Lost Nation

Danny Wilcox Frazier | June 6 – August 4, 2017

In celebration with the recent release of Jim Marshall's special edition Leica Camera, Leica Store San Francisco is excited to announce its upcoming exhibition, Jazz Festival, featuring photographs by the preeminent photojournalist and music photographer, Jim Marshall.

Jim Marshall (1936-2010) is reputed as one of the most celebrated and prolific photographers of the twentieth century. During the extraordinary rise of popular culture and counterculture in the 1960s, Marshall seemed to be everywhere that mattered. His images of Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Otis Redding, Brian Jones and Johnny Cash, among many more, are woven into the lore of the era. Because of his dedication to his subjects and loyalty, he was granted second-to-none access. Jim Marshall and Leica Camera are synonymous. Jim used his beloved Leica cameras up until his death in 2010. The exhibit includes photographs from the book Jim Marshall: Jazz Festival published by Reel Art Press and will feature historic artifacts from his life.

Before Jim walked out his front door, he always reached for a Leica to put on his shoulder. It was a ritual he performed every day of his life. Every iconic photograph Jim took was captured with his Leica camera. As Jim once said, “it’s never been just a job it’s been my life.”

About the Artist

Documentary photographer and filmmaker Danny Wilcox Frazier focuses his work on marginalized communities both in and outside of the United States. Frazier has photographed people struggling to survive the economic shift that has devastated rural communities throughout America, including in his home state of Iowa. His work acknowledges isolation and neglect while also celebrating perseverance and strength. Frazier is a member of the prestigious VII Photo Agency.

With his photographs from Iowa, Frazier documented those individuals continuing to live traditional lives in rural communities across the state, people challenged economically but often unwavering in their conviction to stay. The project was awarded the Center for Documentary Studies/Honickman First Book Prize and was published in 2007. After completing the book Driftless, Frazier directed and co-produced with MediaStorm a documentary that confronts issues highlighted by his photographs.

Frazier’s assignment work includes: Harper’s, The New Yorker, National Geographic, TIME, ESPN The Magazine, The Atlantic, New Republic, Mother Jones, LIFE, The Sunday Times Magazine, Newsweek, Fortune, Business Week, and Der Spiegel.

His photographs have been included in numerous books including: MVP, Detroit: An American Autopsy, Evidence Detroit, War Is Only Half The Story, Vol. IV, burn.02, Land – Country Life in the Urban Age.

Frazier is the recipient of numerous grants and fellowships including: Aaron Siskind Foundation, Individual Photographer’s Fellowship (2016), Emergency Fund, Magnum Foundation (2016), The Aftermath Project (2009), Humanities Iowa, an affiliate of the NEH (2009), W. Eugene Smith Grant finalist (2007 and 2008), and the Stanley Fellowship for Graduate Research Abroad (2003). His photographs are in public and private collections, including: The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Philadelphia Museum of Art, George Eastman House International Museum of Photography and Film, Duke University’s special collections library, Honickman Foundation, and Smithsonian, National Museum of American History.

Lost Nation

Since 2003, I have photographed the impact of depopulation on rural communities across the Midwest and Great Plains, including in my home state of Iowa. I have documented the slow decay that has turned many small towns into rural ghettos. Nationally, rural communities in the United States have lost more than 12 million people since 2000. The most recent census puts its share of the nation’s population at just 16 percent – the lowest in recorded history and down from 72 percent a century ago. My photographs do not shy away from the economic struggles many people face in rural communities due to out-migration. More importantly though, this project recognizes and celebrates those individuals working to maintain their culture and identity in small towns and rural outposts throughout America.  

Bury Me Not On the Lone Prairie

The Great Plains possess a mystic quality that is nearly impossible to put into words. Lying west of the Mississippi River and east of the Rocky Mountains, the region is wide-open and tough, a mix of farms, ranches and small towns far from urban life. The plains are known for sweat, muscle and blood – hard work and hard people. The men and women of this region are, and always have been, self-sufficient to their core. However, over the years, much of the population has fled to big cities or the East and West Coasts in search of jobs and greater opportunity. Those left behind have become increasingly isolated. The lone prairie is at once a place of pain and vanished prosperity, yet also rich with tradition and soul. This project is not a record of the physical landscape of the Great Plains, but rather a testimony of the emotional landscape that remains. My photographs bridge these emotions of loss and pride, striking an unsettling union between the two.

— Danny Wilcox Frazier

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