Ipso Facto
Dutch publisher
Down and Out in the South
Jan Banning
In “Down and Out in the South,” Banning has photographed 42 homeless men and women in Atlanta, Ga.; Columbia, S.C.; and in the Mississippi Delta. While not the first to photograph modern society’s outcasts, his approach is new. Eschewing caricaturizing depictions, Banning places his subjects in a studio setting without their stereotypical belongings, focusing instead on their individuality — on who they are rather than what they are.
Down and Out in the South
Jan Banning
Text byJames Swift
Design by Peter Jonker
ISBN 978-90-77386-09-5
96 pages
Hardcover
235 x 320 mm (9.25 x 12.6 inches)
+ ‘Giveaway Edition’
8 pages
320 x 470 mm (12.6 x 18.5 inches)
Photographer Jan Banning (b. 1954), living in Utrecht, Netherlands, gained worldwide recognition with “Bureaucratics,” which was shown in museums and galleries in some 20 countries on five continents. Banning’s other well-known series include: “Comfort Women” (2010) and “Traces of War: Survivors of the Burma and Sumatra Railways” (2005). Among Banning’s many awards is a World Press Photo Award. His documentary artwork has been widely published and is in collections, both private and public, such as the High Museum of Art Atlanta, the Museum of Fine Arts Houston, and the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam.
Felicia Feaster, Atlanta Celebrates Photography 2012 Festival Guide
“Rather than the expected treatment of a marginalized population, Banning takes a more artful approach… [He] builds their identity back up in his soulful portraits [and] confers a serenity on people who we normally try desperately not to contemplate.
