Pawn, 2008 by Ed Panar

It had been awhile since I thought about Ed Panar’s photography. His book Golden Palms had a few great images, but all-in-all it didn’t really do it for me. But a recent look at his website has me questioning my own opinions.

While Golden Palms was Panar looking at Los Angeles, his newer work – especially his series 29 New Pictures – is focused on New York City and other, smaller East Coast towns. (He’s originally from Johnstown, PA.) What rattles me is that Panar is making the same kind of pictures he made in Golden Palms, only I like this new work a lot more.

As best as I can tell, I like the new images because I recognize them: these are the worn, grey scenes of my Mid-Atlantic / Northeast upbringing. Thoughts follow: about familiar visual environments, innate aesthetic preferences, and the subconcious’s role in assessing or critiquing images.

I’ll be re-visiting the brighter, bluer Golden Palms, more aware of how Panar’s looks at the world as opposed to what the world looks like.