Wisconsin Death Trip, by Michael Lesy
Wisconsin Death Trip (Random House, 1973) was composed by photo-historian Michael Lesy based on 3,000 photographs taken between 1890 and 1910 by Charles Van Schaick, town photographer in a small Wisconsin community. According to Lesy, "This book is an exercise in historical actuality. It uses photographs as if they were events, and the words of newspapers, novels, madhouse records, and recollections."

The photos (sometimes juxtaposed in thematic ways, or with blown-up details printed next to the originals) are interspersed with quotations. The quotations emphasize crime, death, insanity, financial difficulty, and other bizarre events.

Wisconsin Death Trip and Lesy's next book (Real Life: Louisville in the 20s) are controversial. Lesy has been accused of selecting photos and texts to emphasize a pre-determined thesis--essentially the emptiness and horror of everyday American life--and using the quotations to assign meanings to the photographs that the photos alone might not support. In response, defenders of Lesy's method point out that his work is an act of historical imagination, seeking through justaposition to bring out submerged truths.

Photos from the book are found on this and nine following pages. Quotations from the book are also included. The quotations do not refer directly to the photos but are part of the "events" that constitute Wisconsin Death Trip.
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