OCEANO (for seven generations)
A monograph by Lana Z Caplan
press release
PDF of Oceano – for seven generations
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
“At its core, Oceano asks: How do we reckon with the weight of history in a living, changing landscape? The book does not offer an answer—it does something harder. It forces us to sit with the discomfort of the question, to see with clarity, and to recognize that the fight for land is never just about land. It is about identity, belonging, and the narratives we construct around both…. Oceano invites us to look more closely, to question more deeply, and perhaps, to consider our role in shaping what remains.” – Dana Stirling, FLOAT Magazine
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 the story of Oceano while interrogating photographic conventions regarding landscape and representation. Black and white landscapes are flipped into negatives, confusing the notion of photographic truth 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 the 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:
- April 4 – April 30, 20205 – The Bunker SLO – Fragile Earth, Group Exhibition organized by SLO Climate Coalition
- January 25 – March 1, 2025 – Harvey Milk Photo Center – Solo Exhibition
- 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:
FLOAT Magazine
The Candid Frame
FRAMES
feature shoot
New Times
L’oeil de la Photographie
Lenscratch
About Photography
Photobook Journal
Mediterraneo Fotografia
For print sales, please email mail [at] gallerynaga.com or lanaz [at] lanazcaplan.com