You Don't Need to Hurry Home, Jeff Smudde
You Don’t Need to Hurry Home takes its name from a postcard sent in 1919 from Sullivan, Illinois, to Flora, Illinois. The postcard shows a rural road, likely in Sullivan, with telegraph poles overhead and frost-covered trees. Footprints and wheel tracks mark the lower third of the photograph, which was printed crookedly to adjust the image’s off-kilter angle. “We are getting along alright…” wrote the sender 106 years ago. “Write often as I am anxious…” This image captures an Illinois I hold dear, one I frequently photograph—the decaying rural spaces that have outlasted their time, the wooden posts and slats barely holding on, bullet-riddled signs, and barriers rarely performing their intended function. These photographs hold their subjects in perpetual tension, clinging to whatever they can, with the past permanently preserved within the frame.
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Jeff Smudde(pr. “SMOO-dee”; b. 1997, Metro Detroit, Michigan, he/him/his) is an artist currently based in the Providence, Rhode Island area using various photographic processes and sound. He received his Master of Fine Art at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth in 2023 as a Distinguished Art Fellow and his Bachelor of Art from Illinois State University in 2019. His poetic documentary-style work comes from a background in journalism, a Midwestern cultural upbringing, and an interest in the landscape of America with a focus on perceptions of place and spirituality.
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Edition: 100
Page Count: 36
Dimensions: 5.5”x8.5”
Format: Saddle Stitch / Zine
ISBN: 978-1-962415-11-8
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You Don’t Need to Hurry Home takes its name from a postcard sent in 1919 from Sullivan, Illinois, to Flora, Illinois. The postcard shows a rural road, likely in Sullivan, with telegraph poles overhead and frost-covered trees. Footprints and wheel tracks mark the lower third of the photograph, which was printed crookedly to adjust the image’s off-kilter angle. “We are getting along alright…” wrote the sender 106 years ago. “Write often as I am anxious…” This image captures an Illinois I hold dear, one I frequently photograph—the decaying rural spaces that have outlasted their time, the wooden posts and slats barely holding on, bullet-riddled signs, and barriers rarely performing their intended function. These photographs hold their subjects in perpetual tension, clinging to whatever they can, with the past permanently preserved within the frame.
——————
Jeff Smudde(pr. “SMOO-dee”; b. 1997, Metro Detroit, Michigan, he/him/his) is an artist currently based in the Providence, Rhode Island area using various photographic processes and sound. He received his Master of Fine Art at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth in 2023 as a Distinguished Art Fellow and his Bachelor of Art from Illinois State University in 2019. His poetic documentary-style work comes from a background in journalism, a Midwestern cultural upbringing, and an interest in the landscape of America with a focus on perceptions of place and spirituality.
——————
Edition: 100
Page Count: 36
Dimensions: 5.5”x8.5”
Format: Saddle Stitch / Zine
ISBN: 978-1-962415-11-8
——————
You Don’t Need to Hurry Home takes its name from a postcard sent in 1919 from Sullivan, Illinois, to Flora, Illinois. The postcard shows a rural road, likely in Sullivan, with telegraph poles overhead and frost-covered trees. Footprints and wheel tracks mark the lower third of the photograph, which was printed crookedly to adjust the image’s off-kilter angle. “We are getting along alright…” wrote the sender 106 years ago. “Write often as I am anxious…” This image captures an Illinois I hold dear, one I frequently photograph—the decaying rural spaces that have outlasted their time, the wooden posts and slats barely holding on, bullet-riddled signs, and barriers rarely performing their intended function. These photographs hold their subjects in perpetual tension, clinging to whatever they can, with the past permanently preserved within the frame.
——————
Jeff Smudde(pr. “SMOO-dee”; b. 1997, Metro Detroit, Michigan, he/him/his) is an artist currently based in the Providence, Rhode Island area using various photographic processes and sound. He received his Master of Fine Art at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth in 2023 as a Distinguished Art Fellow and his Bachelor of Art from Illinois State University in 2019. His poetic documentary-style work comes from a background in journalism, a Midwestern cultural upbringing, and an interest in the landscape of America with a focus on perceptions of place and spirituality.
——————
Edition: 100
Page Count: 36
Dimensions: 5.5”x8.5”
Format: Saddle Stitch / Zine
ISBN: 978-1-962415-11-8
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