Santa Barbara Return by Alejandro Cartagena

Many of the photographs in this book are not “about” anything per se, but their tone, seen together, leaves little mystery. Alejandro’s “America,” seen through the lens of “Santa Barbara,” is a place hanging on by a thread. There are several images in the book, peering down on the street, taken from high up in a building somewhere. In other, happier times, I might enjoy their dynamic perspective. “Wow, those are cool,” I might think. But in the context of 2016, I couldn’t help but imagine the photographer a lonely, bitter shooter, eyeing up his next victim through a rifle-scope, anxious to squeeze the trigger, and move the drama along to its natural conclusion.

Publisher: Skinnerboox