DRAKE, Carolyn - Knit Club

Background information

"A foreboding meditation in the vein of Southern Gothic literature, Carolyn DRAKE developed this body while working with an enigmatic group of women who loosely call themselves the 'Knit Club'. The nature of the club is ambiguous. It is a cross between a gang, a mysterious cult, and a group of friends bound by secrets shared only by them. Following three critically acclaimed self-published books - 'Two Rivers' (2013), 'Wild Pigeon' (2014) and 'Boarding School' (2017) - 'Knit Club' is the first book Carolyn DRAKE has collaborated on with a publisher.

Content

The book follows a narrative structure loosely based on William Faulkner's 'As I Lay Dying' - that is, there is not one omniscient narrator, but many disparate stream-of-consciousness voices. We sense that the authorship of the photographs is collaborative, the result of a creative game between Carolyn DRAKE and the club in which she found herself embedded, her process a kind of alchemy. In the Gothic style, Carolyn DRAKE's masterful use of color to create moods opens the door to the tension between the real and the supernatural. What we find, however, is not grotesque, but something alive. A community that manages to exist outside the gaze or control of men. Women, children, and mothers who wrap themselves in masks and secrets to live life on their own terms." (publisher's note, © TBW, 2020)

About the American Magnum photographer Carolyn DRAKE

Photo books by Carolyn DRAKE