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Patterson, Christian (Photographer); Sante, Luc & Irvine, Karen (Contributors) : Redheaded Peckerwood: The First Edition

MACK Publishers, London, England, 2011

ISBN 1907946144

First Edition / First Printing. As New in No Dust Jacket, As Issued. 164 pages. Artist Book. One of the most beautiful photographically-based Artist Books of our time. The First Hardcover Edition. Precedes and should not be confused with all other subsequent editions, particularly the Second and Third Editions. Published in a small and limited first print run as a hardcover original only that sold out shortly after publication. The First Edition is now rare. An austerely elegant production by Christian Patterson and MACK: Oversize-volume format. Pictorial hard boards with titles on the spine, as issued. Photographs by Christian Patterson. Essays by Luc Sante, one of the greatest writers of our time, and Karen Irvine. Printed on archival stock paper in London to the highest standards. Without DJ, as issued. Presents Christian Patterson's "Redheaded Peckerwood". A rigorous and highly charged photographic narrative of the Starkweather/Fugate mass murders, perhaps the single most iconic mass murder committed in modern American history. Revisits "the story of 19-year-old Charles Starkweather and 14-year-old Caril Ann Fugate, who murdered ten people, including Fugate's family, during a three-day killing spree across Nebraska until their capture in Douglas, Wyoming. The images record places and things central to the story, depict ideas inspired by it, and capture other moments along the way. The photographs incorporate the techniques of photo-journalism, forensic photography, image appropriation, re-enactment, and documentary landscape photography. On a conceptual level, they deal with a charged landscape. Utilizes and plays with a pre-existing archive of material, deliberately mixing fact and fiction, past and present, myth and reality, as it presents, expands, and re-presents the various facts and theories surrounding the story. While photographs are the heart of the work, they are complemented by documents and objects that belonged to the killers and their victims, including a map, poem, confession letter, stuffed animal, hood ornament, and various other items. In several cases, these materials are discoveries first made by the artist and presented here for the first time. In book form, the work is presented as a visual crime dossier, including pieces of paper which are inserted into the book. There are connections that are left for the viewer to be made and mysteries that are left to be solved" (George Slade). Since the meaning of the title is often asked, here goes: A "redheaded peckerwood" is the reversal of red-bellied woodpecker, which has a patch of red on the back of its head and neck; the popularly-used shorthand is "redneck". Both are the most derogatory synonyms for "white trash": Desperately poor, uneducated, rural white Southerners. The heinous crime was the basis of at least two cinematic landmarks: Terrence Malick's debut (and best) film, "Badlands" (1973), and Oliver Stone's feverish "Natural Born Killers" (1994). "Redheaded Peckerwood" is their powerful photographic counterpart. An absolute "must-have" title for Christian Patterson collectors. This copy is very prominently, neatly, and beautifully signed in black pen-marker on the title page by Christian Patterson. It is signed directly on the page itself, not on a tipped-in page. This title is a great photography book. This is one of few such signed copies of the First Hardcover Edition/First Printing still available online and is in especially fine condition: Clean, crisp, and bright, a pristine beauty. Please note: Copies available online are the Second and Third Editions. A rare signed copy thus. One of the most brilliant American photographers of our time. A fine collectible copy. (SEE ALSO OTHER CHRISTIAN PATTERSON TITLE IN OUR CATALOG). ISBN 1907946144.

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