I have been visiting America to make work for the series United States since 2017.
Although I hit the street with the spirit of a street photographer, looking for interesting scenes and situations it is the people that fascinate me. I approach my subject in the hope to hear their story and gain permission to photograph them.
I am shocked by the situation many people find themselves in. Made homeless by a medical condition and unable to afford treatment. A legal system where the person with the most money is the only one able to fight. Time served in a privatised prison system which is motivated by profit to see more convictions. People too scared to walk two blocks from their house to the shop for fear of being shot.
I have always been inspired by war photographers and their capacity to make well composed, memorable photographs which uncover humanity in harsh conditions. America is my war zone.
The lack of footpaths outside of city centres forces people to drive, those who cannot afford a car are reliant on patchy public transport, it is easier to engage with people and services online fueling separation and a rise in mistrust and oddball beliefs.
Disenfranchised by the situation they find themselves in, people are swinging more to the left or right or giving up on the political system altogether.
It is no surprise that America’s political candidates seem so far fetched from afar. It is hard to understand from a distance how voting polls are almost split down the middle in the race to elect the supposed ‘leader of the free world’.
The United States do not appear united at all but increasingly disparate. Donald Trump’s war on truth signals what is possibly the height of the post-truth era.
The historian Timothy Snyder wrote of post-truth and the 2021 storming of the United States Capitol:
“Post-truth is pre-fascism… When we give up on truth, we concede power to those with the wealth and charisma to create spectacle in its place. Without agreement about some basic facts, citizens cannot form the civil society that would allow them to defend themselves.”
