Obvious and Ordinary: America 2006

"Obvious and Ordinary: America 2006" is Martin Parr and John Gossage's deadpan, anonymous record of a 2006 road trip to Memphis to visit William Eggleston, published under their joint alias Obvious & Ordinary.

Saddle-bound in heavy cardstock wrappers, the book pairs 36 color and 36 black-and-white photographs shot along the way, treating the pilgrimage to see Eggleston with the same flat, observational eye both photographers turn on ordinary subjects generally. Stephen Daiter Gallery and Rocket Gallery published the first edition in 2007 in a run of 750 copies for the US and 750 for Europe.

Parr (1952-2025) spent five decades photographing English social life and, more broadly, the wealth of the Western world in saturated color, through projects including "The Last Resort" and "Small World," and was a Magnum Photos member from 1994. Gossage (b. 1946) works in black-and-white artist's books that explore overlooked urban terrain, debris, and the relationship between architecture and power. "Obvious and Ordinary" catches both photographers working together and off-duty, on a trip framed as fandom as much as fieldwork.