Robert Kalman: What’s it Like for You to be an American?

photography monograph for Robert Kalman
preface by Rasheed Newson

From the preface by Rasheed Newson:
It’s a loaded question, and posing it launches both a social experiment and an exploration of national identity. Yet, people are unguarded and earnest in their responses. They believe they can find the right words. They are willing to expose their feelings....
Few will be surprised that freedom of speech emerges as a bedrock right across the pages of this book and across the political spectrum of its participants, but what strikes me as equally American is the shared conviction that raising one’s voice matters. In many other countries, the aggrieved don’t cry out because they know it will change nothing. Americans believe otherwise. There is an abiding faith in the value of sharing ideas and opinions. Hear me out, we say to one another. My story might change your mind. My story might move you.
I find this heartening.…
What is it like for me to be an American? I view my country as a complicated blessing. I’m not blind to its wrongs. I will not deny its benefits. The pain and the privilege bestowed upon me by my homeland are intertwined. I am angry-grateful, frightened-hopeful, and weary-devoted.

128 pages
9.5 x 12 inches