Interview with Thomas Kern: “A Drug Free Land” (2011)
Zabriskie Point, Death Valley, California, 2003
Thomas Kern – Interview A DRUG FREE LAND
By Christian Reister, 2011, originally published by Seconds2Real
Q: Thomas, tell us a little about your photographic career.
TK: I became fascinated by ph
via AMERICAN SUBURB X: http://www.americansuburbx.com/2011/03/interview-thomas-kern-drug-free-land.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Americansuburb+%28AMERICANSUBURBX%29
The photographs I was searching for were documentary but rest ambiguous and inconclusive at the same time. I was not trying to make a final statement. The images come from heart and mind alike. They are wrought from strong convictions shaped by my own experience of living in the midst of a sometimes deceitfully familiar America – a very personal departure point to explore a very public subject. There was no common language for the confusions and fears triggered by 9/11, the ongoing wars and a crumbling economy. It was my ambition to give this America a face, to create a document, a visual commentary on the state of the nation