Baby, We’ve All Been Traumatized Scenes From This Beautiful, Disturbing Sector: The Photography of Valiant Thor

In 2004, social anthropologist, filmmaker, and “street” photographer, Valiant Thor, contacted his old friend and mentor, photographer Robert Frank, to see how things were faring.

Frank had been a recluse for many years, refusing to give interviews. His groundbreaking book, “The Americans,” which changed the course of photography in the mid-20th century, had brought Frank a bit too much fame.

Thor discovered that all was well. Frank was thoroughly enjoying his retirement in seclusion, in his fishing hut on the coast of Nova Scotia. As the two caught up, an idea coalesced: a new book shot in the style of “The Americans,” but with color, updated to the 21st century.

Frank was done with traveling, but suggested Thor give it a try. He had faith Thor could pull it off, given enough time. Many of the problems Frank had faced with “The Americans” were now solved, due to the convenience, speed, and detail offered by digital cameras.

After 20 years of effort, the result is this book, “Baby, We’ve All Been Traumatized: Scenes From This Beautiful, Disturbing Sector,” which displays Thor’s evolving exploration of the nature of color.

The full history cannot be explored here, but as many Thor fans know, he was once held at the Pentagon, while his unusual perceptive powers were being “analyzed.”

Through a series of deft maneuvers, Thor escaped with a CIA manual, “Creation of the Fine Artist Profile,” which explained how any artist, or artistic trend, could be created or popularized through underhanded means.

Thor’s response was to form the “League of Real Artists” (LORA) to fight back against covertly funded “government” art.

This meant occasionally using the bad guys’ own tricks against them, such as the use of disguises, pseudonyms, and “cash diversion” schemes.

Over the decades, Thor’s team of “art counteragents” reportedly created, under various names, a significant percentage of the artwork hanging in major museums today. Because of the actual threat to their lives, members of LORA must maintain complete anonymity.

These 111 photographs were captured within the “ethnographic” tradition of documentary photography, where the goal is to shoot the “final” image at the outset, and to do so spontaneously, efficiently, and decisively.

These are “straight” landscape photos, shot on the fly, often in search of what Cartier-Bresson called “the decisive moment.” These images have not been staged or manipulated in any way.

Thor utilizes his own special “Venusian” method, in which the photographer not only uses their eyes, but their ears - their sense of hearing.

By employing the ears, the brain operates in a more “binaural” mode, featuring expanded “stereo” bandwidth. Our eyes, direct extensions of the brain, benefit from an increased spatial footprint with sharper balance.

Thor’s reinterpretation of “The Americans” highlights a certain dynamic of American society - an interplay of the “disturbing” and the “beautiful,” where hidden colors are revealed within the concrete “gray” of modern capitalism.

At the Guggenheim, Thor spoke of the “egalitarianism” of photography, which has not only taught us to see things within a frame, but also to consider the importance of every element within each frame.

“In photography, every single thing matters, unlike social media, where only the extremes are emphasized. Everyone of us matters. You are one of a kind, and you must realize your particular nature in order to unite with the universal mind. Otherwise, there is no self - no vehicle to make that journey.”

Echoing the words of the legendary curator, John Szarkowski, Thor reminded the crowd that “photography was born completely mature, like the mythical Garuda. We are just catching up to it.”

-Frønk Kazik, Director of Photography, Berlin Art Museum