Toby Huss has been exploring and photographing the vast, connective, visual sinew of America for over five decades. His travels have taken him from Tallahassee to Anchorage, from New York to Reno, and to a hundred beautiful and busted towns in-between. He’s rambled through abandoned shopping malls and perfect bingo halls, through greasy spoons and derelict saloons, all with an eye toward discovering our shared, national, mostly unnoticed aesthetic.
American Sugargristle is Toby’s first collection of such photographs. Accompanied by his singular text (sometimes humorous, oftentimes, eh, not so much), he captures these moments not only with his lens but also with the wit and pathos of his writing. He shares his belief that the heart of America, the very idea of it, is found in its frayed edges. As Harper Joy Steele wrote in her foreword, Toby sees all the “beautiful, mundane, shitty, sad, human, ugly, perfect” things we tend to overlook, and brings them home with him.
