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America is so photogenic

The second issue of Closing Ceremony Magazine is about Americano. In this issue, Instead of taking the American Photography History as the editing orientation, we attempt to continue our Not-Too-Serious narrative, and present the observation of contemporary America and American Photography in a relatively relaxing context. Centering American Spirit, we invited more than 10 U.S. based photographers, expanding this issue into topics such as gender, politics, class and consumption. By re-constructing and visualizing the minor details of the daily life, setting them in a bright and clear lighting, these photographers create a new order, in which the realness and fiction is hard to distinguish. And through the images, their voices can be heard among the chaos which America is going through. Either the images about tourists lost in the bottom of Trump Tower, or the images of white middle-class men cooking healthy food in a mansion located in L.A., a series of images are created by these photographers, which bring a huge contrast to the proud American portraits.

Apart from photography, articles written by artists, curators, researchers come along in this second issue, as well as a set of special featured illustrations drawn by American artist Drake Carr, which brings the topic America into various forms. We also invite the senior lecturer and investigator of Visual Communication of ECAL Joël Vacheron to write a photographic essay about American visual culture, The Proud Smoke.

CLOSING CEREMONY Magazine 02 features 10 contributing photographers: Buck Ellison, Charlie Engman, Chris Maggio, Eva O'Leary, Gregory Halpern, Matthew Connors, Peter Sutherland, Pixy Liao, Sophie Tianxin Chen, Torbjørn Rødland, along with an essay written by Joël Vacheron, articles written by Robin Peckham and Peng Ke.