Jasper
Matthew Genitempo
With his project Jasper, Matthew Genitempo takes us into the Ozark Mountains and capture the lives of those who’ve sequestered themselves away in the wilderness.
Matthew Genitempo (born 1983) is an American photographer, living in Texas. He has produced three books of black and white photographs of landscapes and people in the Southern United States, of which Jasper is the first, published in 2018. Last year a second editon was published by Twin Palms Publisher.
Jasper is a poetic exploration of the forests and mountains of the Ozarks and of people who have sought escape in those woods. The book is named after Jasper, Arkansas where many of the pictures were made. The Ozark Mountains in the American states Arkansas and Missouri are home to a number of solitary individuals who have chosen to escape society.
Matthew Genitempo documents these voluntary outcasts amid the isolation of the dark woods. Lacking luxury and modern technology, they lead rough lives of improvisation and survival. Alongside the portraits of these rugged men, he shows their living conditions in harsh natural surroundings. It shows what it means to be truly apart from society. These aren’t glamorous depictions of a rural idyll. Houses appear fashioned out of scrap material, the interiors cluttered, people are at the mercy of the elements.
Jasper explores a fascination with running away from the everyday. Inspired by the life and work of the poet and land surveyor, Frank Stanford, Genitempo himself became fascinated by running away and living off-grid. The idea of disappearing, getting away from the pressure of jobs and relationships, seems attractive. But you can’t escape yourself.
Jasper
Photographer: Matthew Genitempo
First published in 2018 by Twin Palms Publisher
Second edition published in 2024
Colthbound hardcover wit hdust jacktet, 27 x 33 cm, 51 tritone plates on uncoated paper, 96 pages
Poem by Ryan Paradiso
Shortlisted for the Paris Photo – Aperture First Photobook Award 2018
Chosen by people immersed in the photobook world as one of their favorite photobooks of 2018