How to Win Friends and Influence People

How to Win Friends and Influence People is Erik Schubert's first artist book, borrowing Dale Carnegie's self-help title. He uses it as a lens on the corporate vernacular his father's generation was sold as a path to success.

Published by Lavalette in 2013 in an edition of 250, the softcover book collects Schubert's photographs of lonely interiors and defective products. It also gathers ephemera scavenged from trade expositions, infomercial sets, and the family home. Pre-packaged business attire, scuffed carpets, and staged corporate tableaus build a portrait of an economy of reputation and charisma running on fumes, played for a dark, deadpan humor rather than straight satire.

Schubert (b. 1980, Omaha, Nebraska) holds an MFA from Massachusetts College of Art and Design and a BFA from Columbia College Chicago, and has taught photography at MassArt and the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs. His work has appeared in Boston Young Contemporaries, the SPECTRA National Photography Triennial, and the touring exhibition On the Road: A Legacy of Walker Evans. He is represented by Panopticon Gallery in Boston.