I came across Jonah Sampson's newest collection, "Pleasantville" while checking out recent gallery openings in Seattle. I really appreciate the plasticine quality of this reality he is building with these miniature sets. I read it as a comment on the illusion of representation, as though to remind us of the false history presented not only by our national identity concept, as referenced by the title, but also by the medium of photography, which we so often take as documenting what is "real". I also appreciate that he is showing us images we rarely find captured on camera, and even less often seen in real life - moments of personal terror (see 'winter crash' and 'bear mauling', intimate experience ('going down'-pictured above- and 'diving board) and extreme darkness ('left for dead' and 'grave digger').
I guess just took down the show in Seattle and will be putting it up again in September at Chernoff Fine Art Gallery in Vancouver. He has a book of the collection as well, which you can get by contacting him through his website at littlechickendog.com
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