Greg Girard - American Stopover (signed)

Greg Girard
American Stopover (signed)

Published by Kominek, 2024
Size: 30 x 22.7 cm
160 pages
Hardcover
Signed by the artist

"In the 1970s and early 1980s, trips to Asia always started in California. I'd take a freighter to San Francisco or multi-stop plane tickets to Tokyo or Bangkok, departing from SFO or LAX. I'd stay in cheap hotels or half-sleep in all-night movie theaters, walk the streets, and photograph day and night. I'd linger for days or weeks, ride Greyhound to other cities, and at some point, eventually board a plane or ship to cross the Pacific.
The West Coast of the United States has always been a magnet for young researchers, and it was for me too. But in my case, it was also a vast departure lounge, a long layover, perhaps more than a final destination.
In a way, these photographs mark the beginning of a journey from which I have never returned. A period of heightened anticipation: the new daily life around me and the one to come when I finally arrive in one of Asia's great cities (and, as it turned out, I won't leave for decades). Thanks to Misha Kominek of Kominek Books, these photographs taken in the United States in the 1970s and early 1980s are now finding an audience I couldn't have dreamed of at the time."

- Greg Girard