This hard land

Daria Addabbo

2018 - Ongoing

New Jersey, United States

Springsteen songs have been a huge inspiration for me. Stories told in his songs are so full of visual details that one could even argue Springsteen is a photographer himself. 

The aim was to picture his songs and contemporary United States through them: the working class condition, the middle class crisis, the American Dream, broken but still alive, immigration and all the social and cultural fractures in Trump's America. 

Work is one of the most important topics in his songs: Springsteen's workers belong to underqualified tertiary industries of the suburbs and the sprawl of American cities. So these people try to climb the social ladder, and that's the American Dream, the hope that children will have better lives than their parents. This is the most painfully broken promise of the American Dream. 

The context of Springsteen stories are workplaces: car washes, car workshops, supermarkets, laundromats, diners, factories. And you can also have: homes, usually at nighttime, cars, , the sprawl, with its scale of grey that resembles a parking lot. And the night, as a salvation route, theatre of all escapes.

The Springsteen characters have no idea of where this Promised Land may be.

They are workers, fathers and sons, outlaws, veterans that after the war have found a new uniform: the working class army. And of course they are women.

I tell these stories and this topics forty years after the time Springsteen wrote his songs and this is made clear in the pictures.

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  • La casa al 39½ Institute Street, Freehold, in cui Springsteen ha trascorso la sua infanzia - Freehold, New Jersey

  • Lev, di origini ucraine vive negli Stati Uniti da 15 anni, in sella alla sua moto, la sua "baby", come la chiama lui. Patito di automobili e moto. Un giorno mi ha detto: "amo moltissimo mia moglie e per dimostrarglielo le comprerò una Tesla". Gliel'ha comprata - Long Branch, New Jersey

  • Tony,s Freehold Grill – Freehold, New Jersey

  • Asbury Park – New Jersey

  • Veterans of Foreign Wars – Freehold, New Jersey

  • Long Branch – New Jersey

  • Saint Rose of Lima, chiesa che Springsteen ha frequentato durante la sua infanzia – Freehold, New Jersey

  • Freehold, New Jersey

  • Convention Hall – Asbury Park, New Jersey

  • Nathalia, di origini brasiliane, vive negli Stati Uniti da qualche anno. Lavora come cassiera in un negozio di prodotti alimentari brasiliani. Long Branch - New jersey.

  • Il gruppo Vital Empire Band si esibisce al Wonder Bar – Asbury Park, New Jersey

  • Claudio Saltara, di origini umbre, vive a Long Branch dal 1966 - Long Branch, New Jersey.

  • Freehold, New Jersey

  • Mike, veterano del Vietnam. Tornato a casa nel 1966, lavorerà tutta la vita come elettricista e poi come vigile del fuoco. Oggi fa parte del Veterans of Foreign Wars, club dei veterani a Freehold - Freehold, New Jersey.

  • Staten Island Ferry – New York

  • Cantiere edilizio – Long Branch, New Jersey

  • Raffineria di petrolio – Linden, New Jersey

  • American Diner – Shrewsbury, New Jersey

  • Operai della Nestlé, fabbrica, che si trova a due isolati di distanza dalla casa in cui Springsteen ha trascorso l'infanzia, in cui il padre di Springsteen ha lavorato - Freehold, New Jersey

  • Long Branch, New Jersey

  • Sunny, benzinaio di origini indiane – Freehold, New Jersey

  • Long Branch, New Jersey

  • Long Branch, New Jersey

  • Long Branch, New Jersey

  • Officina meccanica – Long Branch, New Jersey

  • John, meccanico – Freehold, New Jersey

  • Nick – Long Branch, New Jersey

  • Asbury Park, New Jersey

  • Ocean Avenue – Long Branch, New Jersey

  • Wonder Bar – Asbury Park, New Jersey

  • Freehold, New Jersey

  • Freehold, New Jersey

  • Long Branch, New Jersey

  • Asbury Festhalle & Biergarten – Asbury Park, New Jersey

  • Freehold, New Jersey

  • Karlos, attivista politico, originario di Freehold - Red Bank, New Jersey

  • Red Bank - New Jersey

  • Long Branch - New Jersey

  • Lev. Long Branch - New Jersey

  • Roberto - Freehold, New Jersey

  • The Stone Pony, locale in cui Springsteen ha suonato spesso - Asbury Park, New Jersey

  • Long Branch, New Jersey

  • Margaritaville Casino – Atlantic City, New jersey

  • Sala prove Rehearsal Studio – Red Bank, New Jersey

  • Brad – Red Bank, New Jersey

  • The Stone Pony - Asbury Park, New Jersey

  • Long Branch, New Jersey

  • Lev - Long Branch, New Jersey

  • Oceanport, New Jersey

  • Asbury Park, New Jersey

  • Colts Neck, New Jersey

  • Quel che resta dell'albero amato da Springsteen, in Randolph Street. Si trovava di fronte alla casa dei nonni, che fu demolita per dare spazio a un ampio parcheggio, adiacente la chiesa di Saint Rose of Lima - Freehold, New Jersey

  • Neptune, New Jersey

  • Eatontown, New Jersey

  • Long Branch, New Jersey

  • Lev e Svetlana - Long Branch, New Jersey

  • Asbury Park, New Jersey

  • Giovani ragazze si fanno un selfie davanti al muro del Casinò, lungo il boardwalk – Asbury Park, New Jersey

  • Lev e Svetlana, nel giardino della loro abitazione - Long Branch, New Jersey

  • In volo sull'Oceano Atlantico

  • Nathalia, di origini brasiliane - Oceanport, New jersey

  • Oceanport, New jersey

  • Roberto - Freehold, New Jersey

  • The Stone Pony - Asbury Park, New Jersey

  • Elizabeth e Adrian, una coppia di origini messicane - Long Branch, New Jersey

  • Asbury Park, New Jersey

  • Long Branch, New Jersey

  • Asbury Park, New Jersey

  • Brad – Red Bank, New Jersey

  • Red Bank, New Jersey

  • Long Branch, New Jersey

  • Lev che fa il bagno nella neve all'alba - Long Branch, New Jersey


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