American Stopover: Book Launch with Greg Girard

Nooroongji Books is honoured to welcome celebrated photographer Greg Girard for the launch of his book American Stopover.

"The US west coast has always been a magnet for young searchers, and it was that for me as well. Though in my case it was more of a vast departure lounge, a long drawn out stopover, than a final destination.
In the 1970s and early 1980s, trips to Asia always began in California. Sailing by freighter from San Francisco, or on multi-stopover air tickets to Tokyo or Bangkok originating in SFO or LAX. I stayed in cheap hotels, or half-slept in all-night cinemas, met people and photographed them and wandered around the streets by day and by night. I would linger for days or weeks, travel by Greyhound bus to other cities, and then eventually board a plane or ship to cross the Pacific.
In a way these pictures mark the beginning of a trip I never returned from. A time of heightened anticipation: the new everyday around me and the one to come when I finally arrived in one of Asia's great cities (and, as it turned out, didn't leave for decades). Thanks to Misha Kominek at Kominek Books these photographs are now finding an audience I couldn't dare imagine at the time."

Greg Girard

About the artist:

Greg Girard’s photographs have been featured in TIME, Newsweek, National Geographic, The New Yorker, and numerous other publications. Several books on Girard’s work have been published, including Magenta’s Phantom Shanghai, listed as one of the top 10 photography books of all time by The Independent, (UK). Girard’s work has been exhibited at the Ullens Center for Contemporary Art, The International Center for Photography, New York, PM Gallery (London, UK), the National Gallery of Canada, the Yixian International Photo Festival (China), and numerous other venues.
- Monte Clark Gallery

Host or Publisher Nooroongji Books