Paul Kranzler

Tom

Young Austrian photographer Paul Kranzler’s latest book project Tom is his second excruciatingly intimate journey inside the life of his subjects. A riveting study of adolescence, family, and a farm community in rural Austria, Tom is photo-reportage firmly in the style of Larry Clark and Paul Graham. Whether it’s a picture of Dad sucking on a baby’s bottle in front of a long strip of flypaper, or a more formal portrait of Tom’s Turkish friends leaning on their car, Kranzler’s pictures enter that rare space for photography: the place where as much is revealed as concealed.

Kranzler’s photographs are mysterious facts. While his strobe sometimes freezes Tom and his family in moments of banality, the project’s warmth is expressed through softer, available light portraits and occasional landscapes. While focusing on the human drama of the family, Kranzler’s wise to observe the inanimate reality of house and home. Laundry’s on the floor. Cigarettes are on the table.

Documentary to the end, and two years in the making, Kranzler looks, lingers, and allows his camera to capture this story’s essential views. Edited into a narrative, cross-cut with humor and sub-plots, Tom is an essential book that confirms the promise Kranzler suggested in Land of Milk and Honey. With an essay by Markus Binder from the band Attwenger.

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