A wild ride and unsettling glimpse of a period of time in our early history. And you think you have bad days now! ( )

Wisconsin Death Trip by Michael Lesy, based on a collection of late 19th century photographs by Jackson County, Wisconsin, photographer Charles Van Schaick – mostly taken in the city of Black River Falls – and local news reports from the same period. It emphasizes the harsh aspects of Midwestern rural life under the pressures of crime, disease, mental illness, and urbanization.
The book was adapted into a film in 1999

Creepy yet mesmerising! ( )

No idea how to rate this other than "grand;" it's still settling into my mind.

This book had considerable impact on photographers and scholars, not all of whom approved of its approach. Lesy took all his material from the collection of one local photographer and from reports of the same local's newspaper. The news clips record the unfortunate and disastrous consequences of the human condition. Lots of fires and murders. The photographic record is typical of a highly competent small town late 19th century artist who often left the studio to record the belongings and doings of his customers. Sometimes Lesy creates mirror images or montages of his historic photographs rather than giving them straight. Lesy makes his point - not all was idyllic in this supposed bucolic time and place.