Fabric

If you’ve attended public school in the United States, it’s likely you started each day by reciting the “Pledge of Allegiance” while facing your classroom’s American flag. It’s also just as likely that you, or your neighbors, flew this same flag outside your home. These are two examples of casual patriotism—acts of patriotism that we often overlook, but hold more weight than we realize.

Since its inception in the late 18th Century, the American flag and its variants have been flown at home and abroad as a symbol of pride, unity, and innovation. In the words of the Pledge of Allegiance, the flag represents “one Nation indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.” However, for many, these same stars and stripes tell a very different story. For the oppressed, the flag represents a nation that puts them at a disadvantage purely because of their race, gender, sexual orientation, or economic status. For many foreign nationals, the flag represents a powerful military whose destructive wars have ravaged their homelands beyond repair. 

“Fabric,” is a documentation of the American flags flown outside of houses in my hometown of Fairfield, Connecticut. In each photograph, the American flag is isolated and blacked-out, to remind the viewer that for many, the flag represents violence and oppression, not prosperity and hope. Images like the American flag have immense power, and it’s important to consider everything they represent when choosing to display them so prominently.