Magnum photographer Matt Black captures the communities in California’s Central Valley
Between 2014 and 2020, photographer Matt Black traveled 100,000 miles across 46 American states to look behind the veil that keeps America’s poor in the shadows. Beginning in his home region of the Central Valley, his extensive documentary project, American Geography, unravels in a series of black-and-white photographs that poetically capture communities living below the poverty line. Un-American Dream is a moving image survey, filmed by director Joppe Rog, throughout California’s Central Valley... continue reading on www.nowness.com/story/unameri...
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His name mirrors his images, flat with no highlights. Emotive, thought provoking, reality. Brilliant work. I am ashamed to say I had never heard of Matt Black, but I do now.
I see highlights
Love these type of videos that come from this channel. The most profound line for me was how he said poverty has been made to appear as a personal problem versus a systemic one. It’s part of the plan and it is and has been working. Stay strong.
I thought it ironic that watching a video showing poverty was interrupted by an add for a luxury holiday.
Appriciate this. He shots in the area I live in and is in touch with the issues at hand.
These photos are born of the same stuff that had Willy Vlautin writing his novels and making his music with Richmond Fontaine. Powerful stuff, it just cuts into the film.
A very moving & honest film of a country that seems to hide this side of poverty & blames the poor & unfortunate. Excellent images throughout.
Can relate to this video, thanks!
Aloha ! Such truth in your work. Thank you.
Great photography pity clip not downloadable
A masterpiece ✨ so sad, so true
Powerful
I grew up in the foothills just above the central valley of California and know the central valley well and sad to say Matt's right this country is full of places just like this and even much worse but like was said the promotion of the American dream is alive and well and poverty is presented as a choice .........
Very cool and thought provoking.
This is extremely powerful.
Great short film, great score too.
brilliant
Loved the super 8 videography
this is incredibly
Damn. That was a good one.
I just completed a 2400 mile journey along highways 101 and 5 and sampled the radio stations, both AM and FM. Once the Coast’s major cities are left out of range of the puny antenna on the car, the radio selection changes drastically. Christian preaching and admonishments in Spanish and English are available on many frequencies, some overtly political within minutes of my tuning to that station. Screaming Conservatives with blood pressures which must be at near stroke levels, spew their bile to the airwaves, turning news stories on their heads to make a point: Anyone who disagrees is misguided or treasonous. Christian soft rock is aired as well. Some are quite listenable. Some, so saccharine as to invite mocking. Mariachi and Latin music can be fun. Country hits are a staple but less numerous than latin and Spanish language stations. Once population centers are in range NPR is available and one has arrived on a different planet. Late summer 2016 while motoring near Sacramento I tuned to an npr station where a moderator was interviewing a Family Farmer of the central valley. They chewed the fat about this and that until the moderator asked who the man would vote for. Trump, was the reply, but I hope he changes his mind about immigrants, he remarked. They were winding up the interview when the moderator asked the Family Farmer how many acres he farmed. 49,000 acres. Family Farmer? Salt of the earth? Welfare cheat! (Check out the biggest “ getters” of subsidies.) Wrote this in 2016.
🔥🎥👌🏼
Matt black voice sounds so cool
The still photography was great, but it was ruined by the video portion. This kind of documentary work isn't for video.
If you watched this, and thought it was negative and depressing, I challenge you to do this: Watch it, but see it as neutral. See being poor as an experience, rather than a polarizing view. Our society wants everyone to be a certain way = The American Dream. Yet, when major companies close, or move away, the people there still survive. Life goes on. Also, not everyone wants the status quo.
It’s an experience to sell your blood for water…
@jeremy 💩comment of the day
The only poor you have to feel sorry for are the elderly who are too old to change their situation. I grew up in a poor neighborhood in the city. Everyone who had the motivation to better themselves got out of there. The ones who felt sorry for themselves are still there complaining about all their bad breaks. They had it no worse than anyone else. Life is what you make it, nobody's going to hand you your future on a silver platter.
not if you blieve in the American dream...
America is Not Poor at All. America is Rich. Just Like India. People Run to City Life leaving their Homes. America has Land to Live, Cultivate, and Cattle to Dairy. Thus, NoBody will be Hungry, Homeless. Self-Service is the Key to Success.
He sure talks a good one. Terrible photos, but hey.
Pictures of poor people for rich people to look at. Lucrative!
