Hardcover, 210 mm x 153 mm, 16 pages, 16 duotone plates, 1 original signed photograph.
Bent Tree is Mark Steinmetz’s second contribution to our One Picture Book Two series. The book comprises 16 photographs of a peculiarly curved tree that Steinmetz photographed for over twenty years, beginning in the mid-1990s. The tree is a short walk from his home in Athens, Georgia, and stands on its own in a field of kudzu; a set of railroad tracks run alongside it. Steinmetz photographed the tree through different years, seasons, times of day, and types of weather. Today, the backyards of new infill homes crowd up against it, and its seemingly brave, solitary posturing has been lost.
Mark Steinmetz is a Guggenheim Fellow. His work is included in the permanent collections of many important institutions, including Museum of Modern Art, New York; Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; The Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; Art Institute of Chicago; and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.