americandream

100Eyes
The
American
Dream
Brenda Ann Kenneally
Brenda Ann Kenneally
Martin Miller
Caleb Cole
Brad Moore
Rania Matar
David Taylor
Q Sakamaki
Daryl Peveto
Simone Lueck
Mustafah Abdulaziz
Curated by Andy Levin
(Thanks to Shawn Records of Photo Lucida for inviting me to be a juror in the 2010 competition as much or
the work in this issue was drawn from that pool of talent.)
Like many American myths, the American Dream
was created by a cabal of propagandists.
Hollywood studios, automobile manufacturers,
the media of post-war America, and a booming
housing industry, among others, all stood to benefit
from an unprecedented marketing opportunity in
the form of hundreds of thousands of GIs returning from World War II. And so it was born, the
American Dream, a house to own, a car in every
driveway, two children, and an unlimited future of
consumption. Like its sister myth, the Cold War,
the American Dream, the words carry such weight
that they are captitalized.
This issue of 100Eyes is about words, and the way
that images can change our perception of them.
Most artists and photographers explore emotional
territory. Suffering and joy are as much a commidity as are facts. In the work of the photographers represented in this issue of 100Eyes, we
see reflections on the American Dream, on what
Americans aspire to be, and on how their aspirations, formulated by the visions of Hollywood, are
often transmuted in ways that are not anticipated
and that often make us uncomfortanle. In Brenda
Ann Kenneally’s Upstate Girls and in Daryl Peveto’s American Nomads, we see what some might
think are grotesque parodies of “the American
Dream.” But to the photographers, and their subjects, this is anything but the case.
In a world of Madoffs what are the outcasts, those
less able to survive?
Likewise, in the photographs of Caleb Cole,
who dresses up in second hand clothes and photographs himself in elaborate recreations of the lives
of their sometimes imaginary owners, there is both
pathos and the narcissism of fantasy, of escapism that
had always been part of the dream.
Photographs, of course, sometimes do not speak for
themselves, and often the headlines, captions, and artistic statements that proport to elucidate are nothing
more than sideshow mirrors themselves, shifting in
appearance as images are projected over them.
Such is the case with the American Dream, words
which have a entirely different meaning than when
filtered by Mustafah Abdulaziz’s hopeful images of
the Obama inauguration images, than when viewing
Daryl Peveto’s essay, “American Nomads.”
Andy Levin
New Orleans
On the Cover: Dana and baby Kylynne before preparing to leave the hospital to go home.
Credit: Brenda Anne Kenneally from “Upstate Girls”
Martin Miller
Echoes from the Cold War
Martin
Miller
Echoes from the Cold War
The Cold War was one of the most significant and
revealing periods in the history of our species. From
a current perspective, the arms race can appear apocalyptically surreal and suicidally paranoid. The technological progression from bomber to missile, from
high yield warheads to smaller ones, from inaccurate
to accurate missiles all had their consequences for
strategy. Massive retaliation gave way to precise
counter-force targeting, and in turn to missile defense. Since the development of nuclear weapons
in World War II, humankind has struggled with the
meaning of security and with the unprecedented possibility of ending the very civilization which enabled
the building of The Bomb in the first place. Early
in the Cold War the U.S. found itself relying heavily on its nuclear forces to counterbalance the Soviet
superiority in conventional weapons. Ironically, our
conventional forces have become so far superior to
that of contemporary Russia that they have begun a
major program of upgrading their nuclear forces to
counterbalance our conventional edge. Will another
nuclear arms race such as that chillingly depicted
here repeat itself in the new century? Will the comparatively minor threat of global terror be supplanted by another round of truly apocalyptic possibilities?
Caleb Cole
At the heart of my work is a fascination with ambiguities and inconsistencies, an interest in how I
go about negotiating areas of gray and how others manage to do the same. When I am in public, I
watch people going about their daily routines alone;
I wonder about the lives they lead, wonder how they
experience the world around them and how they
make meaning of it. I spend time inventing stories
for them: narratives of isolation, of questioning
and searching, of desire, and of confusion. The images in Other People’s Clothes are a product of my
exploration of private moments of expectation, a
visual expression of my experiences stepping into
the shoes of the types of people I see on a daily basis. Each photograph in the series is a constructed
scene that begins with an outfit or piece of clothing
(either bought, found, or borrowed), then a person
that I imagine to fill those clothes, and finally a location where that person can play out a silent moment
alone. This moment is the time right before something changes, the holding in of a breath and waiting, the preparing of oneself for what is to come.
Though I am the physical subject of these images,
they are not self-portraits. They are portraits of people I have never met but with whom I feel familiar,
as well as documents of the process wherein I try on
the transitional moments of others’ lives in order to
better understand my own.
Caleb Cole
Upstate Girls
Brenda Ann Kenneally
Roseanne Hill lives in the basement of her friend Deborah Stocklas’s house, in exchange for taking care of Deborah’s five children. Roseanne recently started dating the
cook at the nursing home where Deborah works. The romance provides a much-needed bit of glamour to an otherwise bleak, daily grind. Deborah’s kids call Roseanne ‘The
Nanny’ and photos of the children and gifts of their artwork line Roseanne’s walls.”
