Truitt, Sam: State/Shaft Shaft/State

Description

Barrytown/Station Hill Press, paperback

Publication Date: April 1, 2024

Publisher Marketing: State/Shaft Shaft/State is a book of image + words, made in a calendar year in the mid-00s when Sam Truitt was a full-time business writer for a New York-based publisher of commercial real estate research, statistics and analysis. The business was just west of Fifth Avenue on the north side of Thirty-Seventh, and our writing group was located initially on the top floor. He composed the “state” strips on the roof, which had an close view of most of the Empire State Building. In the spring our group moved to the fourth floor, removing easy rooftop access. He continued to compose intermittently through the day, yet now standing on the fire escape at the back of the building. That area also served as an airshaft. state/shaft shaft/state’s text is a direct transcription of words spoken into an Olympus W10 recorder, a hand-held device that allows you to take photos while voice recording an avi file. The “shaft” and “state” series are interspersed to call out to the interval between them where they cross and mingle to find strange spoken spaces. The way the image + words are arranged seeks to further that and where they touch one.