Christopher Dawson

Christopher Dawson COVERAGE These photographs chronicle the backdrop to our 24-hour news cycle. Some of the events I have visited since 2004 include Michael Jackson’s molestation trial in Santa Maria, California; Britney Spears’ custody hearing in Los Angeles; Jerry Falwell’s funeral in Lynchburg, Virginia; and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's visit to New York City. I use a 4x5 inch view camera to photograph the peculiar scene unfolding at these places, where one individual -- of real or questionable importance -- is thrust to the forefront of the nation’s attention. The pictures are documents to that background; to the bizarre transformation that this massive enterprise brings to the landscape, and the means by which information is being produced and distributed. Each picture in the COVERAGE series is titled after the famous subject, though he or she is absent from the frame. In aggregate, the titles could function as a survey of who commands attention in early 21st Century America, while the images look at the assembly-points of public fascination.