For nearly a year, the author rummaged through his extensive archives of prints, negatives, and slides looking for images that capture the flavor of either the rural agrarian experience, as seen in WELCOME TO OLD RIPLEY, or the more gritty urban street experience, as seen in I WAS LOOKING FOR A BAR. A journalist and photographer, Wm. Stage was not on assignment when he shot these pictures–off the cuff–although he did, as a rule, carry a camera and was always looking for Cartier Bresson's decisive moment, be the object of his attention human, animal, or scenic. Nor did he have to travel far afield to find his eclectic subjects. These pictures were taken over a period of 38 years, and all within, say, 50 miles of St. Louis, where he has lived since 1978. Together they form a mosaic of life in the Midwest, a region with which the author is openly and unabashedly smitten. This collection is inspired by the work of the photographers of the Farm Security Administration [FSA] during the Great Depression.

2021
Designed by Michael Kilfoy, Studio X
ISBN: 978-0962912498
240 pages

Price: $15.95

Order Welcome to Old Ripley / I Was Looking for a Bar