Charles H. Traub: Two New Books from Lazy Dog

American photographer Charles H. Traub, born in 1945 in Louisville, Kentucky, has recently published two books with Lazy Dog. The first, "Skid Row" (May 2023), is a black-and-white series capturing marginalized lives in decaying urban areas, focusing on environmental portraits that are melancholic and restrained rather than sensationalist. The second, "Dolce Via Nova," released earlier, documents Italy in the 1980s—specifically Rome, Naples, coastal towns, and Venice—during a period of economic transformation and a new boom. Traub, who founded the Museum of Contemporary Photography in Chicago in 1976, presents a colorful, joyful Italy of ordinary people, young and old, engaged in lively street conversations. Notably, Milan is absent from the photographs. The book includes an interview with Traub by Luigi Ballerini. Traub acknowledges photographer Luigi Ghirri for influencing his perspective. Over his career, Traub has participated in more than 60 group and solo exhibitions, his works are in private and museum collections worldwide, and he has published 17 books. The two Lazy Dog editions (founded 2012) showcase contrasting facets of Traub's research: irony and the malaise of living.