"Photography is not open heart surgery on newborns. We don't save lives. While I believe we're not performing heart surgery, I do believe photographs have the power to change the world." -Henry Leutwyler
This is precisely answered my next question – what's the 'big picture'? The consistency of the book is rather subtle but profound. Leutwyler's minimal style strongly express the right to think and feel. Nothing is instant. When you look at the photographed objects you want to stare for a while, you want to touch them; smell them; perhaps even reminisce in with feelings of nostalgia, melancholy, triumph, rage, sadness, joy. All very raw human emotions. But what underlies in Document is not its sheer beauty of mementos/sentiments and the way it can be carried through your own memories, but the power it has to compel you to learn something.
And to make an impact on the world, Leutwyler decided to use the first photograph that started it all, the photograph of the gun that assassinated John Lennon and donate all proceeds of the sale of the print to Everytown, a movement of Americans working together to end gun violence and build safer communities. Something's gotta give and Leutwyler is doing just that.
Of course, I had to mention a few of my own favorite heroes, and yes, perhaps villains. My father would have loved to see Muhammad Ali's glove. In fact, he met him once in person at a hotel in Indiana. We both loved watching boxing films together, a tradition going all the way back to the original 1979 film, The Champ. I still cry to this day watching that movie. And I'm still madly in love with the art of boxing. See how much can be grabbed from a single image? And all precisely from an object of the rich & famous.
Other favorable mentions: Bob Marley's hat and guitar, along with Bob Dylan's harmonica, Jimi Hendrix's red Fender, and Michael Jackson's glove. Some of my all-time favorite musicians, they all had something special and I think that's what, maybe partially, set their destinies and certainly helped change the world as well. I am still mesmerized by their music to this day and that, at least to me, is significant. Even just looking at the objects, I can hear the tunes and feel the beat in my heart. It makes me want to dance and shout all at once. But only if I can jump into James Gandolfini's Cadillac while doing so (and yeah, tagging along a few of Avedon's 'tools' for a shoot of my own.)