Leap of Faith

Le livre

All are welcome-painters and mountaineers, mystics and poets, ranchers and socialites, bombshells and phi-listines, soldiers and activists, upstarts and old-timers-provided their stories lift the spirit, inspire the mind, or provoke a new way of seeing the world. This engaging, democratic impulse connects the All-American series of art journals, curated for the past 14 years by the pho-tographer and filmmake, Bruce Weber. This year, in his 15th anniversary issue, Weber continues his exploration of American culture-the lofty and the everyday, the famous and the obscure, in American culture. Subjects include a long-form portfolio by Weber himself, who explores the intersection of prison life and community life in the small southern city of Richmond, Virginia. The paradox of immigration in America-at once the soul and the schism of the republic-finds unique e-pression in the photo memoir of Misa Rusek, a fearless octogenarian whose family journey begins in turn-of-the-century Japan and continues today in Israel, with reminiscences on postwar California and New York in between. A second story by Bruce Weber considers the sporting life in a profile of Gordon Gronkowski, whotrained his five sons to become professional footballand baseball players. A tribute to the lyrical American painter, Jane Wilson, stands in contrast to the rugged stoicism of Ben Johnson, a rancher-turned-actor favored by Sam Peckinpah and John Ford. All-American XV features an original commission by the young photo star Mike Bailey Gates, documentary work by Stephen Shapiro and Andrew Renneisen, and poetry by Don Blanding.