Fearless Genius

March 10, 2014
This photographic essay should not be as interesting as it is, a sentiment that Elliott Erwitt, who contributes the book’s foreword, shares: “How does one visually communicate the creation and dynamics of world-altering concepts... the people who essentially just sit and think.” In journalistic black and white, documentary photographer Menuez creates that visual narrative. The photos, accompanied by insightful captions, reveal the intense environment of Silicon Valley through contrasts: a photograph titled “Steve Jobs Pretending to Be Human” shows the subject contemplating a beach ball in a park; another portrays a high-powered executive delivering paperwork to colleagues while holding an infant on her shoulder; in a third, a group of factory workers wearing “bunny-suits” complete with helmets and booties do lunges during a group stretch. Sometimes faces tell the story of “Riding the Dot-Com Wave,” other times it’s objects: photos and stuffed animals on top of a computer monitor or empty take-out cartons. Menuez was given an all-access pass to Silicon Valley thanks to Jobs, who is one of several geek celebrities featured. The book, with an introduction by Kurt Andersen, will feel nostalgic for those who were a part of the action; for outsiders, it will both confirm and explode perceptions of what really took place during a strange and exciting time. B&w photos. Agent: Jonathan Breiter, Public Group.

April 1, 2014
A pictorial and textual time machine documenting the driven personalities who pioneered the technological world from 1985 to 2000. Mattresses on the floor, toddlers crawling around, empty takeout cartons left standing on tabletops and computer guts everywhere: These are just a few of the incongruous but gripping scenes Menuez managed to capture during his fascinating years chronicling Silicon Valley. Given unprecedented access to Steve Jobs' new NeXT computer company following the late icon's ouster from Apple, Menuez soon found his way inside the buzzing beehives of other digital giants like Netscape, Photoshop, Sun, Microsoft and others. In addition to the mercurial Jobs, the author trained his illuminating camera lens on the likes of Bill Gates, John Warnock, Chuck Geschke, Bill Joy, Marc Andreessen and a cavalcade of other technological innovators. In this book, Menuez captures them arguing, laughing, pondering and relentlessly pressing forward. While managing to convey both intimacy and perspective, the photographic format lends a certain historical gravitas to events that may only now be settling into comfortable memory. Each frame brims with the subjects' frustration, fascination and fun. Everyone is having such a good time making history, but will they burn out before their chosen tasks are completed? A photo depicting the suicidal tendencies of a defeated tech support employee says a lot: "Although the Macintosh was designed to be easy to use, as it evolved it became more complex and unwieldy. Users were frustrated and angry and took it out on tech support employees." Menuez even makes the innovators' solitude--sequestered behind drawn blinds for days or cordoned off from the rest of the pack in lonely cubicles--surprisingly compelling. The accompanying text is both complementary and instructive. An interesting introduction by novelist Kurt Andersen sets the stage for an indispensable look back at how the world we know now was actually constructed. A vital piece of photographic history.

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