Joseph Sohm talks about 'Visions of America' and democracy

Joseph Sohm, the man behind Visions of America, has had more than 50,000 images published and spent 30 years criss-crossing America photographing all 50 states.  Not only is Sohm a photographer, but he also is a producer.  Check out Sohm's Photographic Symphony.

Visions of America is one of his most ambitious projects to date, published this year with more than 300 pages of color photographs.  Sohm's photographs are accompanied by short essays of his travels and a foreword by Paul Theroux.

1.  When did you first realize you wanted to photograph democracy?  Was the idea fully formed when you started or did it emerge while you were looking through a bunch of photographs?

The "Question to photograph Democracy" was not initially clear in my head.  As I was 30 years younger and full of energy--and chomping at the bit to hit the back roads of America--I started shooting first.  During the long rides I began "asking": what is the organizing principle here--of my journey--and of America in general?  I did not want to end up with a bag of slides (although I did) and I did want the individual pictures to be part of a larger mosaic.  Thus, systematically, over time and distance, I assimilated a portrait--picture by picture. 

As time went on and I became wiser (hopefully), I realized I could never truly photograph everything American--you would need hundreds of photographers over decades.  But what I could do as one person would be to assemble a one-man portrait of this country.  Hopefully, I've done that with this book.

2.  Please describe how democracy winds its way through the pages of Visions of America, such as what elements of the countryside signify the idea of democracy.

Some say that the Washington Mall symbolizes democracy with all its open space and places to think.  The American landscape and the back roads, especially the southwestern vistas in Utah, etc., also provide those open spaces that allow the mind to explore the potential of democracy.  After all democracy is based upon personal freedom to explore without restrictions and to come to your own conclusions.  The ability to take that freedom and explore the national parks and remote areas offered me a sense of freedom to look at how democracy unfolded over time and distance.

One of my favorite responses from the book related to the president chapter when I show the pictures of the U.S. presidents and candidates to a Russian and she immediately responded, "You could never do that in Russia without credentials."  In many ways that is American Democracy, the freedom to explore without credentials, down back roads, national parks (American basically invented the concept of a national park), and the race for the presidency.  All you need is the will, a car, and a credit card.

3.  Panorama photographs can be seen throughout Visions of America.  What do you find challenging about panoramas and do you have a special technique you use to make them look flawless?

For most of the second millennium humans have expressed art (mostly) in squares from paintings to TV, yet we see wide as in panoramic cameras.  Now the view is shifting and can be seen with PAN pocket cameras and pan modes, 16 x 9 TV sets, 16 x 9 computer monitors. 

Having grown up with a 3D stereo camera, I was always drawn to exotic cameras, and PANs to me were exotic, so I bought three of them (actually 4)--Fuji 6 x 17 (3-to-1 aspect ration), Noblex pivoting PAN camera, and a handmade V-PAN in St. Louis, which allowed me to do tilts and rises with a PAN camera.

I mostly used 120 Fuji Velvia film, which pumps up the colors.  I mostly shot with direct sunlight behind me, lighting the landscape.  Shadows are the enemy as this film is not friendly to subtleties.  I mostly use a polarizing filter and occasionally a magenta filter for dusk shots of cities to correct the greenish florescent lights.  I shoot for two hours after sunrise and two hours before sunset, with 20 minutes before and after the sun comes up and down for deeply colored skies with the sun over the horizon.

Check out a review of Visions of America at Savvy Verse & Wit, and come back August 18 for part two of the interview with photographer Joseph Sohm.