Obvious & Ordinary: America 2006

The other day I made a purchase from Dashwood (oh, how I love thee) - a book which has a curious description:

A road trip shot anonymously by two noted contemporary photographers on their way to see William Eggleston in Memphis. The guessing game is who? - one is color the other b&w; one British the other American; one is Pop the other poetic and both are noted lovers of the book medium.

“Obvious” (a.k.a. Martin Parr) and “Ordinary” (a.k.a. John Gossage) photographed America during this mock-up road trip as a collaborative project. The result is this limited edition book, Obvious & Ordinary: America 2006. There is virtually no text to be found within the 42 pages of the book (only photographs, colour and black & white) and the edition is limited to 1500 copies (750 distributed within the United States and 750 in Europe) - it’s “Destined to be one of the rarest Parr publications!” claims Photo-eye. In any event, it’s certainly nice to look at. There’s a short review over on 5B4 with some images if you’re interested. Get a copy of the book for yourself here or here.