Joshua Lutz

Suburbs, Chappaqua, New York

Joshua Lutz (b.1975, USA) is the recipient of numerous awards and fellowships including PDN 30’s top emerging photographers, American Photography, Communication Arts Best Editorial, and The Tierney Fellowship. His first monograph, Meadowlands released in the spring of 2008 has been named Best Photography Books of 2008 by Photo District News and American Photography. His Work has been featured in numerous publications including Artforum, the New York Times Magazine, Harper’s, The New Yorker, Newsweek, and Time. His work has been widely exhibited and his most recent project “AM✡DAM”  will be shown in conjunction with the Foam Museum at the Stadsarchief Amsterdam.

About the Photograph:

“I made this photograph for the New York Times Magazine on a story about Suburbia. It was one of the first assignments that I ever did. Its nice when you are able to pull an image out that you like from a shoot that you do for someone else. For me that’s pretty rare. Generally I am only really happy with a handful of images a year and almost none of them come from assignments. I was also given quite a bit of freedom on the shoot and simply asked to respond to the notion of Suburbs rather than the typical; be here at this place and photograph this person. For me growing up in the suburbs was all about conveying a sense boredom and frustration even if you were neither. Those emotions mixed with an enormous about of freedom – and lets not forget those cars-that amazing joy of driving around aimlessly with your friends trying to figure out where to go.”

“Most of my work is a combination of staged events and really just waiting for something to happen. I’ll set up a scenario and see if something comes of it. Sometimes I’ll set up the camera on top of my car and slowly drive back and forth, left and right until I find a place I like. I think the kids in the picture thought I was nuts with this big camera on my car trying to figure out where to shoot from. Who knows, maybe it just gave them something to look at.”

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