Moral Minority.

Photographs by Sergio Purtell.

STANLEY/BARKER, 2024. English, 184 pp., 9¾x11¾".

In Moral Minority Sergio Purtell, turns his lens on his adopted home of America between 1977 and 1999, capturing imprints of life in a country fixated on its dueling myths of emancipation and conquest.

From collective exuberance of to rural serenity, Purtell’s images of fairs, parades and life lived outside show moments both commonplace and distinct in American Society. They search out underswells of feelings that fleck public space with intimacy and interaction. They register the human tenderness that flows from rare moments of rest.

"The first thing I noticed was the lack of walls. In Santiago, Chile, the houses were closed off and private. In Hamilton, Ohio–where I arrived in 1972 as a 17-year-old exchange student—the houses were separated by white picket fences. They were easy to leap over and neighbors were friendly. At home in Chile, I knew about America by its TV shows and films, its music and freedom and possibility. The prim white fences looked the part, a display of affluence within reach. But beyond them I also glimpsed a sprawling, enigmatic landscape where the American dream awoke to reality.

“Today, this country is not the same place I arrived in. A wall is being constructed along the southern border. As I made these pictures, a wall was coming down in East Berlin. Moral Minority is a meditation on this collapse of conscience. To assemble the fragments, it looks to the narratives of those pushed to the periphery, and to those who can testify to the intricate predicament between right and wrong.”

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Cat# ZK549H Hardbound $66.00 (978-1-913288-72-3)
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