Christopher Anderson: Stump

Christopher Anderson's Stump collects color and black-and-white pictures from the 2012 U.S. presidential campaign trail, close-cropped portraits that catch politicians mid-gesture, between rehearsed composure and unscripted strain.

Anderson followed the Obama and Romney campaigns as a photojournalist, but sequenced the resulting images here as something closer to theater criticism than reportage. Faces of Barack and Michelle Obama, Mitt Romney, Paul Ryan, Bill Clinton, and rally crowds appear without captions, interspersed with fireworks, flags, and the other stagecraft of a campaign. Removed from its original news context, the material reads as a study of political performance itself. RM published the book in 2014 with an essay by journalist John Heilemann.

Anderson, a member of Magnum Photos, built his early reputation on war reportage, including his 1999 crossing with Haitian refugees that earned him a Robert Capa Gold Medal. Stump belongs to a later, more personal turn in his career, one that also produced Son and Capitolio, in which he trains a documentary eye on subjects closer to home, whether family or the machinery of American power.