It's Not The Wind

Exploring the relationship between self-autonomy and the uncontrollable conditions of America’s current political and social landscape.

In this currently ongoing project, I am interested in the relationship between self-autonomy and the uncontrollable conditions of America’s current political and social landscape. From forest defenders in Atlanta, to the militarized conditions of the Texas - Mexico border, the various stories and subjects I have photographed are in dialogue with one another, speaking to an existential pressure increasingly felt and visibly seen in the US. Informing the way by which I have been approaching this subject matter has been Leonard Cohen’s 1967 song “The Store Room”. In the opening lines, he sings;

“It's not the wind that keeps you up, it's not the snow

It's not the moon coming like a headlight through your window

It's not the thumbnail of a screen that scrapes away your dream

It's just this man taking what he needs from the store room”

The song speaks to a discontentment and numbness to the world’s conditions, and an obsession with the abstract thoughts of a person taking and doing what they wish by unconventional means. As America’s political landscape and societal harmony collapses, the message of this song becomes increasingly familiar. The individuals in my photos often self-identify as anarchists, abolitionists, and antifascists, openly rejecting America as a concept and experiment.