Luke Smalley: Exercise at Home

<p><strong>Idiosyncratic looks at the stereotype of the red-blooded American man</strong></p><p>In his second photobook, American photographer Luke Smalley revisits the themes from his 2002 monograph <i>Gymnasium</i>. After receiving a degree in sports medicine from Pepperdine University and then working as both a model and personal trainer, Smalley became fascinated with the archetype of the athletic American male, and sought to explore its more playful side. His compositions were inspired by early 20th-century fitness manuals and high school yearbooks.<br>In <i>Exercise at Home</i>, now reissued after being out of print since 2007, Smalley returns to his native Pennsylvania to consider the small-town interiors and landscapes that are the settings for his portraits of young athletes. Color photographs, inspired by a more innocent era, combine whimsy with the inexplicable. Smalley hires a local seamstress to construct a colossal medicine ball; he binds two boys together with a "harness" and leaves them in an empty room for a psychological game of tug-of-war, while somewhere nearby two others lead donkeys around the floor of a basketball court in a high school gym. Scale, time and content are altered to create the world Smalley inhabits. The lush colors of this new vision belie the viewer’s sense of dislocation.<br><b>Luke Smalley</b> (1955–2009) had his first photobook discovered in a hotel lobby by Dior Men’s fashion designer and artistic director Kim Jones. Smalley shot Jones’ first fashion line and went on to have a storied career in fashion photography. His images have appeared in the <i>New York Times</i> style section, <i>Dazed</i> and <i>V</i>, among others.</p>