During the economic depression in the late 1980s Bruce Wrighton photographed in and around his hometown of Binghamton, New York. His portraits of rather uncharismatic Americans, old-fashioned cars, and stuffy diners are both colourful and cheerless. For Wrighton taking a photograph almost became a ritual; he used an eight by ten camera and sometimes took up to fifteen minutes to set up for a single subject. His images are thus both studied and alienating.