail
Nebraska, 2010 thumbnail
Central Montana, 2011 thumbnail
Western Nebraska, 2011 thumbnail
Agnew, Nebraska 2010 thumbnail
Eastern Idaho, 2010 thumbnail
Western Wyoming, 2010 thumbnail
Eastern Idaho, 2010 thumbnail
North Dakota, 2010 thumbnail
South Dakota, 2010
Lamont Idaho, 2010
Idaho, 2008
Eastern Washington, 2009
Eastern Wyoming, 2010
South Dakota, 2010
Eastern Idaho, 2010
Northwestern Nebraska, 2010
Crow Agency, Montana, 2010
Southern Wyoming, 2011
Southern Montana, 2010
Eastern Washington, 2009
South Dakota, 2010
North Dakota, 2010
Central Montana, 2011
North Dakota, 2011
Big Horn, Montana, 2008
Northwestern Nebraska, 2010
Idaho, 2009
South Dakota, 2010
Southern Wyoming, 2011
North Dakota, 2010
Nebraska, 2010
South Dakota, 2010
Western Nebraska, 2011
South Dakota, 2011
South Dakota, 2011
Rothiemay Montana, 2011
Eastern Montana, 2010
Central Nebraska, 2010
Western Nebraska, 2011
North Dakota, 2011
North Dakota, 2011
Western Nebraska, 2011
Nebraska, 2010
Central Montana, 2011
Western Nebraska, 2011
Agnew, Nebraska 2010
Eastern Idaho, 2010
Western Wyoming, 2010
Eastern Idaho, 2010
North Dakota, 2010

South Dakota, 2010

Lamont Idaho, 2010

Idaho, 2008

Eastern Washington, 2009

Eastern Wyoming, 2010

South Dakota, 2010

Eastern Idaho, 2010

Northwestern Nebraska, 2010

Crow Agency, Montana, 2010

Southern Wyoming, 2011

Southern Montana, 2010

Eastern Washington, 2009

South Dakota, 2010

North Dakota, 2010

Central Montana, 2011

North Dakota, 2011

Big Horn, Montana, 2008

Northwestern Nebraska, 2010

Idaho, 2009

South Dakota, 2010

Southern Wyoming, 2011

North Dakota, 2010

Nebraska, 2010

South Dakota, 2010

Western Nebraska, 2011

South Dakota, 2011

South Dakota, 2011

Rothiemay Montana, 2011

Eastern Montana, 2010

Central Nebraska, 2010

Western Nebraska, 2011

North Dakota, 2011

North Dakota, 2011

Western Nebraska, 2011

Nebraska, 2010

Central Montana, 2011

Western Nebraska, 2011

Agnew, Nebraska 2010

Eastern Idaho, 2010

Western Wyoming, 2010

Eastern Idaho, 2010

North Dakota, 2010

Totems

Totems Book Cover

Findings

Peter Kayafas’s Totems, this engrossing collection of photographs of abandoned buildings discovered along the back roads of the American West, embodies to an exhilarating degree all photography’s habitual confounding of categories. It is precisely Kayafas’s refusal to insist on some sharp distinction between the photograph as a work of art and the photograph as a document that gives his work its particular potency. The Totems are, at the most fundamental level, records of structures that have been abandoned, bereft of human attention for decades. Some are domestic in nature and extremely modest in size. Others were built to serve as barns, schoolhouses, banks, libraries, and churches. Kayafas’s explorations of an endangered vernacular architecture are at once straightforward records and unabashedly poetic meditations, a matter of the photographer testing the quality of his attentiveness against the facts on the ground. The lyric impulse is sharpened by the documentary convention. Kayafas is a tireless explorer who has clocked thousands of miles in Nebraska, Wyoming, Idaho, Montana, and the Dakotas. In some instances the buildings he has discovered along lonely dirt roads are so far gone as to be near the point of vanishing entirely. His camera records a process by which flesh becomes spirit, the real house a ghost house. This is a moment in time in which time is running out.

—Jed Perl from the Introduction to the book

Press

EVENT: ICP Book Signing for Peter’s Totems, December 20, 2012:

REVIEW: Art New England review by Robert Moeller of Peter’s exhibition Totems, February 2, 2012:

REVIEW: “Kayafas’s images have a timeless quality. They’re simple and spare, yet quietly overpowering with their evocation of a history on a scale beyond that of individual human lives.” The Boston Globe review by Mark Feeney of Peter’s Totems exhibition, January 21, 2012:

REVIEW: “Even the most dilapidated have character—the kind of pioneer spirit that refuses to accept defeat.” The New Yorker listing of Peter’s exhibition Totems, July 11, 2011:

REVIEW: “Peter Kayafas’ images of falling down barns and empty houses bring crisp formality and renewed reverence to these forgotten icons of vernacular architecture.” DLK Collection Blog review of Peter’s Totems exhibition at Sasha Wolf Gallery:

 

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