Studying America (photographically): From Walker Evans to Taryn Simon

Abstract

Starting from the observation that all the iconic photographic representations of America of the twentieth century opened up worlds that initially seemed distant or separate but gradually became one with what was understood as America, this paper tries to find answers to the question of what was so shocking (especially for Europeans) in the recent photos from the invasion of Donald Trump’s supporters in the Capitol. This despite the fact that photographic series such as those of Alec Soth [Sleeping by the Mississippi (2004)] and Taryn Simon [An American Index of the Hidden and the Unfamiliar (2007)] as early as the first decade of the twenty-first century revealed “hidden” and “unfamiliar” (American) worlds that were not far from the images of the January 6, 2021 invasion in terms of the appearance and attitudes of some of the people who inhabit these worlds. When the inhabitants of these worlds leave the pages of photo books and take over the press, the internet and televisions they show us how far apart our worlds remain, however much, inspired by the all-embracing Whitmanesque vision, we like to see ourselves as open and willing to accept them as inhabitants of the same world.