Good Will & Salvation is a tribute to my Mother, an avid thrift store shopper. She lives in Michigan and I live in Oregon. Whenever we get together we spend our days trolling every Goodwill and Salvation Army store in whichever town we happen to be in. My mother shops to her heart’s desire and I spend the day taking photographs to document the quirky castoffs of our commercial consumer culture.

The pairing of images in this book mean a lot to me both in their idiosyncratic juxtapositions and their implied social comment on our urban landscape. My work is inspired by Nathan Lyons, who explored the layered interpretations of sequencing, which he calls “the concept of using images to explore a variety of relationships and expansion of the meaning made possible by sequenced images unaccompanied by text.”

The image of a barber’s vest with words that read “change your hair” is paired with a rack of forlorn wigs. The ceramic bride figurines paired with a rack of wrinkled wedding dresses. The baby doll paired with the grown-up, naked Barbie dolls. The (again naked) GI Joe dolls paired with the plaid polyester pants that no self-respecting manly man would ever be caught dead wearing. Other pairings I will leave to the viewer’s perceptions and associations. As Lyons said, “each sequence can be thought of as a movement within the larger symphony.”

All are joined together by a long accordion spine strip that shows miles and miles of clothing racks, garments organized by color, just as you’d find in any quality Goodwill store.

Laura Russell
Good Will & Salvation
Limited Edition Artist Book
$475

To purchase this book contact Laura.

Or, click here to purchase online at 23 Sandy.

Digital archival printing on two-sided paper. Bound using Hedi Kyle’s woven and interlocking accordion structure. Moab Entrada paper. Features 36 pages of photographs plus 16 more photographs of clothing racks on the spine piece. 5 x 5 x 1.5 inches closed; 5 x 40 inches open. Presented in a custom slipcase. Edition of 25. 2011.

Good Will & Salvation: Interior Spread

Good Will & Salvation: Interior Spread