100: Laura June Kirsch | Radio Juxtapoz

Radio Juxtapoz

Yes, here we are, Radio Juxtapoz turns 100. And what a way to turn 100 then to look back at the golden age of... well, suspended adulthood? For this 100th episode, we sit down with Laura June Kirsch on the occasion of her new photography book, Romantic Lowlife Fantasies: Emerging Adults In The Age Of Hope, a look at the unique era that was the Obama years, and what many would see as both a carnal, fun, debaucherous and really, we must say, a literal end to an era. These may be party photos, but there is something more unique going on in Kirsch's photos, a time when music, art, corporate events, food culture, beer culture, festivals and a young generation of business owners and creatives all sort of came together into one party. And the party went on for a bit.
Full disclosure, I helped edit this book with Laura, and wrote in the book's introduction something I truly still believe today:
"I worked with Laura on this book via Zoom and it seems almost like it had to be that way. Maybe there was a need to rekindle a sense of nostalgia, but I think in a moment of pause and absence of sociability, Laura could begin to articulate what this era was. She was there. She participated. There is no judgment in these photos because it was a time when there wasn’t much care about expectations and societal norms. That is why I love these photos, love her stories about each moment, like how she accidentally appears and disappears in each of them. I only dipped my toe in those scenes, but I understood a sense of momentum in the Age of Hope for our generation. This book is perhaps a chapter closing. There may be a new Roaring 20’s on the horizon but that is what makes this era so bizarrely and disastrously wonderful. It wasn’t born off of a period of time when we couldn’t interact, had our live music and bars and nightlife taken from us. Romantic Lowlife Fantasies was literally a moment when we all decided collectively that life didn’t need a schedule. These photos are fun, a word we don’t use often enough in our vernacular, and Laura captures what it was like to just have that fantastical sense of community and fucking fun."
The Radio Juxtapoz podcast is hosted by FIFTH WALL TV's Doug Gillen and Juxtapoz editor, Evan Pricco. Episode 100 was recorded in NYC in November 2022. Follow us on @radiojuxtapoz // https://www.romanticlowlifefantasies.com/