The genesis of this new image, “American Nationalist,” was a college photography assignment where I was tasked with creating a composite image from a collection of images that other students shot during our class time and pooled together. I knew there would be inherent limitations in what I could create with the images on hand, but there is always opportunity for creativity within the constraints set for any artistic work.
Before beginning on this assignment, I researched samples of surrealistic imagery. Above all of the examples I found, I was drawn to––and just loved––the imagination in the works of Salvador Dali. Although I only had a cursory knowledge of his work and life, I found his work seemed suffused with symbolism expressed though an incredible, dream-like imagination. Two of his images that made the greatest impression on me were “The Temptation of St. Anthony”and “Le Sommeil.” I think both show the imaginative symbolism that drew me to his work.
When I set out to create my image, I looked over the digital image files that I had available to work with and selected the ones that I felt had potential. From this I noticed this detailed image of an American flag, and I quickly knew I wanted to make a surrealist image as a commentary on the ideology of nationalism. At first I played with it as a background trying to blend it with a dark image of branches, but it did not have the effect that I wanted. In rethinking my image, I developed an idea to have the flag be held up as though it were a religious or military banner with a figure facing it and marching.
Further, I chose to replace the marcher’s head with the image of a selected wire sculpture. I did this both to remove a connection with the specific person in the image and also to substitute the human head with a vacuous wire frame to symbolize the substitution of reason and mores that is the product of extreme ideologies.
To bring about the final image, I inserted a shadowy object behind the raised banner of the American flag. Not without specific meaning, this object is to suggest how nationalism is not an innocent ideology but that it often brings with it a darkness that infects the body politic. The dark object hangs closely behind the banner as though it were a shadow, resembling how nationalism has often been utilized as a front for spreading discrimination and authoritarianism.