Old Country/New Country (20 images)

“Old Country/New Country” is photos made at immigrant national day parades in New York City. Some of the people in them are immigrants and some aren’t. I don’t know which is which. Although these were made at parades, they are not of parades. Parades make everyone look alike and I’m interested in what sets individuals apart. And the tension that inevitably arises between the old and the new. Inside each person lives two cultures that can’t be mixed....
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“Old Country/New Country” is photos made at immigrant national day parades in New York City. Some of the people in them are immigrants and some aren’t. I don’t know which is which. Although these were made at parades, they are not of parades. Parades make everyone look alike and I’m interested in what sets individuals apart. And the tension that inevitably arises between the old and the new. Inside each person lives two cultures that can’t be mixed. Immigrants don’t stop being Poles, or Sikhs, or Mexicans, or whatever.

Some of these photos have a visual conflict—the iconic New York City coffee cup carried by a young woman in a “traditional” Persian outfit, two flags, and so on. Others try to capture an internal conflict—there’s nothing in the shot to tell you where you are but that seems to be true of the people in the picture as well. And there are a couple that illustrate the Old Country/New Country divide by showing people who really did come from the old country with people who really are from the new country.

For me, photography is a way to help us see things we might not otherwise see.
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