LaPorte, Indiana by Jason Bitner: Press and Feature Stories

Congratulations, Deb Wood! Deb was cited in the Step Inside Design "State of Design 2007" issue for her work on LaPorte, Indiana and More Than Words (both books published by the endlessly awesome Princeton Architectural Press). Amongst many accolades, Step's Michelle Taute writes, "These unlabeled photos may never reveal the truth, but the volume's design compellingly invites readers to guess at the answers." Deb and PAPress deserve every bit of recognition that they receive -- keep up the incredible work!

Click the image below to get the full scoop!

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Yesterday, Canada's National Post ran a beautiful feature on LaPorte, Indiana in their "Issues and Ideas" section. Along with an except from the book, the feature includes LaPorte, Indiana portraits and updates on the subjects' present whereabouts.

To get a big view of the article, click the image below!

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Straight from Prague, crazy art/culture magazine Hype ran a review of LaPorte, Indiana in their latest print issue. If anyone out there wants to take a crack at the Czech, click on the image below. Many thanks to Pavel Turek, who put the piece together for Hype.

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In the new edition of Folk Art Magazine (Winter, 2007) editor Tanya Heinrich sat down with Jason Bitner to chat about LaPorte, Indiana. Heinrich is a masterful interviewer not so much for her well-framed and interesting inquiries but for the wide knowledge of folk art that she brings to an interview. And next time you're in New York City, check out the museum behind Folk Art Magazine, The American Folk Art Museum.

To read Bitner and Heinrich's conversation, click the image below:

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A while back we told you that Dan Collison and Elizabeth Meister of Long Haul Productions crafted a great radio story about LaPorte, Indiana. We're happy to update that their story will be airing nationally on NPR's Day to Day!

Catch the program the day after Christmas, Tuesday, December 26th. The LaPorte, Indiana story should be about 40 minutes into the program. So, as you're playing with all of your new toys, don't forget to have Day to Day playing in the background!

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We're in love with quite a few lit-bloggers, but the gals over at BookSlut are certainly some of the best out there. So, we got excited when we heard that Carrie Jones reviewed LaPorte, Indiana in November non-fiction section! She's a great reviewer who has a knack for catching the tender moments of a text (check out her BookSlut review archive here), and she did not disappoint with her Laporte, Indiana review. Here's a taste:

For every unimaginative person who throws away old family photos or who is not captivated by a prom photo blowing in the wind, there are people like Bitner who want to explore the mysteries of our airbrushed pasts and challenge us to make something of the thoughts those documents inspire.

Read the full review here.

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We've always totally loved the book spine that designer Deb Wood crafted out of Frank Pease silhouettes. Nine LaPorte lookers stacked and gazing westward. So we were psyched to see the LaPorte book used as a prop in the October/November issue of ReadyMade. Check it there on page 78, illustrating how a book light should illuminate your favorite reads. Go Deb!

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The latest Stop Smiling magazine is their "Ode to the Midwest" issue, and contributing writer Jim Dempsey wrote a glowing review of LaPorte, Indiana in the latest issue. Dempsey concludes his article by saying:

... these moments are more than tender, they represent a psychological place where vulnerability can dance carelessly, where adoration is encouraged and the perfect smile is effortless. LaPorte, Indiana is a true collection of hope, revealing through these Midwestern Americans who we are and who we might be.

Check out the full review below.

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So, a lot of people have asked us about the annual LaPorte County Fair. Katie Krentz wrote an insightful piece about LaPorte's exceptional and historic fair for UR Chicago. Let Katie tell you about a few of her favorite attractions, including the famous demolition derby:

The highlights of the fair are perhaps the demolition derby, extreme motocross and the antique tractor pull. Nothing starts the fair week off like watching old muscle cars go head-to-head with decrepit school busses on a hot Indiana night while guzzling cheap beer from a can. Not all of the horsepower at this fair is fake, however, and the harness racing is a nice way to watch a race and save your hearing at the same time.

Read the online version here.

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Be sure to check out the radio show The Speakeasy from WFMU in New York City, where host Dorian Devins and Jason Bitner talk about all things LaPorte, Indiana!

Download the Bitner interview here, and subscribe to The Speakeasy podcast here.

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Last week, Jesse Thorn interviewed Jason Bitner on his The Sound of Young America radio show on KSFS San Francisco, where they chatted about the LaPorte, Indiana book. Check out the podcast version of the program here!

