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Vagabond on a mission

An amateur Danish photographer explores the ugly side of America

By Tony Ozuna
For The Prague Post
December 5th, 2007 issue

Photo copyright Jacob Holdt
Holdt found plenty of squalid scenes in the South, including this home in Zebulon, North Carolina.
Jacob Holdt: USA 1970–1975

at Langhans Galerie Praha Ends Jan. 20, 2008. Vodičkova 37, Prague 1–New Town. Tues.–Sun. 1–7 p.m.

In the early 1970s, Jacob Holdt did what many young Europeans longed to do. After being discharged from the army, he went on a sojourn beginning in Canada; from there he intended to travel south, reaching Latin America by traversing the United States. But he ended up staying in the United States for five years. His travels took him into 434 homes in 48 states, and he claims to have hitchhiked 113,750 miles, or “four times around the globe.”
Holdt (born in 1947 in Copenhagen) never studied photography. After he dropped out of high school, his family expected him to become a minister, like his father and grandfather and others in his family line. But his anti-war social conscience led him to choose a different path.
In his book American Pictures, first published in 1977, Holdt describes himself as a black sheep in his family and in Danish society, a role that helped him befriend the outsiders he met in the United States, as he was also homeless and had very little money. Shortly into his travels he arrived in San Francisco with $40 in his pocket and was legally unable to work, since he was on a tourist visa.
But this situation suited his Zen vagabond philosophy, which is reflected in the many photographs he took. The images are remarkably powerful, with a strong social message that resounds to this day.
The first room of his current exhibition at Langhans Galerie features slides projected from two carousels, while the upper galleries display a selection of the many hundreds of photos from his U.S. series. His images juxtapose squalor and opulence, underlining the social and economic inequalities in the States. There are bankers and junkies, Black Pride marchers followed by blacks living in absolute squalor. There is a black woman angrily flipping off a billboard of four glamorous white women, and images of Ku Klux Klan members standing proudly in the daylight and burning crosses at night.
Holdt shows a brutal, depressing face of the country. There is hardly a pretty picture in the lot. People living in extreme poverty is what he saw the most, and he says that even his photos cannot fully convey the privation that he encountered, particularly in the South, where he found “free” Americans living in even worse conditions than their ancestors did under slavery.
Writing about the many dilapidated shacks where he stayed in the South, Holdt says: “I feel frustrated about photographing shacks, for I experience them as far, far worse than they appear in photographs. In such pictures you cannot see the wind which whistles through the many cracks, making it impossible to keep warm in winter. You can’t see the sagging rotten floors with cracks wide enough for snakes and vermin to crawl right into the living room. Nor do the pictures show the absence of running water, not to speak of bathrooms and showers, or even electricity. … It is extremely difficult to give a photographic description of the peculiar sensation you have on suddenly being transferred to a condition we in Denmark have not known for the last hundred years.”
Holdt’s photos of abject poverty are contrasted with images of the United States’ richest living in opulence at home and at social events. As a young, long-haired hitchhiker with a braided beard and often holding a sign that read “Touring USA from Denmark,” Holdt was welcomed into the homes of both the richest and the poorest in society.
His complete receptiveness to all layers of society (in his words, “I was open to everything and everyone”) also brought him into contact with people at their most intimate. There are photos of many pretty women he met on the road, even pictures of nude couples making love or just lounging in bed. His camera did not discriminate on the basis of race, age or sexual orientation. Holdt’s photo of a young transsexual in the shower demonstrates his absolute allegiance to his creed of sexual openness.
In letters to friends, reprinted in his book, Holdt writes about the lives of some of these people, telling their stories and his experiences with them. He also writes of his “psychic leaps” from one world to another, from the dissatisfied rich to homelessness and squalor, all of it in close proximity.
Holdt’s photos — in the form of a “vagabond sociology” slide show — became a compelling traveling exhibition he took to universities and high schools in the United States and Europe in the 1980s. His lecture tour continues to this day with the sole mission of speaking out against racism, which he asserts is the root cause of poverty, crime and violence in the United States. But Holdt believes racism is a universal social disease, so his photos also address an ongoing global issue.

Tony Ozuna can be reached at features@praguepost.com


Other articles in Night & Day (5/12/2007):

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