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Terri Anne Greig wrote another fantastic article on LaPorte, Indiana for Michigan City's The News-Dispatch monthly newspaper, The Local; this time, she covers the book-release party hosted by B&J's American Café.  Greig quotes B&J's co-owner John Pappas, who talks about the book's impact for his diner:

"We're still getting calls from newspapers and radio stations located all over the country," says John Pappas, who owns the restaurant along with his wife, Billie.  "People are still coming in to the diner because they saw the book mentioned on TV or read about it in a newspaper or magazine."

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New words about LaPorte, Indiana, this time from the ALA's magazine, Booklist!  Donna Seaman said some great things about us--it's even the official review on amazon.com now!  Check it out:

LaPorte, Indiana also presents a rare and striking collection of portraits meant to preserve memories and serve as tokens of affection. Bitner, cocreator of Found Magazine, an inspired showcase of lost-and-found items, was astonished to find a cache of 18,000 professional black-and-white photographs in the backroom of an Indiana diner. As Kotlowitz notes in his introductory essay, these carefully posed portraits of the townspeople of LaPorte taken during the 1950s and 1960s capture the idealized self-images of middle-class midwesterners. Bitner describes the photographer, Frank Pease, as an "accidental historian." One might also say that Pease created what art critic Michael Kimmelman calls "accidental masterpieces." Certainly, the 200 lustrous portraits of people at every stage of life possess a mesmerizing power, running the gamut from sweet to hilarious, poignant to beautiful.

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Wsj

We're psyched.  Kent Owen reviewed LaPorte, Indiana in the Wall Street Journal over the weekend.  Here's a selection:

...Fortunately, magazine editor Jason Bitner happened upon the stored prints of a LaPorte studio photographer named Fred Pease and, delighted by the hoard he had discovered, assembled this assortment. Though the book yields motifs -- couples, siblings, pearl necklaces, buzz haircuts, bouffant hairdos, horn-rimmed glasses -- the faces appear anonymously, each a souvenir from the 1950s or '60s. Nothing is played for laughs, no postmodern sarcasm at the expense of clueless Hoosiers. The expressions are easygoing and ingenuous, if shaded toward the tentative and diffident. If there was an American look 40 or 50 years ago -- at least one recognizable throughout Middle America -- these faces may be it. Nothing edgy, smirking or brash. But much that is earnest, benign and hopeful.  Nothing edgy, smirking or brash.  But much that is earnest, benign, and hopeful. 

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Read the full review here.

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Stacey Dugan reviewed LaPorte, Indiana over at UR Chicago magazine!  Here is Dugan covering some of the book's more curatorial aspects:

Some of his selections would be well-described as outtakes - a baby crying, a little girl itching her eye or a teenage girl looking scared stiff  - but those imperfections make the subjects overwhelmingly human, even if they aren't the portraits that would make their way to the family mantel.  Bitner's juxtapositions, too, are playful but astute.

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More reviews from the UK!  The British fine arts magazine Modern Painters offers its thoughts on LaPorte, Indiana in their new issue:

Roland Barthes famously noted that in the 1953 film Julius Caesar, coiffure guaranteed historical  authenticity: The cod-classical fringe flagged the male actors' Roman-ness.  In Jason Bitner's selection of found studio portraits from the 1950s and 1960s, the equivalent ensign is a little tuft of hair that sticks straight up from a brutal haircut.

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Hannah Lack, from the global culture magazine Dazed and Confused, wrote a glowing review of LaPorte, Indiana - here's a selection:

The photographs capture post-WWII middle America when suburbia was ballooning, before Vietnam and the 60s hit the nation's consciousness ... we can only guess at the mysterious stories that hide behind these milk-fed faces.


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Lake_magazine

In the June '06 issue of Lake Magazine, Deborah Hufford wrote a fantastic review of LaPorte, Indiana!  Hufford comments on the pictures' place in Mid-Century America:

Emblematic of the times, the earlier photos' subjects sport beehive hairdos, crewcuts, cat-eye glasses, and a preponderance of pearls.  later, skirts creep up and the sideburns creep down, the country slouching toward the '60s.

The images are modest, almost workmanlike.  But they are tinged with a gentle self-consciousness, even hopefulness, and bespeak the quietude and dignity of their Midwest subjects.

Check out the full review here.

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Gapersblock

Andrew Huff, editor and co-founder of the wonderful Chicago-based web publication Gapers Block, weighs in on LaPorte, Indiana.  Here, Huff describes one of his favorite photo-couplings:

I find myself returning over and over again to a spread showing two men in suits, each with a flat-top haircut, thick black-rimmed glasses on a slightly nobby nose, and a mild smile; the biggest difference between the pair is that one happens to be black, the other white, but their similarities almost lead you to believe they're related.

