Field Book by Jordan Putt

Photographed across six years in Pima County, Arizona, Field Book traces the shifting social landscape of the Sonoran Desert and the lives shaped by an environment of extremes.

Photographed across six years in Pima County, Arizona, Field Book traces the shifting social landscape of the Sonoran Desert and the lives shaped by an environment of extremes. This work is situated in a region an hour north of the contested United States-Mexico border, revealing a more entangled relationship with the southwestern landscape. Field Book foregoes the familiar political rhetoric of fear or photographic tropes of weathered miners to reveal a subtler frontier: one where quiet intimacies and ordinary struggles reflect back on our own lives.

As a teenager, Jordan Putt learned land surveying from his father, spending summer days weaving between prickly pear cacti with a GPS on a six-foot rod slung over his shoulder. What began as a tool for measuring topography became a way of understanding the social contours of the desert. In this work, the surveyor’s field book is reimagined as a photographic ledger, recording the physical geography and those bound by the enduring thread of the Sonoran Desert.

Jordan Putt is a photographer whose work responds to issues of place, identity, and community. He earned a BA in Psychology from Northern Arizona University in 2014, and an MFA in Photography from Columbia College Chicago in 2020. His work has been exhibited in the Tucson Museum of Art, Tucson; Filter Space, Chicago;  House of Lucie, Los Angeles; and Hyde Park Arts Center, Chicago;  among others. He was a 2022 recipient of the Research and Development Grant from the Arizona Commission on the Arts and a 2023 finalist for the Lucie Photo Book Prize. Previously Jordan has held positions at the Museum of Contemporary Photography in Chicago and the Sir Elton John Photography Collection. Jordan is currently based in Atlanta, GA, where he is a Visiting Lecturer of  Photography at Georgia State University.

7 x 9"
124 pages
Hard cover with blue cloth. Foil stamped.
Printed on Neenah Classic Crest Natural White 80# Text
Edition of 250, first edition, first printing.
ISBN 979-8-9987660-3-9
Essay by Kelli Connell

Kelli Connell is an artist whose work investigates sexuality, gender, identity, and photographer/sitter relationships. Her work is in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Philadelphia Museum of Art, and Museum of Fine Arts Houston, among others. Monographs include Kelli Connell: Pictures for Charis (Aperture) and Kelli Connell: Double Life (DECODE Books). Connell has received fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, MacDowell, PLAYA, Peaked Hill Trust, LATITUDE, Light Work, and the Center for Creative Photography. Connell is a professor at Columbia College Chicago.