Waiting Out The Latter Days: Steven B. Smith
Chase Starr
Unassuming pale rust colored paper wraps the book cover, white lettering, and the front displays faintly printed image of solemn reflection. In this book, Smith travels back to his hometown Utah at different periods of his life to catalog the denizens. Monochrome is a clever choice to blend the wide time range of the collection. Vehicles hint at what decade a photo was captured, but so do bicycles, fashion choices, dental alignment gear, or lawn chairs. It’s not ordered chronologically but time periods cut in and out subtly enough to not notice on a quick skim through the pages.
Crowds of spectators are a common theme. Families gather on grassy islands in flooded easements, women shade their eyes from the sun, two young boys huddle in a car trunk witnessing a band march by. The book begins with text describing the impact Cold War paranoia had on Smith, his community, and generation. The subjects in his photographs fill their time with spectacle gazing, but they are more accurately waiting out their days before a most grand and destructive spectacle can take place.