Craig Semetko has a new “America Unposed” photo book that will be released in March 2026 (see his previous books):
Craig Semetko’s new photo book will appear in March 2026. Spread over 96 pages with 67 images, the American street photographer takes interested parties on a journey throughout contemporary America, as he paints a humorous picture that also allows for ironic and critical undertones. The book has been published by Leica and can be purchased at the Leica online store, as well as all Leica stores around the world.
Semetko’s photographic instinct is legendary – a fact that is once again in clear evidence in this, his latest and third photo book. With “America Unposed” he has completed his trilogy with a trip around his homeland, the USA. The outcome is a collection of pictures whose diversity combines beauty and turmoil, the banal and the extraordinary, the comical and the serious. A visual narrative that reveals his personal view of the USA, a declaration of love that celebrates this incredible country, but at the same time allows for moments of criticism.
“For the last two decades, photography has been my way of getting my view of the world out there. The first book in this series, ‘Unposed’, really emphasized my sense of humor. The second, ‘India Unposed’, had humor and highlighted what I was seeing during my first trip to India. But with America it was a different animal. I live here. This is my home country. I have specific thoughts about where it is and where it’s heading. I always bristle when someone says, ‘America, love it or leave it.’ The implication is that if you criticize the country, you’re somehow unpatriotic, or don’t love the country. That’s absurd to me,” Semetko comments, referring to the challenges while producing this new body of work.
The road trip through the United States began on July 4, 2011, on Independence Day in the USA, and ended around ten years later. Semetko has put together 67 motifs, which capture the pulse of America today. In contrast to his first two books, “America Unposed” presents 96 pages of colour photography, which also symbolizes the photographer’s closeness to his subject. The large-format images are complemented with a foreword by Karin Rehn-Kaufmann, Art Director & Chief Representative Leica Galleries International, and an appendix with a conversation between Semetko and Tom A. Smith.
Born in 1961, Craig Semetko was a comedy author and performer before discovering an interest in photography. With a highly developed sense for the absurd within the normal, he defies everyday reality on the street with snapshots full of bizarre humour – unposed and spontaneous. In his foreword to Semetko’s first book, Magnum photographer Elliot Erwitt wrote: “Good photographs are tough enough to shoot. Really funny ones are even harder. Good and funny photographs observed in nature, not arranged or manipulated but simply observed in real time with amazing consistency, constitute a minor miracle. (…) He is the essential photographer. That is the one who sees what others could not have seen.”
In her foreword to this new book, Karin Rehn-Kaufmann writes: “Craig Semetko is a great observer and a wonderful storyteller. His pictures are a delight and a treasure trove of atmospheric imagery.”
Craig Semetko’s video on how to use a Leica M rangefinder is back online
