BAXT (FATE) [2007]

BAXT (FATE) by Andrew Miksys & Andrei Codrescu [2007]

Fine/As-New.
Hardcover; 112 pages
Arok Books
1.6 pounds; Please inquire about dimensions
979069807

In this extraordinary book of color photographs, Andrew Miksys delves deep into the heart of the Roma (Gypsy) community of Lithuania. Miksys spent several years in Lithuania and has produced a body of work that has succeeded in joining Roma people to feel them from inside and not as yet another casual Western observer having a field trip to some ethnographic zoo. The book also contains an essay by poet and NPR commentator Andrei Codrescu who explores Miksys' photography and the context of the post-Soviet world where the pictures were taken. As Codrescu writes in his essay, "If Andrew were merely an ambitious photographer, he could have chosen to jam his images with enough information to keep busy any number of spectators. As it is, viewers both familiar and unfamiliar with history, Soviet history, Lithuania, Romas, or Lithuanian Roma can expend a great deal of useful exegetic energy looking into these pictures.

But Andrew is not merely ambitious, he's great. I say this fully aware of how difficult it is to make such a freighted judgment. His greatness lies, I believe, in the extraordinary swiftness with which he establishes a relationship with his subjects, a relationship that is unfailingly empathetic." About the Author Andrew Miksys (b. 1969) is a native of Seattle. His photography has been shown nationally and internationally including exhibitions at the New Orleans Museum of Art, Vilnius Contemporary Arts Centre, and De Appel Contemporary Arts Centre in Amsterdam. In 2002 he was selected by Photo District News as one of the "top 30 emerging photographers to watch" and in 2006 he was featured in Slate Magazine as "Slates' Artist of the Month." Miksys has also been the recipient of prestigious grants from the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation (2000) and the J. William Fulbright Program (1998 and 2002).

He currently divides his time between Seattle and Vilnius, Lithuania. www.andrewmiksys.com. Andrei Codrescu is a professor of English at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge and a regular commentator on National Public Radio. He is also the editor of Exquisite Corpse: a Journal of Life & Letters - www.corpse.org. Born in Sibiu, Romania, he moved to America in the 1960's. In his hit documentary Road Scholar (1993) Codrescu drove across the United States in a cherry red '68 Cadillac convertible uncovering America's "wonderful excesses and ironies" along the way. He has published over 30 books of poetry, fiction, autobiography and essays. Two recent publications have included it was today; new poems and Wakefield, a novel. www.codrescu.com