In their new photography book, Podunk, Scarlett, Carlos Clarke and Nadia Lee Cohen present a quietly unsettling visual narrative that blurs the line between fiction and memory. Drawing on the concept of Podunk as both a place and a state of mind, the project explores marginal landscapes, time and emotional residue.
Podunk: a fragmented visual narrative
At the core of Podunk is a deliberate rejection of traditional storytelling. Rather than a linear narrative, the book comprises 128 stills arranged as a sequence of gestures, atmospheres and fleeting presences. Shot on grainy Super 8 film, each frame has a tactile sense of time, imperfection and quiet tension.
Set in Lancaster, California, in the Antelope Valley, the series captures a landscape suspended between decay and endurance, with unfinished houses, fading surfaces and arid desert spaces where life persists almost invisibly. Within this setting, Nadia Lee Cohen shifts from subject to mirror; her presence moves between domestic familiarity and something subtly otherworldly.
A journey into an imaginary life through a photography book
Podunk is as much about form as it is about image. Its compact, spiral-bound design echoes the intimacy of a notebook, containing fragments rather than telling a story. Defined by muted tones and texture, it represents a departure from Scarlett Carlos Clarke’s earlier saturated aesthetic.
Images of Nadia Lee Cohen drifting through worn interiors and desert landscapes resist a clear narrative, leaving relationships and identities unresolved. This ambiguity shapes the book’s emotional depth, with themes of stillness, decay and quiet nostalgia lingering throughout.
Step into the cinematic universe of Nadia Lee Cohen and read our interview, in which she reflects on time, provocation, and the tension between aesthetics and narrative.
Courtesy of SCARLETT CARLOS CLARKE and NADIA LEE COHEN
