Jenna Schnuer

World Hum's Flyover America: Photographers Focus on the 50 StatesMarch 10, 2009

The Works Progress Administration did it. Musician Sufjan Stevens has done a bit of it. Matt Weiland and Sean Wilsey got a whole bunch of people to do it. And, um, [my co-writer] Sophia [Dembling] and I are deep into our own version of it.

The it in question? Exploring, one by one, what makes each of the 50 states unique—and looking for the threads that tie them together. Now it’s time to add another to the list: The 50 States Project. Every other month, 50 photos—one from each state—will be posted on the site. Flyover America checked in with Stuart Pilkington, the U.K.-based (we’ll get to that) creator and curator of the project to find out what it’s all about.

Read the interview.

American Way: Child's PlayMarch 15, 2008

The iguanas showed him the way.

After creating "a lot of bad art," sculptor Herb Williams was worried. "I wasn't making anything worthwhile," he says. Then, one night in 2001, the Nashville-based artist had a dream. "The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art contacted me and said, 'We'd love to give you a retrospective show.' I said, 'Great, what is it that I do?' [The dream] kind of fast-forwarded to me going to my own show, and there were thousands, if not millions, of iguanas, all about the same scale, making their way around the museum. Each one was made out of a different material. Stone. Steel. Bronze. Then it started getting a little obscure. Cigarette butts and matchsticks and paper clips … and finally crayons." At that point, says Williams, "I woke right up."

Read the piece on the American Way site.

American Way: Fantastic PlasticApril 1, 2007

When it comes to photography, the focus tends to be on small and digital. But not everybody is mesmerized by megapixels. One of the latest trends is to use plastic cameras, also known as toy cameras, which encourage users to just play -- often with spectacular results.

American Way: Docs That RockSeptember 1, 2006

Summer’s almost over, and with it, the blockbuster movie season. But that doesn’t mean an end to great film viewing. While an empty calorie or two in film form isn’t a bad thing, man cannot exist on Raisinets alone. And, over the last few years, box-office draws of a meatier variety, documentaries, have made it clear that many a moviegoer wants a little something more out of their popcorn time.

We asked experts to offer recommendations of titles you should pop into your DVD player. “Part of the fun of it,” says Michael Renov, professor of critical studies and associate dean of academic affairs for the School of Cinema-Television at the University of Southern California, “is discovering all these different voices and these different approaches to telling stories that are based on people and events in the real world.”

Read the piece on the American Way website.

American Way: All That Glitters Goes Way Beyond GoldMarch 1, 2005

While everybody else oohed and aahed, rodeo couture designer Manuel and his son, Manuel Jr., giggled. Standing in his workroom with visitors all around, the designer had just flipped the switch on a tiny power pack that was attached to a pair of black wool gabardine pants decorated with rhinestones, intricate silver embroidery--and tiny light bulbs. "You need humor to do everything," says Manuel.

That humor--along with impeccable tailoring and quite a bit of fashion and music history--is on display at Nashville's Frist Center for the Visual Arts.

Interested in reprinting this article? Send me an email.

Download a PDF of the article.

Lexus: Dream Jobs Style GuidesWinter 2004

I profiled "t hree people at the crossroads of form and function": a metal artist, a restaurant designer, and a handbag designer.