Yann Gross on The Jungle Book

On September 20, 2016, Aperture Foundation, in collaboration with the Department of Photography at Parsons The New School for Design, presented an artist talk with Yann Gross. Featuring subjects that range from young skateboarders in Eastern Africa to an Americanized community living in the valleys of Switzerland, Gross’s photographs delve deep into the notion of escapism and identity while continuously questioning our own misconceptions of culture. Masterfully constructed and controlled, his images offer insight into the lives of under-recognized societies. In his publication, The Jungle Book: Contemporary Stories of the Amazon and Its Fringe (Aperture, 2016), Gross creates a visual experience of the diverse worlds that inhabit contemporary Amazonia. In the introduction, Arnaud Robert describes the disappointment of those who visit the Amazon in the hopes of finding an enchanted land: “Old-world expeditions have been replaced by all-inclusive trips and mosquito screens, the odor of the antipodes without their bitter taste.”