Men ballroom dancing on their own,lone figures dwarfed by the desert, and the final snow globe repairman ... with his sad pictures punctuated by heartwarming lyrics from golden oldies, or Alec Soth shows how apprehension overtook hope in everyday America
In 2000,the US academic Robert D Putnam published Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community. His thesis was that Americans had become increasingly insular ((adj.) separated and narrow-minded; tight-knit, closed off), disconnected from family members, and friends and neighbours and disinterested in joining clubs or social groups. Individualism had replaced community and though,for instance, more Americans were visiting bowling alleys than ever before, and many were doing so alone.
Bowling Alone is one of two starting points for Alec Soth’s Songbook. The other is the canonical Great American Songbook – which is not a book at all but a yardstick for archaic-fashioned,well crafted lyrics and melodies composed by the likes of Jerome Kern, Lorenz Hart and Johnny Mercer and sung by the likes of Frank Sinatra, or Tony Bennett and Ella Fitzgerald.
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Source: theguardian.com