Book Review: Ken Light
Ken Light: Course of the Empire, Rodeo, County Fair, Illinois published by Steidl
By Nick Rutolo
It’s an awkward and uncertain time to be an American; the polarization of what’s right or wrong has created a dangerous country, and tensions are only rising. Political differences fueled by fear and hate have created an inhospitable atmosphere for reconciliation between those who love and those who hate Donald Trump. Wealth is being hoarded at the top and politicians are making sure that it stays that way so that the rich can get richer and the poor stay poor. Ken Light, in Course of the Empire, is able to communicate these American gripes, and more, with black and white pictures, chapter titles, and only a few quotes. The entire book is in black and white, which serves to remove time from any context; without several clues about presidents, politicians and social movements, it’d be extremely difficult to differentiate these photos from many points in time that highlight injustice. The title of the book Course of the Empire is inspired from The Course of Empire by Thomas Cole, which is a 5 part painting series depicting the rise and fall of Ancient Rome.
©Ken Light: Course of the Empire, Freedom, Detroit, published by Steidl
The book starts with a quote from Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis, who served in the Supreme Court from 1916 to 1939. The quote reads, “We must make our choice. We may have democracy. Or we may have wealth concentrated in the hands of a few. But we can’t have both.” The quote sets the tone for the rest of the book; the direction that country is headed is unfair, toxic, destructive, manipulated, and corrupt in ways that have been present since before World War 2. Course of the Empire is split into 10 chapters, each of which provides context to the world that he’s trying to illuminate; there’s The Topography of a Nation, Capital, Heartland, Metropolis, Disruption, Transformation, Regime, Divide, Calamity, and Finale. When looking through the chapters, seeing the photographs through the chapter’s lens, there’s something to pick apart and parallel to the state of the nation.
©Ken Light: Course of the Empire, Opera Night Opening, San Francisco, published by Steidl
The first picture in chapter 1, Topography of a Nation, is a vinyl lying outside on concrete with the title Vinyl, Upper West Side, New York City. At first glance, it looks merely like trash, but combine the photo with the chapter’s lens, and the opening quote, and an argument can be made that this is representative of the carelessness of some affluent people, and how culture is commodified and is modernly appropriated or used for aesthetics and optics and disposed of when it’s use runs out. Also in the first chapter, Magnificent Mile, Michigan Avenue, Chicago and 125th Street, Harlem, New York City are side by side and have advertisements for Disney and Apple while either in the foreground or background, either someone or somewhere needs help. The message these two share is the same, America cares more about capitalizing on the sales and pushing the products than to helping the people and places that can use assistance the most. The first photo of the second chapter, Capital, is an American flag with a balloon above it reading “sale”, which brings the question to mind, what do Americans really put first? Money or the country? You can do this with every photo in any chapter. Light does a phenomenal job at addressing most of the distress that many of us are in, at least socially, economically and culturally.
©Ken Light: Course of the Empire, US Capitol, Washington, DC, published by Steidl
Ken Light was born in the Bronx, New York, in 1951 and got his start photographing for magazines and newspapers in 1969. He has had books published since the 1980s and has been exhibited internationally in hundreds of shows worldwide, and is currently the Reva and David Logan Professor of Photojournalism and curator of the center for Photography at the Graduate School of Journalism at the university go Berkley. You can buy Course of the Empire from Steidl Publishing and major retailers, and you can see his other work on his site kenlight.com.
