Jackpot

In a remarkable debut from a rapidly rising photographer, Kevin Landers intimately connects us with the quotidian objects and moments that make up the topography of New York City. Jackpot is a 17-year retrospective of his candid and unvarnished encounters with entities and artifacts that capture the grittiness, incongruity, and simplicity of a metropolis that harbors relics of all proportions.

“…the images function as a kind of survey of New York during an era in which downtown transformed itself from an immigrant and artist district to one with Whole Foods on major cross-streets and luxury high-rises on unlikely avenues like the Bowery. Mr.Landers ignores the new arrivals and focuses on the old guard….And while [the images] owe plenty to color photography pioneers like William Eggleston and Stephen Shore - saturated prints, lingering on the odd, quirky object - they are grounded in a locale and moment of their own.”
 - The New York Times

“A survey of the color photographs that Landers made between 1990 and 2007 showcases a slacker sensibility too amused and blasé to be seriously cynical. Like a grungier Martin Parr or Tony Feher with a camera, Landers makes pictures of people and products that tease Pop mercilessly. Studio still-lifes of panhandlers’ cups, three-card-monte cardboard totems, and plastic bags snagged on broken branches rescue their subjects as found sculpture….Call it photography of the absurd, but nobody does it better.”
 - The New Yorker