David Brandon Geeting’s new book represents the excitable frenzy of an amusement park

Photographer David Brandon Geeting is a name who regularly pops up in the It’s Nice That studio. Intrigue quickly ensues when we hear he has new work, followed by a sigh of: “what brilliant thing has he done this time”, a credit to his proactive and innovative method of working. Despite writing about David’s work recently, when he sent over Amusement Park,  a newly published book that launched at New York Book Fair, we knew we had to cover him again. 

Beginning two years ago soon after David’s book Infinite Power was released, Amusement Park started with leftovers. “I had all these images I didn’t know what to do with, but I felt like there was a common thread between them. I invited my friend (and world’s best photographer) Jason Nocito to my studio to take a look at what I had so far. He looked at everything and told me my work reminded him of an amusement park. He was like: ‘maybe you should go to one and take pictures,’ the project kinda spiralled out of control from there.”

What started as a question of what to do with some extra photos, amassed into taking more, David explains. “Within a year’s time after meeting with Jason, I had all these new mini-series that were influenced by the idea of an amusement park. Actual documentary photos of two different amusement parks, still life with balloon animals made by a woman I hired on Craigslist, collages I made with a vintage car calendar, and images of coloured fabrics draped behind playground equipment,” — we told you he was hardworking. 

The result is a collection of images — that although do not automatically make you think of an amusement park directly — are full of the excitement and hysteria that your mind jumps to when you enter any kind of theme park or arcade. Bright lights, a tonne of clashing images, toys, absurdity and crazed eyes, are all photographed in David’s signature vivid high flash style. 

“I was excited about all this new work, but I still wanted to use some of the original images I intended put in the book,” David says on the process of editing down images for the book. “Working with publishers Lodret Vandret and designer Brain Paul Lamotte (who designed Infinite Power) helped me make sense of everything, and they had even wilder ideas about the types of paper to print on and the types of ink to use.”

To top all of this off, the front cover with its spray painted typography that then flows throughout is by Bráulio Amado, “he put the finishing touches on with his signature haphazard style of handwritten text throughout the book,” says David. “For me, that’s what really brought everything together.”