Issue 9 of the always excellent CZE Magazine has just been published (in time for Veterans Day) and it can be viewed in full at issuu above. George Nabieridze; it's creator, curator and editor has once again done an incredible job putting it together. This latest issue titled 'American Flag' also contains two of my own images (on pages 72-73).
Pleasant Mount, KS
'The Pink Lady', Overland Park, KS
Insurance Agent, KC,MO
The photographs posted here are a small selection from my own American Flag collection.
It is impossible to photograph America without photographing its flag. It appears everywhere and whether it was my intention or not, it has invariably found its way into my work. Sometimes I have photographed it as a bold statement, or sometimes I have just wanted to record its presence in a certain unexpected place, like I were somehow collecting some form of private evidence - cold and artless. Other times it has made for me an interesting juxtaposition, often at odds with the main subject. Occasionally I have not even been aware that it was there at all until after the picture was made, giving a sometimes quite ordinary image a silent and surprising power of its own. The American flag is such a powerful symbol that its presence in a photograph can often move us to consider and question the true land where the photograph was made.
Robert Frank in his incredibly beautiful book 'The Americans' was a master of using this ultimate juxtaposition and the images he made in the 1950's are still, I consider, some of the finest photographs that have been made in America of America.
This text has been edited from a photo-story I posted at JPG.com a couple of years ago. A theme which was first brought to my attention by my friend and fellow photographer Jim Hart. Jim's wonderful on-going work can be found here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/jim-hart/
TV Area, Indoor Market, KC,MO
