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.
Design by Tiffany Jones
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
*Selected for exhibition at Fotobokfestival Oslo, What if?, at Gamle Munch 6 – 15 September 2024
*Shortlisted for the Fotobus Society Library Award 2024
*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)
Art Gallery of Ontario Library, Toronto (CA)
The British Library (UK)
Bethel University Library, St Paul (USA)
Central Institute for Art History Library, Munich (DE)
Haas Library Special Collections, New Haven (USA)
Harvard University Library (USA)
University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign (USA)
Los Angeles Public Library (USA)
University of Missouri Ellis Library – Columbia (USA)
Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (USA)
Prussian Cultural Heritage State Library, Berlin (DE)
Rhode Island School of Design, Fleet Library (USA)
Saxon State and University Library, Dresden (DE)
University of Sunderland Library (UK)
Yale University Library (USA)
