Happy 4th of July!
In the spirit of today's holiday, I wanted to share some photographs taken by American photographer Robert D'Alessandro from his series titled Glory. He shot these photographs during the late 1960s and early 1970s; the series was published in 1973. As you can see in the photographs, the main subject of D'Alessandro's photographs is the American Flag and given the social climate of the day, it was used to "depict the ways in which people were using the American flag to make their personal feelings about America known" (web).
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| D'Alessandro, Robert. Hank's Flag, Eastport, New York, 1969. |
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| D'Alessandro, Robert. Wayne Jones, Westhampton Beach, New York, July 4th, 1970 |
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| D'Alessandro, Robert. Fourteenth St, New York City, 1970. |
Born in the Bronx in 1942, D'Alessandro was raised with a sincere reverence for American culture by his father, who was an immigrant. By photographing the flag as a symbolic subject, D'Alessandro was really able to create a visual dialogue with his viewers in regards to how those people in the photographs "saw" their country's flag. "Issues of race, class and alientation are prevalent in these images" (web). By forcing the viewer to look at the many different uses of the flag, D'Alessandro is reminding his audience that we are all a part of this "collective creating" and encourages one to consider what we (as American citizens) want our country to be like.
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| D'Alessandro, Robert. Memphis, Tennessee, 1971. | | |
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| D'Alessandro, Robert. The Jersey Meadows, Outside of New York City, 1972. |
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| D'Alessandro, Robert, (left) Albuquerque, New Mexico; Susan and Louellyn, North Bergen, New Jersey, (left) 1970, (right) 1971. |
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01. "Robert D'Alessandro - Gitterman Gallery Exhibition Information." Robert D'Alessandro - Gitterman Gallery Exhibition Information. N.p., n.d. Web. 03 July 2014.
02. "ROBERT D'ALESSANDRO: "GLORY" - AMERICAN SUBURB X." AMERICAN SUBURB X. N.p., n.d. Web. 03 July 2014.