The magazine of the art-form of the photo-essay
“A free, really high quality photo-essay magazine. Fabulous!”
Stephen Fry. British actor, writer and film & documentary maker
Mar 2016 back issue
by KayLynn Deveney
All You Can Lose Is Your Heart is a photographic exploration of “storybook”-
style ranch homes built in the American southwest in the 1950s and 60, when
builders, including Jean Valjean Vandruff in California and Dale Bellamah in New
Mexico, applied a fairytale aesthetic to the American ranch house exterior using
architectural touches such as chalet-style peaks, scalloped fascia boards, and
diamond pane windows to evoke a cottage feel. This project, which represents
the first time these houses have been the subject of a published photographic
work, consists of more than 60 photographs. The images allude to photographic
architectural typologies while also working in a contemporary social
documentary style to highlight the individual, personalized details outside the
home. In this way, the photographs reach beyond description to become
metaphorical family portraits, images that reflect those living inside. Significant
questions are prompted by the work regarding our Western middle-class
perceptions of the “ideal” home and the ways those perceptions have shifted as
the economy has fluctuated and the model of the nuclear family has come under
increasing scrutiny.
Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA.
Del City, Oklahoma, USA.
Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA.
Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA.
Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA
Las Vegas, Nevada, USA
Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA.
Orange County, California, USA.
Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA.
Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA.
Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA.
Orange County, California, USA.
Las Vegas, Nevada, USA.
Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA.
Del City, Oklahoma, USA.
Orange County, California, USA.
Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA.