Read Huff's full review here.

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Balt_urb_mag

Here's a selection from Susan McCallum-Smith's review in Baltimore's The Urbanite Magazine:

Jason Bitner, the cocreator of FOUND Magazine and an expert in "show and tell" cultural artifacts, carefully sifted through these mementoes of the universal human journey - the christenings, communions, birthdays, weddings, anniversaries, and retirements - to produce a portrait of the small town  "everyman."  Collectively, the book feels like a tactile Winesburg, Ohio, yet each print reverberates with undeniable individuality.  These people could be our relatives, triggering emotions in us both affectionate and protective

Find the whole review here.

 

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WGN

On April 23rd, Jason Bitner stopped by Chicago's 720 WGN radio station to talk to host Nick Digilio about LaPorte, Indiana.

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Check it out!

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Bitner (left) and Digilio  show the camera some famous Chicago love.

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Chicago_journal

Kristen Gehring, in the Chicago Journal, wrote a events reminder  of the Intuit book party on April 27th.  We know that this is a couple weeks late, but we still wanted to share:

Tonight, Thursday, April 27, at 6 p.m., we’re going to Intuit: The Center for Intuitive and Outsider Art, 756 Milwaukee Ave. (312/243-9088), to hear Found Magazine creator Jason Bitner talk about his new book, LaPorte, Indiana, which "presents a selection from 18,000 studio portraits [he] stumbled upon in the backroom of a diner in northwestern Indiana." We’re from northwest Indiana. It is not outside the realm of possibility that a portrait of us in our Sunday best, with our parents and our two stupid little brothers, may be among the 18,000 photos discovered by Mr. Bitner. This would not be good for our image. We plan to take a blowtorch along tonight, so we can discreetly excise the offending portrait should it show up in the presentation. If Mr. Bitner is upset, we shall quietly tuck the blowtorch into our handbag and goddess demurely.

Luckily, the blowtorches weren't needed.

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Readers Respond!

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I was looking through a Venus Magazine today and found a review of your book.  As a native LaPortean I can't wait for my copy of LaPorte, Indiana to arrive!  I now live in Nashville, Tennessee and don't get back to LaPorte often, but I still have a bunch of relatives who live there. 

If you get down Nashville way for any book signings, let me know!

- Mary

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Wow!  I just learned of your book which features the work of my great-uncle, Frank Pease, and my home town of LaPorte, Indiana.  I have the book ordered and can't wait to see it.  My family also has a small collection of his work.  My Aunt Marti has this great picture Frank took of her as a little girl giving a dog a perm.  It's great.  I always thought Uncle Frank's work was genius.  I'm glad someone else finally agrees.

- Beth

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Thanks Jason, we appreciate the update with the info.  The book really has made a lot of people and their memories come to life!  Thanks for all your work.

- Hugh and Kathy

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I visited your website after reading about your book in our local paper.  I currently live in Mishawaka, Indiana, but I was born and spent 44 years of my life in LaPorte.  The picture of the girl that is in the front of the storage box on your website and in the book is my senior picture.  A few years ago at my 45th class reunion, various class members had talked about the boxes and boxes of pictures that were at the American Café.  I go to LaPorte often for lunches with friends but I have never stopped in there to go through the pictures.  I will now.

Thank you for the book.  My friends, my sister's friends and one of my brother's best friends are in that book, and I am in the book!  I am so glad that you chose that day to go to the LaPorte County Fair and discovered the treasured pictures from Muralcraft Studios.  Was the demolition derby as good as it was when I was a kid?

- Jan

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I read an article in our local paper (The Times, previously the Hammond Times) about your book LaPorte, Indiana.  My husband and I are born and raised 'Slicers', Class of '62 and Class of '63!  I always thought LaPorte was a nice place to be from!

As soon as the book was available locally I purchased three copies - one for me, one for my sister and one for my brother-in-law.  As we still have family residing in LaPorte, we make the trip often to visit them.  Today I visited and we went to B & J's American Café for breakfast (since your mention of the cinnamon rolls I knew I had to get there for that treat!).  I was hoping to get to browse through the pictures but didn't have a chance - time wasn't on my side.  I did, however, have a few moments to speak with John Pappas.  I identified a few pictures for hmi as he said he was trying to identify as many of hte pictures in hte book as possible.  Luckily the names I knew werew new names for him to add to the collection!

