Description
Desire Lines looks at migration as an inherently human act – one that has defined human history and the geopolitical framework of our planet. Shipley’s photographs are seen in dialogue with interviews from migrants and long-term residents, 20th century oral histories and 19th and 20th century archival photographs. This mix of time and perspective highlights a region long marked by migration, individual desire and preservation, but also systemic dominance and colonial control, hidden in hundreds of square miles of remote terrain.
Each Maquette Edition of Desire Lines includes:
+ Hand-built wood box with a slide-top opening and title engraved into plaque, can be stored vertically or horizontally. Numbered 1/20
+ A signed copy of Desire Lines softcover book, sized 17 × 22.5cm with 208 section-sewn pages, printed Fedrigoni Materica paper covers with flaps and two inserts. Illustrated throughout with 170 photographs, satellite maps and archival images, and featuring an afterword by Lara Shipley
+ The Desire Lines Maquette, limited to 20 copies, is sized 17 × 22.5cm with 224 pages. An early draft printed during the editing process of the final work, this book offers a behind-the-scenes sketch of the Desire Lines project in development. The editing and sequence of images and text changed significantly before the final version was printed, so pairing this early-stage maquette with the final book gives viewers detailed insight into a stage of the design process. The maquette is printed on silk-coated paper by a London-based copy shop, hand-bound with yellow gold thread and Peregrina Majestic paper covers by GF Smith, printed in black on the front. Signed and numbered 1/20 by Lara Shipley on the colophon page
+ Choice of limited edition, archival quality giclée print from two options shown below, each signed by Lara Shipley on the front and numbered 1/10. Packaged in acid-free glassine and presented in a GF Smith Colorplan paper envelope. Giclée print on Hahnemühle Photo Rag (cotton texture), 300gsm paper. Image size 19.4 x 12.9cm on paper size 21 x 14.8cm
– Print choice 1: Jesenya (each is 1/10)
A collaged image showing satellite terrain of the US/Mexico borderland in the background, with a portrait of Jesenya in foreground
– Print choice 2: Crossroads (each is 1/10)
A collage image formed by the artist by assembling torn pieces of a printed photograph, then re-photographing the constructed work
For further details about this project, see descriptions on the trade edition book page: Desire Lines
The Author
Lara Shipley is an American photographer. She exhibits in galleries across the United States, and her work has appeared in notable exhibitions at the National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington, DC, GuatePhoto international photography festival in Guatemala, the Benaki Museum in Greece and a recent solo exhibition at the international photography festival Cortona on the Move, in Italy. Her work is in collection institutions such as the Museum of Modern Art (NYC), Whitney Museum of American Art (NYC), Smithsonian American Art Museum (Washington D.C.), Museum of Contemporary Photography (Chicago), and the Nelson Atkins Museum for Art (Kansas City). Lara’s photographs have appeared in publications such as Harper’s Magazine, Smithsonian Magazine, British Journal of Photography, Atlantic Monthly, Vice, and NPR. She received a MFA in photography from Arizona State University and a Bachelors of Photojournalism from the University of Missouri. She is an Assistant Professor of Photography at Michigan State University. www.larashipley.com
Reviews + Press
“Desire Lines combines imagery and text, both contemporary and historical, as a vehicle to have a thoughtful and contemplative discussion about immigration. It looks at our current humanitarian crisis at the southern border and views it through the larger context of human migration and shifting borders.” – Michael Chovan-Dalton, Real Photo Show
“So much concrete, so many bullets, vitriol and death just to prevent people from walking across a desert. The book shows this as both saddening and maddening. Shipley manages to say something new in an area that has long held photographic interest… As a long time observer of photographic representations of the desert, this is a welcome addition that adds political and historical elements that feel relevant, urgent and misunderstood.” – Matt Dunne, C4 Journal
“U.S. immigration policy (or lack of it?) sucks and human smuggling is incredibly dangerous, and yet the various desire lines they trace (borders, footpaths, cloud circles, human formations) are strangely photogenic… Textured patterns bleed into photographs, page tears become material elements, photo panels merge using translucent overlays a la Mark Klett. Has the multiverse arrived finally? Or perhaps the multimedia/multicultural future? Either way, consider the envelope pushed.” – Blake Andrews, photobook critic
The novel-shaped Desire Lines provides the most human, nuanced, and accurately complex depiction of life in the U.S.-Mexico border region of the Sonoran Desert that I’ve ever encountered in a group of pictures. Somehow, the photographs also manage to acknowledge the overwhelming beauty of this harsh terrain. This writer, who was born in that desert, is happy about it. – Bucky Miller, Glasstire
Collector Daily review by Loring Knoblauch
Podcast discussion with Michael Chovan-Dalton, Real Photo Show
Review by Matt Dunne for C4 Journal
Glasstire review by Bucky Miller
Babelia en EL PAÍS Review by Gloria Crespo MacLennan (Spanish)
Lara Shipley Interview, Fisheye Magazine (French)
Feature, Il Post, ‘Tracce e storie dal deserto di Sonora’ (Italian)
Feature in Guillotine magazine (French)
Special Notes
*Photoeye Favorite Photobooks of 2023, selected by Edward Grazda
*Favourite Photobooks of 2023, selected by Ola Søndenå, Department of Special Collections, University of Bergen Library
*Best Photobooks of 2023, selected by studiofaganel, una galleria d’arte, Italy
*Recommended books, Photobookstore (UK), May 2023
*Selected Books of the Month, Photo London 2023
2023 EVENTS
Sat 12th August, 1-2pm (PST) – Signing at Printed Matter’s LA Art Book Fair with Skylight Books, booth J-1
10th May – Book Launch at Photo London, Somerset House
12th May – Book Launch at ICP Book Fair, International Center for Photography, New York
14th May – 2:00pm Book signing with Lara Shipley at International Center for Photography, New York
Desire Lines is held in the following library collections:
Amon Carter Museum of American Art, Fort Worth, TX (USA)
The British Library (UK)
Harvard University Library (USA)
Prussian Cultural Heritage State Library, Berlin (DE)
Saxon State and University Library, Dresden (DE)
