«On the evening of 3 October 2012, between 8 and 9 PM, my
entire photo gear was stolen in San Francisco,California.»
In October 2012, Fred Csupor travelled to the west of the United States for a photo project using a 4x5 field camera. Having been nurtured on American clichés, he started to document a reality that changed continuously. On the third
day of his trip, his camera and accessories were stolen in a car. After taking stock, he realised that he was left with only a compact roll-film camera. After completing all the mandatory administrative and legal formalities, he began an experience that would take him across the country.
Since his research, which had initially been defined with a specific aim, was now meaningless, he developed a logic of the absurd, where the pictures were taken as the situations arose.
Armed with a fully automatic 24x36 compact camera, Fred Csupor travelled across the American West and its clichés, divided between the desire to document and a means of expression. In a resolutely “snapshot” aesthetic, he gives a subjective vision of his different Americas. His photos are a testimony to the immensity of reality and the difficulty of being both critical and introspective as the journey developed. Far from the stereotyped images of the collective unconscious, through an unforeseen and no-frills road trip, he has frozen a country that is in constant movement.
