The People's Trust [Signed]

Launched at Polycopies, Paris 2021
15 November

First edition of 750 copies
24 x 29 cm
Hardcover with Swiss binding
112 pages

Images by Michael Vahrenwald
Text by Wolfgang Scheppe

Kominek Books
ISBN 978-3-9819824-6-6

The People’s Trust is a study of the changing financial institution, specifically the repurposed remains of 19th and 20th century banks across the United States.

The monumentality of these neo-classical facades stands in contrast with their new roles as liquor stores, pawn shops, churches, department stores, and pharmacies.

The work continues Vahrenwald’s investigation of locations where landscape, politics, and economics intersect, and poses questions as to what value can be derived from photographing the built world.

In the case of The People’s Trust, layers of history and time are inscribed onto false fronts of capitalistic glory.

This book includes an essay by Wolfgang Scheppe and a poem by Richard Brautigan.