Amy Stein

I found myself aimlessly driving through the country last Monday in an attempt to find the one "thing" that no one else ever photographed, or possibly to think of the one idea that has never been explored photographically. What? Ok, so I never actually took any pictures. Anyway, as I was driving, and not taking any pictures, I started to think about Amy Stein and her series of photos about people stranded on the side of the road who needed help. She goes all over the country, rents a car, and drives around searching for people stranded on the road to photograph. I humorously started to think about parking my car on the side of the road with the hood up, and snapping pictures of anyone who actually stopped to see if I needed help. Maybe Amy Stein would show up? An hour or so later, I wound up at a book store perusing the magazine racks, I look down, and I find this picture (Fast Food, 2007 ) by Amy Stein on the cover of Orion Magazine.

A box of Wendys french fries and a lonely burger bun lay in the foreground. The American flag stands tall in the background, and in the middle six birds swirl in a circle in the parking lot of a Perkins restaurant. The subtext in the title of this magazine reads: nature/culture/place. What? What does all this mean? Judging from the subtext of this magazine title, I'm thinking that we are a fast food, consumer nation that feeds on itself like annoying little stank creatures. The American flag, the symbol of a nation with potential limited only by our shortsightedness, waves lethargically in the bleak winter cold. Or, maybe someone just stopped to feed the birds.

Check out Amy Steins Domesticated series of photos at Harvard University's Museum of Natural History, January 21-March 19, 2010.