The attached moments of beauty come courtesy of Irish photographer and friend-of-10, Niall O’Brien – more specifically, his new book, Porn Hurts Everyone, an expansive visual record of a road trip he took across America that criss-crossed the north-west of the country. Spanning California, Oregon, Montana and the states that come between, Niall shifts back-and-forth between removed observer and intimate confidante, capturing the quiet agonies and ecstasies of small-town America and the people that call it home.
“I tend to lean towards the mundane, the reality of it all. I’m not looking for anything abnormal. It’s about capturing whatever falls in your lap and I think there’s a beauty to that,” O’Brien said of the book. “It’s been an interesting time to look back on this project. I wasn’t conscious of the political side of what I was shooting but that sense emerges through the book. I was exploring these small towns that are filled with wonderful, welcoming people, offering me bed and board, but it was what was beneath that, when we started talking, that really fascinated me.”
Porn Hurts Everyone, edited by Lu Bowan and Niall O’Brien, foreword by Francesca Gavin, is released worldwide on May 2nd 2017, £19.99.
Stockists include Claire de Rouen, Photographers Gallery, the Tate, Magma, the ICA, Donlon Books, Artwords, Koenig Books, Serpentine Gallery (all London) – for full list contact orders@artdata.co.uk…