”Katie, 6 dressed as a superhero, surveys her family’s possessions as they prepare them for storage. Katie’s mom has worked a series of low wage service jobs since Katie
and her sister and two brothers were born, fourteen year ago. Katie’s family has moved four times in as many years and had to live with relatives and friends in between
apartments. Katie’s mom is a single parent who manages to stay afloat, but after becoming involved with a co-workers brother who is in and out of prison, the 34 year old
head of household began a downward spiral – each time her boyfriend went back to prison she was expected to take collect phone calls and provide money for the prison
commissary, clothing and care packages to the man behind bars. The threat of life alone as she puts ‘an old maid’ took over her better judgment and the financial and emotional burden ahs put her family in jeopardy.”
”Laurie Smith, a 34 year-old mother of four met Bob after she and her children had been evicted for failure to pay rent and a co-worker at the hotel where Laurie
worked as a house keeper allowed her to move in. Laurie’s friend Deborah had a brother who had just been released from prison and the two became a couple. Three years
later, much of the couple’s relationship has been spent with Bob returning to prison and Laurie supporting him with her wages. Laurie has had to move into Deborah’s basement and send her four children to live with various relatives during her recent bout of homelessness. Love is often the most ‘expensive’ commodity that a poor woman can
have- and the most necessary in the face of fewer other long-range opportunities.”
”Five year-old Destiny stakes her claim on a new bedroom in the apartment that she and her family are about to move into. The family was homeless; bouncing from
friend to family member after her mom lost her job as a hotel housekeeper.”
”Five –year old Jessie plays in an empty lot in North Troy a community that was one of the
wealthiest in the US in the early to mid 1900’s. Jessie’s mask is a cut out from the back of cereal box that his mom bought at the local Price Chopper, one of the big employers now in the area. When Industry moved out of The United State, it left communities like troy empty – today, troy has a population of 44, 000 compared with 77.000 at the
turn of the century. The larger social implications of these impoverished cities have created a permanent underclass of working poor. The current cycle of consumerism and
collapse is designed to keep those at the bottom of the social – economic ladder chasing their own tails.”
”Katie, Laurie’s youngest, plays with her dolls while she waits for her mother to come home from her job as a housekeeper at The Marriott Hotel.”
Terry Nixon is a mother of four grown daughters and a cancer survivor. Terry was living in Western New York and moved to Troy last year when she became a widow
following her second husband’s death. Terry is learning impaired and has been in the application process to receive disability benefits. When Terry’s husband was alive, he
supported her. Terry is now 48 years old and entering the workforce for the first time. She has to maintain a job pending her disability, which, once official will be 660$ per
month. Terry has been living at The YWCA for the past year that she has been in Troy, she cannot live with either of her daughters that are in the area as they receive housing subsidies and they would loose benefits if another were to be added to the household. Terry cleans the county courthouse at night and searches for minimum wage jobs
by day. She currently lives in 15$ twice per month, out of which she must pay for her prescriptions.”
”Darlee goes to work with her mother on days that she wins the battle about not staying with their dad or grandmother.”
”Deanan Garron, mother of seven split up with the father of her oldest three children when the couple was still in their teens. The children’s father has custody of the
three and Deana went on the have four more children with two subsequent boyfriends. The Family Court in Troy, New York threatened Deana with jail time if she did not get
a job and pay child support the custodial father of her oldest children - back child support was over 5000$ and two of Deana’s youngest, ages seven and eight have special
needs and suffer from emotional disorders, which make time away from their mother difficult. Deana finally found a job at a local gas station mini mart and juggles raising
four children as a single parent and still living on a limited income- half of her check goes to the court for child support leaving less that 200$ per week for the family of
five-- and because she is employed, she looses her food stamp benefits of over 500$ per month - so actually she works over forty hours per week to only have about 300$
more than she was getting from food stamps and social services.”
”Bedtime is rough with four kids all hyping each other up. Deana threatens wit the belt on a regular basis, as is the norm with single mothers in Troy, where children can often, out number and wear out they’re over worked parents.”
”Kayla looking attractive for James who feels neglected after being home all day with
D’Anthony.”
