‘Woolworth Shopper’, Binghamton
During the economic depression in the late 1980s Wrighton photographed in and around his hometown of Binghamton, New York. His portraits of rather uncharismatic Americans, old-fashioned automobiles, and stuffy diners are both colourful and cheerless. For Wrighton, taking photographs was an almost meditative activity and he was sometimes busy with a single shot for fifteen minutes. This portrait of
a passer-by, with mismatched buttons on her coat, therefore seems both studied and alienated.