Banners and Flags

Recently, my employer sent me to Tonawanda, NY, and I was struck by

the display of banners and flags in working class neighborhoods

there. It's probably old hat to Americans, but as a Canadian these

things leaped out at me, so I decided to record what I saw.<p>

 

This is a loose cut of a photo essay on those neighborhoods. I'm

hoping to go back when I have more time and dig in deeper, but this

is it for the first cut:<p>

 

<a href="http://www.photo.net/photodb/folder?

folder_id=393647">Banners and Flags</a><p><div></div>

That is a very moving essay. Hope you will have a chance to develop it further. My guess would be that you have found a part of our country where the choice for young people was to sling burgers or join the military. Now, they find themselves in a very bad place with the rest of the country not paying much attention. Their parents fly the flag in hopes of stirring the conscience of their fellow citizens, but it looks like a desperate gamble at this point.

I should add that due to photo.net's habit of shrinking pix, you should view the large versions of most of these....

Not only a moving photo essay from Andrew but also a poignant synopsis from Mike.

I wonder how many of those flags are made

by chinese cheap labor? I, on the contrary, love

America because of its diversity though I must say it is

dissipating quite fast. War-mart nation anyone?

A very powerful essay, very well done, I commend you. As a Canadian I too must say that I am often suprised at the large displays of American patriotism by their citizens. However this probably has something to do with the fact that our biggest showings of national patriotism happen during the Winter Olympics, the NHL playoffs, and Molson Canadian commercials.

 

--Dominic

Thanks for the comments, folks. Especially since they're all good -- we really need someone to drop by and make some nasty comments, just to keep me honest. ;-)

 

It's very easy to take cheap shots when doing something like this, so while working on it I was especially concerned with nuances. It's easy to mock displays of patriotism, forgetting that behind it all are people -- and the impression (as Mike commented) that opportunities are limited runs pretty strong in that depressing little corner of the USA. One of the main things I want to go back to work on is the human element.

Andrew, I like these photographs. You have discovered something that

is indeed "old hat" in the US but a marvel to visitors. This is an

example of the national religion of patriotism that is drummed into

Americans nearly from the time they are born. The schools drench you

in the national religion from the first day you enter. In a nation

whose lovliest patriotic song is about the maple leaf you must find

this sort of patriotism (or nationalism) a bit extreme.

 

This sort of nationalism is a source of pride to a lot of Americans.

Perhaps the majority. I've aways felt it to be a national disgrace.

It is so mindless and it is so ugly.

 

Orwell made a distinction between nationalism and patriotism in Notes

on Nationalism. Nationalism is wound up with love of abstractions

that bind the individual to the national state and its imperial

ambitions, Orwell said, while patriotism is organic, quiet and

wishing to impose itself on no one. However I dispite Bush's evil

wars in Afghanistan and Iraq I shall forever love the smell of

honeysuckle on a summer's evening in my native Northern California.

 

These photographs represent a national tragedy. The people being

sacrificed in Iraq and Afghanistan are working class kids--sort for

whom the military is a real alternative to flipping hambergers.

 

Your photographs have a straightforward and humble approach. This is

what I most appriciate about the photos I've seen by you.