”Deshaun Hill, 4 years old (middle right) plays with his babysitter’s nephew while the sitter takes a phone call and his mom Billie Jean (left) does her hair “'before
work. Deshaun’s mother Bill Jean works about 50 hours per week at McDonalds and makes 8 $ per hour. Childcare at a licensed facility would cost half her weekly pay. Deshaun’s grandmother Roseanne Hill, who could be available to look after Desahun while Bille Jean works, already has several charges in her care. Roseanne is called ‘The
Nanny’ by her friend Deborah Stocklas’s six children all of whom she looks after while Deborah works at an assisted living facility. Roseanne has the run of Debs basement
for an apartment in exchange for her childcare services. It is sometimes a conflict for Roseanne to provide child-care for her own grandson and those of the family that she
Brad Moore
These photographs were shot in modest, well-worn,
suburban cities in central and inland Southern California. Built in the 1950s and 60s, these cities provided a new home and future to a post-war population. This is where I grew up and, after 25 years, I
returned. The areas I remembered were fading away,
and I was struck by the simultaneous growth and
decline. Initially, it was the buildings that interested
me; I shot them in formal, almost symmetrical compositions. Then I began shooting the surrounding
shrubbery with the same architectural approach. I
liked the way the buildings and plants worked together, so that is how the project evolved. I have opted to avoid traditional, documentary-style photography; instead I have photographed in primarily static
compositions, reflecting change, irony and evolution.
Brad Moore
Detroit
Q Sakamaki
Daryl Peveto
American Nomads
Daryl Peveto
A central goal of the American Dream is to one
day own your own home. Yet our beginnings were
forged out of another, antithetical idea: that of
movement and searching for self-determination.
Today this idea still exists, but far away from our
neatly manicured suburban homes and out of view
of the mainstream. In the United States, there exist
large communities which have turned their backs on
the idea of settling down, opting for a nomadic life.
One such community open to this lifestyle is Slab
City, located on the Salton Sea in southern California. There are no amenities or services. No potable
water, no electricity, no stores, nothing. What this
community does offer is a sort of freedom, which
for many of them begins with its root: free. No rent,
no taxes, no fees. This is a community of barter and
necessity, completely anarchic. At first glance, this
community is both raw and harsh, but there is also
much beauty and love. There are thieves and rampant drug use, but also picnics and birthday parties
and an always-open door. And much like the rest of
the world, they eat and bathe and sleep and marry
and die. But they do it on their own terms.
Mustafah
Abdulaziz
Day
of
Change
Rania Matar
A Girl and Her Room
As a mother of a teenage daughter, I have been
watching her passage from girlhood into adulthood,
and am fascinated with the transformation taking
place. Her adult personality is shaping up, with a
developing insecurity and self-consciousness that is
replacing the carefree world she has lived in so far. I
realized that she was truly herself in her room, when
she was alone in her own private and personalized
space, away from the pressure of fitting in and performing.
From there, emerged the idea of photographing
teenage girls alone in their rooms, an area that they
control, decorate, trash and be themselves in. Those
rooms reflected the girls’ personalities. I spent quite
a bit of time with each girl, so she was fully comfortable with me and able to let down her guards and
be herself. I was fascinated to discover a person on
the cusp on becoming an adult, but desperately holding on to the child she just barely left behind, a person on the edge between two worlds. Posters of rock
stars were often displayed above a bed still covered
with stuffed animals; mirrors were heavily decorated
and always an important part of the room, a reflection of the girls’ image to the outside world.
This project is in progress. I would like to combine
images of girls in their rooms from different part of
the world, especially the worlds I have access to,
mainly the Middle East, Europe and the US.
Rania
Matar
Simone Lueck
I live in LA and I like it here. I like that the palm
trees were all planted at the same time. I like that
Gloria Swanson played herself in Sunset Boulevard. I like that she had it, and then she lost it, and
she didn’t know the difference. I like that she buried her dead chimp in a satin lined casket. Making pictures in LA is good. It’s like sifting through
an old trunk filled with worn out fan letters and a
bright blonde lock of hair from 1953.
I am fascinated with the performance that exists
and is played out in the ceremonies and rituals
practiced every day. In 2009, I have been making pictures of people posing as glamorous movie
stars. The series, The Once and Future Queens,
includes pictures of individuals who answered an
internet advertisement soliciting older woman to
pose as glamorous movie stars.
The pictures are collaborations: Each participant is
asked to provide her own makeup, hair and wardrobe and to select a desired location for the shoot.
The project came from my fascination with glamour, a remnant of Old Hollywood.
Simone Lueck
Simone
Lueck
David Taylor
Working the Line
For the last three years I have been photographing
the along the U.S./Mexico border between El Paso/
Juarez and the Tijuana/San Diego. It is a territory in
transition. During that period the United States Border Patrol has doubled in size and the federal government has constructed over 600 miles of pedestrian fencing and vehicle barrier. With apparatus that
range from simple tire drags (that erase foot prints
allowing fresh evidence of crossing to be more readily identified) to seismic sensors (that detect the passage of people on foot or in a vehicle) the border is
under constant surveillance. To date the Border Patrol has attained “operational control” in many areas,
however people and drugs continue to cross. Much
of that traffic occurs in the most remote and rugged
areas of the desert.
My travels along the border have been done both
alone and in the company of Border Patrol agents. I
have been granted broad access to photograph field
operations and the routine activities that occur within Border Patrol stations. The resulting pictures are
intended to offer a view into locations and situations
that we generally do not access. In doing so, I hope
to humanize a subject that is most often framed by
ideologically driven polemics.
David Taylor