
Spirit Myth
- Publisher
- Hat & Beard Press
- Year
- 2021
- Specifications
- Softcover
32 pages
10.5 x 14 in
Todd Cole's Spirit Myth was born of a desire to create a new mythology around his home of Hollywood, California. For a century young dreamers have walked Hollywood Boulevard, full of unbridled ambition and chasing a dream. Cole befriended one of them, a local skateboarder named Ryan Holland, and together they journeyed onto the boulevard without a plan or expectations and found the light; the photographic moments revealed themselves. At the same time he began photographing, once a day, wild rushes of succulents and cacti at the end of his street. Juxtaposing portraits of old-growth cacti with portraits of Ryan released a beautiful tension between the seemingly ancient landscape and the temporality of the idealistic young dreamer, and the two dichotomies merged into a singular vision: the shimmer of a myth about transience, permanence and dreams. The oversized pages show a skateboarder leaping between parked cars, a young man in a red field of light and bright cactus blooms.