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Kiera Butler put together an impressive LaPorte, Indiana review for New York Press this week. Here's a selection from her piece:

Officially, the book has no chapters; it’s just one portrait after another. But if you look closely, you’ll notice that the book’s greatest strength is its layout. The arrangement of the photos not only makes sense — it’s hilarious. Bitner sorted the photos into loose categories. The celebrity look-alike section includes a Scarlett Johansson, a DeNiro and a Drew Barrymore. Bitner’s book is more than just a collection of photos—it’s a remarkable portrait of a bygone era in one Midwestern town.

Check out the full New York Press review here.

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More exciting news from radio land! Dan Collison and Elizabeth Meister's Long Haul Productions crafted an excellent story about LaPorte, Indiana for National Public Radio (the story ran eariler on Chicago Public Radio). Collison and Meister talk to some of the people from the book, including Kathy and Hugh Tonagel, Patty Sallwasser, and more. Be sure to check out the full mp3 here and listen to some hilarious and touching stories!

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The coverage of the LaPorte, Indiana book release party at B & J's American Café continues! Martha Bayne wrote a wonderful piece about the book and the party in this week's Chicago Reader. Here's an excerpt where Bayne talks about the book and former LaPortean Pat Orzech remembers sitting for a portrait at Muralcraft Studios:

The La Porte volume is warmer in tone and more conceptually consistent than the Found books, whose sense of slice-of-life discovery is served with a sometimes unsettling dose of voyeuristic glee. Essentially text free, save for Bitner's introduction and a foreword by Alex Kotlowitz, LaPorte, Indiana is a rich anthology of midcentury hairdos and eyewear, page after page of citizens young and old, dressed for posterity and doing their darnedest to relax. Pease had operated Muralcraft with his wife, Gladys, who hand-colored prints, ran the office, greeted clients, and helped them with their hair and makeup. Pat Orzech remembers being really nervous before her graduation photo, but "Gladys and Frank put you at ease," she says. And though the photos themselves are undistinguished - all have the same natural background, the same unsurprising poses - collectively they convey a lost moment in time.

Read the full article here.

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Whitney Matheson has a interesting column over at USAToday.com called Pop Candy, where she goes about "unwrapping pop culture's hip and hidden treasures." After visiting BookExpo, the massive annual book fair in Washington, DC, she listed some of her favorite books ... including LaPorte, Indiana! Here's what she had to say:

Found Magazine's Jason Bitner hit the jackpot when he stumbled upon 18,000 old photos of La Porte citizens. This is the fascinating result - and it even includes John Mellencamp's seal of approval!

See her list here.

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Booklist_1

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.

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.

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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Indianapolis_monthly_logo

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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Local_logo

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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Heraldargus

Catherine LaFrance chronicled the LaPorte, Indiana book-signing party at B&J's American Café week for the LaPorte Herald-Argus. She reports:

The photos echo a time in LaPorte history that seems far away, but Bitner said the spirit of those photos still exists since so many people have remained in the area.

Bitner also spent time at LaPorte High School Friday morning to talk about the book and his career path.

“It was fun to talk to the high school. But I haven’t been awake at 9 a.m. in years,” he said with a laugh.

We'll have more on the book-signing party soon!

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Guardian

The April 19th edition of G2, The Guardian's daily supplement, ran an "In Pictures" feature on LaPorte, Indiana. Jason Bitner talks about the town's energetic response to the book and summarizes the excitement by saying, "This kind of response speaks volumes about what kind of community LaPorte, Indiana, still is today."

Thanks to our friends at The Guardian UK - we're glad the interest in LaPorte, Indiana is global!

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Jane

Lindsay Robertson, who is guest-blogging over at Jane Magazine's blog, had some good words for Laporte, Indiana. Here's a taste:

I got on the crowded train at rush hour and found a seat and started from the beginning. Within about a minute, I was frantically searching my bag for a tissue for the tears streaming down my face ... I don't want to over-describe it because I think each person will take something different away from this book, but it's an experience--looking at these people's faces you see the inherent dignity of every person who has ever lived or ever will live on earth. (How's that for some heavy praise?)

To read it in-full, check it out here at Jane Mag's Blog.

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Blogcritics

There were some reviews over the weekend from a couple of the biggest, baddest blogs in the blogosphere! First, here is what David Pescovitz from BoingBoing had to say:

When I first found FOUND Magazine several years ago, I was absolutely delighted. Every issue is packed with bizarre found stuff like love letters, nasty notes left on cars, to-do lists, homework assignments, doodles, photos, etc. FOUND co-founder Jason Bitner recently found a find so amazing that he created a wonderful book about it. I can't recommend LaPorte, Indiana highly enough for fans of photography, ephemera, or curiosities. Looking at these anonymous people is deeply moving.