- Jan

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I've been a long-time reader of FOUND Magazine online.  How long I don't know - not important - but I'm a fan.  My whole life I have been picking things up and seeing some sort of minor importance n them, a snippet into someone else's life, a ghost of an emotion.  Then I found FOUND Magazine, and it thrilled me to see other people do the same thing I do.  I also happen to be from LaPorte, IN.  My friends are very excited to see the book when it comes out.  It just seems strange to me that all of this time I've been reading FOUND and now this book comes out, based on the town where I live.  It just seems that life never ceases to amaze me with little twists and little turns, and minor coincidences.

- Joe

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Thanks for doing this book - I grew up in LaPorte and it's really kind of a sweet little town.  Thanks!

- Lynn

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I know you've been getting a lot of praise for the book, and it's all well-deserved.  I just wanted to throw another compliment your way.  I spent so many years wanting to get out of there, but I was excited when I saw this book.  It's pretty damn beautiful.

Thanks,
Nate

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Can't tell you how excited I am fo the arrival of LaPorte, Indiana.  As a born-and-raised 'LaPutian', it jsut boggles my mind that our bizarre little burg would ever make headlines.  We are thrilled and amazed that one of our favorite family past-times - gathering at B & J's - has turned into somehting larger than all of us.

- Bob

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I just got the book and I love it!  Love the little map of IN, love the cover, your introduction, the stats about LaPorte, love everything.  Congratulations, really!  It's really fantastic.

When's the book tour!?!

- Emily

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Read about your LaPorte, Indiana book in today's Wall Street Journal, and then went to the Princeton Architectural Press website, and now I am here!  It looks like a great collection, and I will be buying several.  As a small-town Hoosier native (Napanee, Warsaw, Wabash, Frankfort, Decatur, Rochester, Clarksville, Southport, Indianapolis, Fort Wayne, New Haven ... and finally to Bloomington to IU, Class of '66), and I will enjoy the book, I am sure.

- Fred

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Congrats on the 'publishment' (I don't know why that's not a word - I always think it is!) of LaPorte, Indiana!  Looks fantastic!

- xoebq

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Congrats!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Woooooooooohhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!

- Radka & Lexster

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Hey!  Just got the book today.  It looks AMAZING.  I can't stop thumbing through!  I swear the spine is going to be broken by the end of the night.  It's just so gorgeous.  I think that one of my favorite details is the textured cover that mimics the texture of the photographic paper.  Nice touch!

- Jen

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I've been a regular at the LaPorte County Fair for years and years.  My dad used to sneak into it when he was a boy.  Great idea, bro - you are a ghost riser.

- Joey

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From the April issue of Indianapolis Monthly a thematic look at LaPorte, Indiana!  A look at LaPortean women thrown together by the common feature of less-than-perfect vision.  Check out this beautiful grouping of Gals With Glasses!

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Suntimes

Mark Athitakis wrote a generous review in the Chicago Sun-Times.  Mark had this to say about the book:

Each photo isn't particularly fascinating by itself -- the people, poses, and clothing are thoroughly ordinary. But set next to each other, in page after page, the pictures seem to gain a new layer of humanity: each person is trying to present his or her best face to the world, and those efforts can be endearing (one elderly man adjusting another's tie) or surprisingly revealing for portrait photography (one woman is clearly so uncomfortable in front of the camera that her smile might as well be a scowl). And the images practically demand that you ask where these people came from, of what became of them -- however revealing the images might be, they're still just slivers of lives, which makes the book simultaneously frustrating and fascinating.

Athitakis also coaxed this detail out of Bitner:

One of Bitner's favorite images the book -- one of an engaged couple holding hands and earnestly gazing at one another -- was identified as Hugh and Kathy Tonegal, who are married and living in LaPorte. "After I found the photos I wanted to enlarge some of the ones I liked, so I had some bigger ones made," Bitner says. "I had to tell them, 'I've had your guys' image on my living-room wall for the last couple of years.'"

Check out the full article here.

 

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In the April edition of LaPorte County's The Local monthly newspaper, Terri Anne Greig wrote a couple of pieces on the LaPorte, Indiana book.  She sat down with Jason Bitner  to talk about the book and his impressions of the LaPorte community.  Greig  writes:

Some of Jason's personal favorites include the engaged couple holding hands and the photo of the older gentleman arranging the tie on his friend.  Jason says actually meeting the people in some of the photos has been an amazing experience.

"When I met Kathy and Hugh Tonagel  (the engaged couple), it was like seeing a work of art come to life, " Jason says.  "I had been looking at these photos for three years before I met anyone.  I made assumptions or guesses about the people and their lives.  They had become like icons to me and now I'm meeting them." 

Great articles, Terri!

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