Arch of Inebriation
40-oz Budweiser, St. Louis, MO

By the end of the "America's Heartland" tour, O'Dowd was artistically and alcoholically spent. "Arch of Inebriation" finds the artist barely able to keep the subject beer propped up straight. In addition, the beer's label is twisted to one side, as if both subject and photographer are about to careen off as one into the Mississippi River.

The degree of O'Dowd's exhaustion is exemplified in his choice of an artistic subject: a Budweiser. The choice violated O'Dowd's personal rule of not duplicating subjects throughout his ouevre (O'Dowd's first beer photograph, the groundbreaking "Tall Dome," was also a Budweiser.)

O'Dowd brushed off the criticism by pointing out that "Arch of Inebriation" hewed more closely to his original vision of beer photography than "Tall Dome" because it sited the beer in its natural environment, St. Louis, where Budweiser manufacturer Anheuser-Busch is based. He also noted the artistic value inherent in the tension created between the 20-oz can in "Tall Dome" and the 40-oz bottle used in "Arch of Inebriation."

Most beer photography critics, however, believe that "Arch of Inebriation" best exemplifies the mental state of an artist badly need of a nice, long nap.


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