Mark Steinmetz Trilogy

Man this is a tough one...

How'd I use words to do justice to something that doesn't need them.
I'm pretty sure I can't but I'll try my best.

Mark Steinmetz trilogy was started in Knoxville (South Central) in 1991 and ended in Greater Atalanta in 2009. You will not detect the passage of time in these pictures, the 18 years between the first shot and the last could be 18 hrs (the books in the above shot are not in chronological order).  Photography is capable of putting a subject in to suspended animation, freezing them in the moment forever. Steinmetz has gone beyond that

"I want to show something of people’s inner lives"

 Mark Steinmetz.

The subjects Steinmetz focuses on do not give up their secrets easily.
They hint to a future,  past & present. A life of longing and the wish to escape,
of resignation & salvation, of broken promises and dreams unfulfilled.
But don''t think all this is laid on a plate for you.
There's more questions than answers here.

You'll wonder how they
are, where they are now and what their stories are. It'll prick you
as it has me. You'll try and fill in the blanks, inventing lives for them that
may or may not be true.

What is undeniably true is that Mark Steinmetz is a master in subtlety.
If as he said, he wanted to show something of peoples inner lives
he must be commended for attempting it, praised for achieving it and
thanked for the tender regard he has shown for his subjects.
Thanked because in some way they are stand-ins for us all

Sean