OCEANO (for seven generations)
A monograph by Lana Z Caplan
press release
About the Book
-136 pages, 70 b/w and color images, 30x24cm/11.8×9.5″
-Contributing essay by yak titʸu titʸu yak tiłhini Northern Chumash Tribal Chair Mona Olivas Tucker and son Matthew Goldman
-Contributing essay by Hanna Rose Shell, Associate Professor of Critical and Curatorial studies, and Director of the Stan Brakhage Center for Media Arts in Boulder, Colorado.
-Published by Kehrer Verlag
Lana Z Caplan spent seven years researching and collaborating with the communities of Oceano, California and yak titʸu titʸu yak tiłhini Northern Chumash Tribal leadership, to produce a conceptual collection of histories from the Oceano Dunes. These are the dunes of Weston’s modernist photographs; of Cecil B. DeMille’s recently excavated and restored sphinxes from his 1923 Ten Commandments movie set, buried in the sand after filming; of the nearly lost Northern Chumash tribe; of the Dunites – the artists, poets, nudists, and mystics squatting in dune shacks in the 1920’s-40’s – who hosted Weston during his shooting trips; and of the 1.5 million ATV riders who visit each year, inciting a decades-long legal battle with nearby residents over air quality.
Oceano (for seven generations) tells a conceptual story of place and interrogates photographic conventions regarding landscape and representation. Black and white landscapes are flipped into negatives, confusing the notion of photographic truth and and challenging the male-dominated history of the genre. Portraits are co-constructed performative gestures rather than documents. Multiple modalities of image making references Modernists, New Topographics, ethnographic typologies, and advertising. Ultimately, Oceano questions legacies of colonization, photographic history, utopian ideologies, the politics of land use, and the future for the politically charged and environmentally threatened Oceano Dunes.
Recent/Upcoming events:
- January 25 – March 1, 2025 – Harvey Milk Photo Center – Solo Exhibition, Opening Reception Jan 25, In Conversation with Ron Beinner February 22
- June 21, 2024 – 6:30 – 8pm – Griffin Museum of Photography – Talk and Book Signing
- May 24th, 2024 – 6 – 7:30pm – Restricted Goods, Santa Barbara – Talk and Book Signing
- April 27th, 2024 – 10:30am – Medium Festival of Photography, San Diego – Artist Talk and Book Signing
- March 7th, 2024 – 7pm EST – Zoom panel discussion – in conjunction with BEHIND THE LENS: DOCUMENTS FOR THE 21st CENTURY, on view Feb 15 – March 15, RI Center for Photographic Arts, Providence, RI, Register here
- February 17th, 2024 – 2pm – RI Center for Photographic Arts, Providence, RI – Artist Talk and Book Signing
Recent Reviews/Press:
FRAMES
Lenscratch
About Photography
Photobook Journal
Mediterraneo Fotografia
For print sales, please email mail [at] gallerynaga.com or lanaz [at] lanazcaplan.com