“America, Again” | Chapter 3: American Dreams
“America, Again” is a year-long project by the photographers of VII, an exploration of some of the most important issues facing American voters as they head to the polls on November 3rd. This is Chapter 3: American Dreams, which includes an essay by author John Edwin Mason.
This chapter includes six photo stories by VII’s Ed Kashi, Christopher Lee, Maggie Steber, and guest photographers Endia Beal, Zun Lee, and Griselda San Martin.
Introduction by John Edwin Mason, Professor of African History and the History of Photography at the University of Virginia.
O, let America be America again —
The land that never has been yet…
— Langston Hughes
Photographs are demanding little critters. They are, that is, if you spend more time with them than it takes to scroll past a few on social media. Photographs ask us — usually futilely — to slow down, even stop. To do the unaccustomed thing and look at them as carefully as we read a magazine article. Or, better yet, a poem.
Photographs ask us to bring our entire selves to the act of looking. To feel and wonder and even dream about what we see — and to do it, initially, without words. Then, inevitably, we begin to think, to bring what we know and what we have experienced to the act…
