by Rachel Fershleiser

An image for the collection's "Friend of the Family," by photographer Grant Willing

nce upon a time, a man named Garth Risk Hallberg wrote a story. Told in 63 alphabetically listed vignettes, his novella revealed dark secrets and explored the profound minutia of modern family life. Like most young writers, he dreamed of getting it published. More unusually, he dreamed of illustrating each page with a fine art photograph, despite having little knowledge or ability in the field. He’d even written all the captions already, ignoring the small obstacle of the images’ nonexistence.

Recently A Field Guide to the North American Family did indeed hit bookstores, beautifully produced by innovative art press Mark Batty Publisher, and containing 63 incredible photographs, just as Hallberg had imagined. Many of these will be on display in a month-long pinup show that opens at Gallery Bar on December 6. But how did he find them? “I went to the publisher and I said ‘build me my own flickr.com,’ and they did it,” he says, “Which is pretty amazing in and of itself.”

From there he was able to collect pictures from artists across the internet. About half the book’s images came in unsolicited. Others he specially requested or “shook from the trees” around the gallery world. “I saw one photo displayed in Joe, the coffee shop, and I knew I wanted to work with the photographer,” Hallberg says. That photo, by Jessica Bruah, is now in the Field Guide. Eventually, the entire book was illustrated with fine art photography by dozens of different professionals. The images show people and landscapes representing adolescence, boredom, grief, rebellion and other aspects of a typical upbringing. For this show, the book can function as a sort of exhibition catalog, except fictional, and compiled before the fact.

“I know nothing about photography, but I’m so drawn to it,” Hallberg says. “It’s relatively uncorrupted by the prospect of making millions of dollars. When no one’s looking to strike it rich, there’s this freedom and openness.”

Certainly no one is going to get rich gifting images to debut authors, and that’s where he got the idea to celebrate these photographers. New to the art world, Hallberg got in touch with the Humble Arts Foundation, a nonprofit dedicated to advancing the careers of emerging photographers. Amani Olu, HAF’s founder, helped to nail down the space and pin up the work (an informal method of displaying unframed art). “It’s a great way to spotlight the photos and acknowledge the artists,” Olu says.

Another goal was just to meet these people,” Hallberg adds, “and buy them a drink.”

On view December 6, 2007 – January 2, 2008 at Gallery Bar, 120 Orchard Street, 212.529.2266, gallerybarnyc.com