Sigmund Freud famously declared that 'every dream will reveal itself
as a psychological structure, full of significance.' For Nicholas
Muellner, the same could be said of every photograph. From his unique
perspective as a writer/photographer, Muellner functions as both analyst
and patient in this deep dive into the significance of pictures.
-Alec Soth
A quite brilliant book. I devoured Nicholas Muellner's exquisite writing
and perfectly constructed stream of bright consciousness in one sitting.
It is a very generous book (it is an adventure) and I suspect that every
reader will appreciate the open, personal, poetic and erudite call that
Muellner gives to think through the meaning of photography at this
juncture in history. -Charlotte Cotton
Lacuna Park is a collection of written and visual essays by the
influential American photographer, writer and curator Nicholas Muellner,
best known for his photobooks The Amnesia Pavilions (named one of
Time magazine's best photobooks of 2011) and In Most Tides an
Island.
The essays gathered here intertwine personal accounts, historical and
contemporary criticism, fictional narrative and philosophical inquiry to
ask: what is existentially at stake in the making and viewing of
photographs?
Created between 2009 and 2019, these writings reflect a decade of
epochal shifts in the technologies and contexts of image-making: the
growth of smartphones and the ascendance of social media, and the
resulting transformations in visual and social culture. This innovative
collection traces that historical evolution in image-making through
Muellner's idiosyncratically emotional, humorous and melancholic visual
and textual modes. Above all, in these critical and philosophical works,
Muellner never abandons the position of the photographer: that person
who marks their place in the world--as lover, citizen, artist and
witness--by the optical device they hold in their hands.
Lacuna Park contains all of Muellner's writings on photography. In
addition to five new and previously unpublished essays, the collection
includes selections published in now out-of-print and hard-to-find
works, including a complete reprint of Muellner's 2009 book The
Photograph Commands Indifference.
Nicholas Muellner (born 1969) received a BA in comparative
literature from Yale University and an MFA in Photography from Temple
University. He is Associate Professor of Photography and Co-Director of
the Image Text MFA at Ithaca College and the ITI Press.
