Indiana University has put online the amateur photographer’s 30+ years of film.

Cushman’s Americana spans from 1938 to 1969, and much of what he photographed — sleepy towns, farmscapes, wide open spaces — just isn’t around any more. The photographs certainly bear the mark of an amateur, but they’re also thorough, and their amateurishness is part of their charm. You sort of feel like you were right there, riding along with a typical 1954 family of five, as pops stopped the Studebaker on that cross-country trip to the Grand Canyon to snap photos of some queer-looking small-town water tower.

Or, it’s like look through the family vacation photos of some well-travelled family you’ve never met.

Good stuff.

This entry was posted on Sunday, November 16th, 2003 at 5:19 pm by Radley Balko and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.