cover image You Can't Spell America Without Eric

You Can't Spell America Without Eric

. powerHouse Books, $45 (136pp) ISBN 978-1-57687-340-3

New York photographer Payson is the author of three previous powerHouse collections: Ghostplay, Gladiators and Bobcats. This departure from single-word thematic titling takes him around the country, and deep into current forms of Americana. The book finds him, in the words of Center for Creative Photography curator Britt Salvesen (who provides an essay), taking in things ""blatant and subtle."" One of the 125 full-color 12.25'' x 9.25'' photos shows a woman in shadow in such a way that she could be wearing a hijab, or she could just have thick, dark hair; she's clutching two tiny, globular red fruits that seem to channel desire from all corners. Another photo, garishly lit, shows a little girl nestled in a fat adult's crotch; the adult, whose gender is ambiguous, wears a crazily embroidered American flag top, and is sticking a pinwheel in the child's face. Sex, food, bodies, light and cars are constants here, and Payson catches them at moments at once decadadent and intimate in repose.