Mark Laita’s book documents the people who make up America’s diverse culture, shedding light on notions of identity, class, and lifestyle. Presented as diptychs, the images exert striking comparisons as they explore class, race, gender, sexuality, and more within the United States. Completed over the course of eight years, Laita intentionally photographed his subjects against a muted backdrop and each portrait’s lighting, cropping, and camera angle is intentionally consistent, creating work that reveals unlikely connections and contradictions through coupling.

By extracting them from their typical surroundings, Laita asserts the idea that we are all equal and interchangeable. In the spirit of Edward Curtis, August Sander, and Richard Avedon, Laita’s survey of “human types” is an extension and a new interpretation of their past photographic methodology. Texts include an introduction by Ingrid Sischy, which offers a biographical as well as critical examination of Laita and his work, and backmatter text by the artist which elaborates his experiences with his subjects.