This book of Ken Light's earliest photos from 1969 to 1974 documents the social, cultural and political landscapes of America as they roiled with upheaval, and marks his transformation from a student activist to a concerned social documentary photographer. Light's frontline pho - tos show people across race, class and political lines, and counteract the truncated memory of the sixties that has often been promoted by the media.
Light's journey through America begins with teenagers at the beach with their transistor radio. Here is the quiet before the storm: high-school students with their Eisenhower textbook, retirees playing cards and cafeteria workers quietly striking. And then, suddenly, the new, alternative worldview bursts forth: the Vietnam Moratorium, the Republican Convention, riots, POWs returning home, Nixon's resig - nation. What's Going On? reveals how politically divided the United States was as a progressive, more egalitarian world order was foisted upon it. It stirs long forgotten memories for those who were present, creates a cultural and historical legacy for the youth of today, and argues that much of our current turmoil is the result of cataclysmic changes of the sixties we have not yet absorbed.
'Light shows us the collective movement forward, in love and in struggle, on both sides of the political divide, and exemplifies the power of photography to both reveal and form those movements.' -Martha Rosler, Aperture
This book of Ken Light's earliest photos from 1969 to 1974 documents the social, cultural and political landscapes of America as they roiled with upheaval, and marks his transformation from a student activist to a concerned social documentary photographer. Light's frontline pho - tos show people across race, class and political lines, and counteract the truncated memory of the sixties that has often been promoted by the media.
Light's journey through America begins with teenagers at the beach with their transistor radio. Here is the quiet before the storm: high-school students with their Eisenhower textbook, retirees playing cards and cafeteria workers quietly striking. And then, suddenly, the new, alternative worldview bursts forth: the Vietnam Moratorium, the Republican Convention, riots, POWs returning home, Nixon's resig - nation. What's Going On? reveals how politically divided the United States was as a progressive, more egalitarian world order was foisted upon it. It stirs long forgotten memories for those who were present, creates a cultural and historical legacy for the youth of today, and argues that much of our current turmoil is the result of cataclysmic changes of the sixties we have not yet absorbed.
'Light shows us the collective movement forward, in love and in struggle, on both sides of the political divide, and exemplifies the power of photography to both reveal and form those movements.' -Martha Rosler, Aperture