Check out Pescovitz's full BoingBoing review here.

Next we have Chantal Stone's thoughtful review from Blogcritics. From her review:

Jason Bitner, of Found Magazine, makes a living collecting the things we leave behind, and compiling them for all to see. Lost love letters, a to-do list, a note from an angry neighbor have all found their way into Bitner's Found Magazine. This time, instead of gathering the snippets of memories and messages left behind, Bitner has compiled a wonderful collection of lives, a veritable diary of a small American town… More than a collection of old photographs, LaPorte, Indiana has given the world a glimpse into our own collective history. This is bigger than just LaPorte,. . . this is America, your family, your neighbors. This book evokes a feeling of nostalgia and holds a piece of all of us back in time, when our collective consciousness told us all things were possible. Jason Bitner has given us the glorious gift of time standing still.

Get Chantal's full review here.

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Wbez

Bitner sat down with Steve Edwards, host of the Eight Forty-Eight show on Chicago's WBEZ, to talk about LaPorte, Indiana. Download an MP3 of the program, "Images of LaPorte," Indiana, here !

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The South Bend Tribune had Sharon Dettmer out to cover the LaPorte, Indiana release party. It was a blast, and Sharon turned in a delightful story. Check it out below.

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Blogged! The Millions review!

The Millions (A Blog about Books) wrote a fantastic review of LaPorte, Indiana today! From C. Max Magee and his talented minion of blog-helpers:

As with looking at any of the FOUND crew's finds, flipping through this book leaves one with odd sensations. We're not used to seeing stuff like this so lovingly presented, so it makes us look a little harder. As I flip through the book, I enjoy the unintentional artistry of the black and white portraits, but more so I wonder who these people are or were.

Thanks to the Millions!

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Smith
Southbendtribune

There are a couple new articles about Laporte, Indiana from the South Bend Tribune and Smith Magazine ! In the South Bend Trib story, Sharon Dettmer dug up some fantastic new info about photographer Frank Pease. Take a look:

As a young man, Pease left home and traveled to Florida to join the circus. When he returned to his hometown of LaPorte, Pease admitted that circus life was tough work. Particularly taxing was helping the lion tamer, he told family memebers. Full story here.

Smith Magazine gives a great summary of the atmosphere surrounding the project in the city of LaPorte:

“It’s nuts,” says Bitner, “we’ve been staring at these photos for years, and they’ve suddenly sprung to life. And as more people come forward, we’re beginning to reconstruct the town and reunite some friends from across the country—the book’s becoming a community event.” Go have a look!

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37signals

37Signals, a fabulous blog out of Chicago, mentions LaPorte, Indiana in their daily round-up today:

Photographer Frank Pease shot portraits of the residents of Laporte, Indiana back in the 50s and 60s. Recently, Found magazine editor Jason Bitner discovered 18,000 of the photos in in the back of a small Midwestern diner. The top shots are now a book.

Head over to them and check 'em out.

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Intheloupe_1 Sduniontribune_1 Nwitimeslogo

First, on the East Coast, Julia Dolan wrote an impressive and thoughtful review of LaPorte, Indiana in March/April '06 edition of Boston University's in the loupe. Here's a selection:

Bitner's groupings of related images - graduation portraits, women wearing pearl chokers who gaze dreamily over their shoulders - at first glance seem simplistic. But it soon becomes evident that Bitner wants us to see the subtle indications of individuality that the sitters could not fully camouflage.

Moving along to the West Coast, Linda Rosenkrantz had this to say in the March 19th San Diego Union-Tribune:

For 30 years, the archive of Frank Pease's studio photographs sat in boxes in the back of B&J's American Cafe, until they were unearthed by Bitner, founder of Found magazine, revealing the faces and fashions (not to mention hairstyles) of a typical Midwestern town from the 1940s to the 1960s.

And in between the coasts, from the lovely Midwest, comes a feature from Gretchen Kalwinski in the Northwest Indiana Times. An excerpt:

It is of note that the images were made public via the enthusiasm of a non-native, a testament to the idea that we oftentimes overlook what is right under our noses. With his outsider's perspective, it seems that Bitner was in a unique position to be able to see facets of the archive that were regarded as everyday by those familiar with them.

LaPorte, Indiana by Jason Bitner

Jason Bitner's new collection of found portrait photographs from the Midwest's Frank Pease. LaPorte, Indiana is a major cultural excavation and an opening into these lives, into this town, and into the heart of our nation.

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