SOUTHWEST
The book by Tomasz Daniec
Editing by Tomasz Daniec
Photographs by Tomasz Daniec
Essays by Tomasz Daniec, Jakub Woynarowski and Aleksandra Goral
Graphic design, typesetting and mockups by Joanna Kogut-Blusiewicz
Proofreading by Aleksandra Ptasznik
Review of the book by prof. Andrzej Tobis
First edition, Kraków 2021
Issue of 300 copies
Printing by Skleniarz Printing House
Paper: Pergraphica Classic Smooth 150 gsm, Gmund Urban Cement Dust 250 gsm
Size: 8.5 x 7 inches
120 pages
Publisher: Publishing House of the Academy of Fine Arts in Krakow, Poland
phone: +48 12 299 20 61
e-mail: www.wydawnictwo.asp.krakow.pl
© Copyright by Tomasz Daniec, 2021
© The copyrights to the texts in the book belongs to their authors
© Copyright by Academy of Fine Arts in Krakow, 2021
ISBN 978-83-66564-23-7
The book contains 35 photographs of selected sites in the southwestern US and accompanying essays by Tomasz Daniec, Jakub Woynarowski and Aleksandra Goral. We can find there the desert settlement of Slab City, the official Center of the World, the White Sands nuclear test site, RV camps inhabited by excluded people, monumental structures lying in the lands of the Navajo people, abandoned motels on Route 66 and many others. Their locations are marked on 19th-century geological maps of California, Arizona,
and New Mexico.
Professor Andrzej Tobis on SOUTHWEST: Tomasz Daniec's book contains all the basic elements of a classic road movie. A lonely character in a car, an enormous space, a foggy destination, America (the title Southwest), the desert. (...) Southwest is at the same time the photobook, the guide, the collection of urban (desert) legends, the journal
and the essay.
Excerpt from an essay by Tomasz Daniec:
What keeps the myth of the Southwest attracting newcomers and prompting them to travel through the harsh and depopulated wastelands of Arizona, California, Nevada, and New Mexico? It is, of course, sustained by pop culture that feeds on a romantic frontier legend, filled with stories from the 19th century conquest of these lands by white Americans.
We know these performances perfectly well: first, the settlers bring order to the areas previously ruled by beautiful, but unspoiled nature. Then there are Indians or Mexicans who destroy the order – rob, murder and burn. Then a lone hero restores justice
and civilization triumphs. We also know the subsequent deconstruction of these stories that created a new myth – noble Native Americans, leading wise lives, remaining in touch
with nature. Their ecological culture is being destroyed by an unstoppable wave of settlers pouring out of trains pushed westward at the will of powerful railroad magnates.
Another myth-making cultural thread concerns the time forming the foundations for the American dream of equality and prosperity for all. The beginning of its last emanation dates back to the Great Depression, which caused the collapse of self-sufficient family farms and sealed the end of local mining. Areas that are completely depopulated today were once inhabited. They could not be described as "teeming with life", but everywhere, even in the Valley of Death, the remains of mines and small towns, the foundations
of buildings that once sheltered from cruel nature, testify to the population of these lands.
On the ruins of the nineteenth-century world of miners and cowboys, a new reality
is forming: the culture of the suburbs – the fulfillment of an idyllic dream of a happy life among the trimmed lawns surrounding similar-looking houses. Mass production
of prefabricated houses initiated by the construction company Levitt & Sons allows to build cheaper and faster than ever. Starting from the 1950s, the vast majority of new houses were built in suburban areas. Living in the suburbs requires long journeys to work,
so there is a car on each driveway, or two – one for each spouse. The construction
of the highways that Americans saw for the first time in occupied Germany is underway. They are to connect metropolises, but above all introduce modern arteries to cities, allowing access from the growing suburbs surrounding them.
By the end of the 1960s, the number of people living in suburban neighborhoods exceeded the size of the urban population. The typical model of a suburban house
in the Southwest was modeled after what could be seen in the Westerns – a light structure covered with wooden slats, reminiscent of a ranch. "Now every American can feel like John Wayne, reaching for the morning newspaper on the porch", argued a popular advertisement.
The myth will collapse with the economic recession that started with the 2008 crash.
The icon of the American dream will begin to be associated with the country's economic collapse, and the idyllic dream of the suburbs will turn out to be a false promise that has turned the structure of huge areas into a symbol of chaotic waste. American culture took over this narrative as well, seeing the dark side of the myth early on. The 1955 melodrama All That Heaven Allows tells the story of a community persecuting the protagonist played by Jane Wyman for breaking out of the pattern of suburban social life and the traditional role of a housewife. The movie started the dark suburbia trend, for which Blue Velvet
is probably the best point of reference. After an initial shot of the idyllic sky and red roses, Lynch takes the viewer deep into the suburban world – the real suburb pulsates with terror hidden under carefully mowed lawns.
The ruins left over from successive civilization disasters seem particularly spectacular here in the southwest, where the harsh desert landscape is a backdrop that highlights
the entropy into which the order that was built with such effort collapses. It may be argued that the image of imminent collapse is now a central feature of the modern Southwest myth. What makes this special is the scale and absolute regularity that immediately covers the entire cultural area.
Traces of similar catastrophes have marked most of the inhabited lands of our globe.
The image of entropy is an attractive commodity sold worldwide by streaming platforms and the gaming industry. Along with the growing sense of threat from the consequences
of the climate crisis, it has become one of the most influential elements of global culture. Its impact on the imagination is so strong that it makes some people travel to places where it all has already happened. Here you can experience what the world will be like after the catastrophe. In addition, it can be done without losing any of the comfort offered by modern civilization.
