Murmur Trestle Jason Thrasher

University of Georgia / NEWSOUTH BOOKS

A photographic meditation on an iconic American structure at the crux of nature, history, and the passage of time

“A beautiful collection of images of our beloved South, complex and nuanced with spark and surprise.” —Michael Stipe

“Jason Thrasher has always had an eye for beauty. Here he has taken our beloved iconic ‘Murmur Trestle’ and uncovered the creature hiding beneath the mundane shell of creosote and kudzu, giving it an almost otherworldly life of its own.” —Terry Allen, photographer

“Murmur Trestle is Jason Thrasher’s visual meditation on one of Athens, Georgia’s most iconic vernacular structures. The trestle was originally made famous by Sandra-Lee Phipps’s Southern Gothic photograph that graced the back cover of R.E.M.’s groundbreaking album Murmur. Thrasher’s book expands upon Phipps’s singular photograph through a William Christenberry– esque multiyear study that beautifully captures the patina of time on the human-built structure as well as the changing natural flora within the surrounding environs.” — Richard McCabe, curator of photography, Ogden Museum of Southern Art

The back cover of R.E.M.'s influential 1983 album Murmur famously features an image of the wooden Trail Creek Trestle. Over time the aging nineteenth- century train trestle in Athens, Georgia, became known as, simply, the “Murmur Trestle,” a global pilgrimage site for fans of the band. Removed in 2021 to make way for a pedestrian bridge and bike path, the trestle has been captured for the ages in this new collection of photographs by Jason Thrasher.

Thrasher spent six years focusing his lens on an immersive exploration of the Murmur Trestle, photographing it within its changing natural environment. His contemplative images encourage readers to engage in a visual meditation, urging them to closely observe and appreciate the details of the decaying subject. Thrasher’s keen eye and patient observation reveal the wonders of details large and small and the harmonious interplay between wood, light, nature, and the seasons.

Together with a foreword by Patterson Hood of the Drive-By Truckers and “Reason to Rot,” an original poem by MacArthur Fellow J. Drew Lanham, these images speak to the trestle's significance in the community, the region, and the world. Murmur Trestle encourages wanderers to find solace in the gentle rhythm of nature through the passage of time and to embark on personal journeys of introspection and connection with the world around us.