Librerías independientes de EEUU

Fotos: Bryan David Griffith

One of those things he doesn’t want to see leave are the independent bookstores, a business he views as a lot more than simply a place to buy books—they’re a meeting place away from the often segregated, homogenous world of social media.

“You’re going to encounter other people who work there or who will be there by chance who might have different experiences than you do,” he said. “I think that’s a healthy thing for our society to interact with and make friends with people who have different ideas than what we do”.

Part of the goal of the series is an aesthetic one: Griffith said he is drawn to the design of the bookstores and their unique look as opposed to the homogenization of big-box retail chains, and he said his inspiration are the storefronts Walker Evans photographed in the 1930s.

Bryan David Griffith se ha pasado un año recorriendo librerías independientes de Estados Unidos. Las ha fotografiado, ha entrevistado a sus propietarios y a sus clientes y todo ello lo ha plasmado en The Last Bookstores: America’s Resurgent Independents. Los extractos de arriba y las imágenes provienen de este reportaje en Slate en el que Griffith cuenta cómo decidió embarcarse en este proyecto y qué le ha deparado la aventura. Además, explica que esas librerías son mucho más que un sitio donde comprar libros y el importante papel social que cumplen en sus comunidades.