@Alex Ramos As a photographer and follower of photographers, I can tell you that just about every significant collection photography--like a book--is out of most common people's price range. The 'message' is mostly attainable only by the rich. it's one of the cruxes of this game.
@Alex Ramos You are that dumb, eh?
@Alex Ramos It's not an opinion. But go on enjoying yourself.
I don't like the way that this makes everything in the Central Valley seem desolate and bad. I remember growing up in places similar to this and those were honestly some of the happiest times I ever had. Our going out was going to McDonalds or the local pizza place and renting a VHS to watch or going to the river. Money does not always = happiness and well being that comes from within a person. This doesn't mean that there isn't people being exploited it just means that life is a mosaic. Did you talk to any of these people collect their stories or just snap a picture and create a suiting narrative?
Did you watch it? It is his home.
Compelling work and storytelling and all. .. . But it's also getting a little old--at least stale--to have yet another bleak picture painted of America, brought to light by a well-endowed org, helmed predominantly by people who come from enough privilege to pursue their Dream Job, and simply told without any meaningful attempt at changing the matter. . .as if watching and jeering, alone, changes a thing. And I'm a fan of Matt Black. Have been following him for years.
Living the dream by making a living Documenting the failures of the American dream. Irony.
Astute and poignant!
You are the promise of the American Dream! You are driving around freely in a truck most people in the world would desire, doing what you hoped to be doing, with a camera in one hand that comes in around 2k and another camera to record the images that can't be documented do to the limitations of eather the film stock or ISO you have personally selected at the moment. All awhile someone you care about is filming your quest to answer your negative questions, is America Died? You sir are a cup half full perpetuating a lie that is way too easy to tell and promote. Because were I sit you are the affirmative answer of yes to the fulment of your question. Cheer up you depressed old boomer. Your life is Amazing! And YES the American dream as exhibited through you is alive and well.
"You are driving around freely in a truck most people in the world would desire..." - I don't know. In all the countries you would compare the USA to it's not a big thing to have a truck and drive around "doing what you hoped do be doing". Not even in Russia I guess. Yet I have never been to a country in Europe with this sort of poverty. I've been to Germany, Austria, France, Slovenia, Netherlands, Italy, Croatia, Belgium, Switzerland... The situation is better there. So I'm not sure why you are being offended by a human you call a "depressed old boomer". What is triggering you? Isn't it a good thing to acknowledge a problem? That's what he is doing. It's a first step. Like Matt Black I'd like to see things getting better for everyone in the US.
He doesn't shoot on film. It's all digital work. Not sure how you can look at this kind of poverty and say the American dream is alive and well. For whom? Certainly not everyone.
There isn't opportunity here? That is a "lie" and a "myth?" A "slight of hand?" Poverty is a real topic with many layers. The "brutality" of the American system? A "fraud to keep people in line?" While I appreciate the photography, I'm not sure i'm getting a well-rounded perspective here. Did he spend any great deal of time with people? This seems almost distant and unattached, like street photography. What are your thoughts? I think Matt never even scratches the surface and fills the void with speculation and prior commitments to political narratives. What are your thoughts? I spent almost a decade embedded with homeless people. How long did Matt spend with the guy that told him he was selling his blood to buy household goods? Did he spend six months with that dude? A year? Five years? Or fifteen Minutes? I bet if Matt actyally spent time he'd figure out that that guy was selling blood for drugs and alcohol. More than likely... It takes a lot of time to get past the persona and the hustle.
Good documentary, amazing photography, but I’ve to say this, poverty in USA is nothing compared with poverty in Cuba, the country I came from. I invite all photographers like him to go there and you will surprise what communism is capable to do.
Why are you comparing poverty like that? So if I find a capitalist country that has worst poverty than Cuba, does that invalidate the suffering of Cubans? Does that mean that communism isn't that bad? It's a poor argument. And it oversimplifies why each country has poverty in the first place
Poverty is poverty. Doesn t matters countries or comunist or liberal politics. Don t be resentful.
All who never lived under a communist dictatorship don’t have any idea of real poverty.
@@jnez73 when someone does not have food to eat, they are not thinking in ideologies. again, don't be resentful
God bless USA.
Dont agree with the sentiments expressed by Mr Black. All societies have their economic strata.
We NEED tiny homes that poor Americans can buy working $18/Hour or less! Tiny house structure should be affordable and durable for under $30,000 [ 1 year of work to pay off ] 🔌🔌🔌