Artist captures America’s individuality

In Search…In Search of America: Photographs by David Graham Silver Eye Center for Photography 1015 East Carson St., South Side Through April 13 412-431-1810

No matter how many strip malls, identical housing developments and mega-stores dot our country’s landscape, there are still those places that are both totally unique and totally American.

That’s because some still abide by the belief that Americans are, in their essence, individualistic. Since 1979, David Graham has been traveling the country’s back roads in search of that spirit. It’s a spirit he sees as so essential to Americanism that he titled his latest exhibit “In Search of America.”

His collection of 35 prints, spanning roughly the last two decades, is currently on display at Silver Eye Center for Photography in the South Side.

“What I’m looking for is the way Americans are very individualistic,” Graham said in a recent phone interview, talking into his cell phone while driving somewhere on the roads of the United States. “Things people do that really express themselves.”

Graham claims to be from the middle of middle America, growing up in Abington, Pa. To back it up, Graham sites a childhood incident when CBS chose his family to do a story on the typical teenager in America. His sister became the “typical teen” with Graham playing the role of the younger bratty brother.

Graham’s career as a photographic auteur began in 1979 when he started using a Deardorff large format camera that employs an 8-by-10 inch negative. For Graham, the quality of the pictures embodies all the traits he believes were at the heart of Americana.

“There is so much density, form and color [in the negatives]. The tool made me find the subject,” he said.

A life-size sculpture of Lenin sitting outside a Dallas hamburger stand may seem to those who walk by it unabashedly un-American. But Graham frames the statue in a mess of telephone wires, poles and amid other commercial road signs. The sense of American individualism is immediate. The statue is so out of place, yet ironically, completely normal. Graham’s sense of America becomes apparent. His is a county that cherishes those who put themselves on display – the big, the beautiful and the ugly – regardless of purpose or a larger meaning.

Larger-than-life cows, roadside signs and trompe l’oeil in Las Vegas all make up Graham’s slice of life in America.

But it’s a world that’s slowly being phased out.

“Corporate America has really leveled the playing field as far as the country’s identity,” he said.

This is why in recent years Graham has made a shift to portraiture. From the odd to the adorable, Graham has sought out Americans who stick by their own style.

The lives of his subjects may not be immediately apparent, such as Little Pete, who is sitting on a stool waving two lit torches. But the background information doesn’t seem important to Graham.

The portraits capture a quality similar to his outdoor work. There is a charisma and expression in each of the people he photographs that makes them remarkable simply for choosing to stand out and embracing it the way they do.

Among the portraits on display are several shots of re-enactors and impersonators. From a Civil War-era Gen. Lee to a Marilyn Monroe look-alike, these pictures might stand out at first. But to Graham, these people are creatively expressing their American notions of freedom as much as a cross-dresser.

Graham’s take on impersonators isn’t at all nostalgic either; perhaps because he isn’t afraid to frame them in their contemporary surroundings, capturing an early war re-enactor dressing at his home next to a piece of modern exercise equipment.

Remarkably, nostalgia is pretty well eclipsed from all his photographs in “In Search of America.”

Even though Graham is clearly rooted in the tradition of capturing small town America, he avoids creating nostalgic yearnings for a by-gone era. Middle America is still a landscape that is changing and that’s something Graham is OK with as long as he can find that sense of individuality – something which gets harder and harder to find these days.

“I’m aware my subject matter is running out,” said Graham.

Graham has remained persistent in capturing his idea of America. It’s becoming a difficult thing to do as the nostalgia question becomes more and more relevant with each new Wal-Mart that shuts down another handful of small town stores.

But for those still in search of the American spirit, Graham claims it’s still out there.

“One thing you can do is take the back roads,” suggested Graham, still in his car.

If you want to go “In Search of Pittsburgh with David Graham” he’ll be at Silver Eye for the show’s closing on April 12. The photographic safari starts at 11 a.m. and will be followed with an artist talk and closing reception.

It is a wonder how long Graham will be able to find American treasures and definitive expressions through the country. Even he can’t ignore the changing landscape and the ever increasingly mundane and ubiquitous landscape of suburban America.

“I’m in the parking lot of a strip mall,” said Graham, having arrived at his destination near the end of the interview. “I could be anywhere in America.”