Synonymous with the art of travel since 1854, Louis Vuitton continues to add titles to its “Fashion Eye” collection. Each book evokes a city, region or country as seen through the eyes of a photographer. Sean Thomas‘s Texas is a compendium of Western culture, overcoming its stereotypes with a warm, in-depth look at Western culture.
It’s hard to get more American than Western culture. And more Western than Texas. Photographer Sean Thomas would gladly support this syllogism, which is, believe me, devoid of irony, but based on a simple observation. He himself states that “Texas is the benchmark for the way the American West is represented to the world”. And his book, composed with the care of a stroll through the cities of the American state, surveys its topical places, from ranches to rodeos, to form the paragon of this culture so deeply rooted across the Atlantic.
The reader could stop at the sum of the representations to get a simple, somewhat stereotyped idea. This is the immediate flip side of a culture rooted in powerful imagery. He would then see only a succession of boots and Stetsons, checked shirts, wide jeans and big belt buckles, horses held by the bridle, serious and proud faces, dives with fun neon signs and the dust of the bushes in the background. A deluge of American flags, the bust high, the face pompous. It would be swiftly said, quickly painted, as to no longer see in the nomads surveying any desert further south camels, cloths, steaming tea and other misleading stereotypes.
Photography, when it looks at a culture and aims to draw its geographical contours, can fall into stereotyping. It can carry its own share of representation, serving propaganda, poking fun at a culture or reinforcing its mythos in broad strokes. Photography is all-purpose; the image in essence has only the truth of a deception. It is meaning, signified, significant since Barthes and from this analytical angle, Sean Thomas would give the Texan imagination a little more hay, no more and no less.
But it can, from a more simplistic angle, and yet just as powerful, simply suffice for its purpose. It is the choice of realism, which used sparingly, proving elegant as well as powerful. In this case, his images are thought of as the continuum of a conversation. More than that, like a cry of love and rallying. His Texans behind the lens appear far from the staid, worn-out postures of second-rate films. The subject is seen at the end of a conversation, a shared moment, spent smoking, drinking and laughing. Sean Thomas is enamoured with his subject. In front of his lens, the lassoed teenager looks more funny than statuesque. And the impudent youngster a bit dignified on his tortuous way to greatness.
But it can, from a more simplistic angle, and yet just as powerful, simply stand on its own. It is the choice of realism, which used sparingly, proves elegant as well as powerful. In this case, his images are thought of as the continuum of a conversation. More than that, like a cry of love and rallying. His Texans behind the lens appear far from the staid, worn-out postures of second-rate films. The subject is seen at the end of a conversation, a shared moment, spent smoking, drinking and laughing. Sean Thomas is enamoured with his subject. In front of his lens, the lassoed teenager looks more funny than statuesque. And the impudent youngster a little dignified on his tortuous way to greatness.
Throughout the book, there is an accuracy in the portrait and the scene captured. The photographer’s gaze varies, sometimes amused when isolating the details of a beauty contest or the erotic games of drunken nights, sometimes complicit in this culture where animal and man live back to back and side by side. In his interview with publisher Patrick Rémy at the end of the book, Sean Thomas cites Jo Mora’s work on Western culture (Le Cow-boy en selle, André Bonne, 1958) as an iconographic reference, “as abstract as it is hilarious”. To these two adjectives, let us add the often used and mocked adjective of tender to characterise Sean Thomas’ Texas.
Sean Thomas – Texas
Editions Louis Vuitton, Fashion Eye collection, 2023
23.5 x 30.5 cm (Length x Height), 112 pages
Edited by Patrick Rémy and Anthony Vessot
Editorial direction: Axelle Thomas
Graphic design: Lords of Design
112 pages
Available in bookshops and online
