Of Humorous Punchlines and Visual Highlights

In 2013, Craig Semetko travelled to India, on the occasion of the “100 Years of Leica Photography” anniversary. The concept for the Leica project brought ten photographers together with their style icons: in Semetko’s case, it was Elliott Erwitt. The light-hearted tone of the images and a love of street photography were their greatest commonalities – as well as a fondness for dogs. Of course, Semetko did not just photograph dogs in India. As he wandered around, his eye was also caught by particular patterns and geometries. As with all photographers, it is about including or excluding decisive elements in a picture. India proved to be fertile ground for Semetko. According to his own statement, he produced three times more pictures in three months than he had produced in the three years that he worked on his first book. He published the images he took in the Indian subcontinent in 2014 in his book India Unposed.

With pictures taken over ten years and published in 2009 in his first book, Unposed, Semetko captured the zeitgeist in his homeland – with a lot of humour, a pinch of irony and, at times, a critical distance. Looking back, he realised that his photographic work was also mostly the result of chance. While the photographer was fascinated by his great role models, Henri Cartier-Bresson and Elliott Erwitt, he was still far from giving thought to composition or framing. He openly admits that he lacked the right awareness at the time. From today’s perspective, Semetko realises just how much his photographs were down to chance and instinct. The fact that he was able to work completely freely in his photographic practice spurred his creativity.

When working through the second editing process and with a sometimes necessary distance, Semetko once again examined his treasure trove of photographs. Whilst his work originally struck him as a political commentary, he realised that, against the backdrop of difficult times in the US, he would prefer to create something more timeless and independent. With this aspect in mind, he reorganised the pictures taken between the years 2011 to 2021. The outcome, America Unposed, is like a visual road trip through the USA. Although humour was the main focus of Semetko’s early work, India had sharpened his perception for shapes and colours. In America Unposed, he brings together all his observations of his homeland: in his newest book, we find moments both familiar and surprising – from the grotesque to the absurd, via the melancholic and the mundane, Semetko depicts scenes from daily life and festive occasions. The photographer observed the developments back then with a certain distance. The new selection of pictures has just appeared as a book titled America Unposed; and prints of some of his work will be on display in May 2026, as the new Leica Store Chicago and adjoining gallery are set to open with a Semetko retrospective.