A Visual Tour Of America's
Most Fascinating Public Libraries
Fastcoexist: 4.08.2014
Photographer Robert Dawson
has been on an 18-year journey, photographing America's most beloved public
institution: The library. Here are some of his images.
In 1994, photographer Robert
Dawson began an odds-and-ends project. Whenever he traveled, he'd take pictures of public libraries. Then, a handful of years ago, he started taking trips
across the United States just for the libraries--like the shed that served a
one-person county in Nebraska, or the Texas library that housed a
"petroleum room" with all sorts of George Bush-themed collectibles.
He documented everything from a library found in a suburban strip mall to the
the air-conditioned institution that functioned more like a refugee camp in
sweltering Detroit July.
All told, Dawson journeyed
through 38 states, fascinated and inspired by the common role libraries played
in society. Libraries, he found, didn't only serve as a refuge for the poor who
didn't have any place else to go, but gateways that opened up all corners of
the world to anyone inquisitive enough to take a stroll among the shelves.
"People have various
opinions about the government," he says. "But even if they didn't
like the government, they did like their public library."
To Dawson, public libraries
negotiate the outside world's vast disparities in income and access to
opportunity. His recently published book, Public Library: An American Commons,
which compiles hundreds of images of libraries across the country, also
includes essays from writers who feel similarly; Dr. Seuss, Bill Moyers, Ann
Patchett, and Charles Simic are just a few.
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Founder and
co-director of the Water in the West Project
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