IDYLL

A coffee table book that takes you through time and space - of a centuries-old pseudo-city of American industry that mirrors the larger American society.

IDYLL depicts a broken city that is Paterson - a symbol of urban and social decay in motion - and a poetic re-imagination of the American dream. It is a lyrical interrogation of the American Dream set in Paterson, New Jersey, told through the singular experience of America’s first industrial city and its people. The documentary project began in 2016. 

Born and raised in New Jersey, Todd R. Darling photographed Paterson because it was a prototype for industrial cities and represents the myth of America. Inspired by local poets William Carlos Williams and Allen Ginsberg, Darling wandered the city crafting an allegory about America, delivered through the city of Paterson and her people. 

About the photographer
Todd R. Darling is an American documentary photographer based in Hong Kong for sixteen years, where he began his career photographing the Umbrella Movement for Polaris Images in 2014. In 2021, Todd completed work on a documentary project that began in 2016, about Paterson, New Jersey.

Paterson is the second most densely populated city in America after New York. 150,000 people are packed into eight square miles. It’s home to fifty ethnic groups. There’s about twenty-five million people in America, living in small cities like Paterson. Founded in 1792 by Alexander Hamilton as a corporation, Paterson was ruled by corrupt industrialists who paid no taxes and crippled the city's development. The consequences of its corrupted origins ripple through it today.