No other country but America

© Irene Ferri - Image from the No other country but America photography project © Irene Ferri - Image from the No other country but America photography project © Irene Ferri - Image from the No other country but America photography project View all images ↓
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No Other Country but America traces the artist's decade in the U.S., from obsession with the American Dream to disillusionment. Between Los Angeles and distance, she documents a promise of endless possibilities that has broken but continues to haunt her.

There is no other place in the world that has its own dream for sale. There is no Italian dream or Thai dream or Chilean dream: there is only the American dream. The whole world looks up to this specific dream.

It's in the USA's flag, in whose sacred stars we see a sky of infinite possibilities. We see it until, at some point, a point we cannot foresee or welcome, we see nothing more. And the dream becomes first confusion, then disillusionment, and finally - if one is lucky enough not to have in the meantime completely compromised the soul to buy that sinister dream - detachment. And thus, perhaps, salvation.

Ferri's American story of fascination and awareness is told through the photographs of No Other Country but America, a project that collects 10 years of observation and experience on the ground. In 2013 Ferri moved to Los Angeles to study Cinematography at UCLA University. The more time passes, the less for Ferri things stay into place, like an immense plastic swordfish stranded above soda fridges.

Ferri has seen what one often does not want to see, and once seen, cannot unsee.

She leaves Los Angeles and the United States but, unable to make a final farewell, continues to explore them from other perspectives, to look at them - even - from the distance of her new homes in the world, to try to resolve elsewhere a conflict that she nevertheless still nurtures within herself. For this is the most authentic legacy of the American dream today: to stop believing in it, at some point. And yet continue to relive it.

No Other Country but America is the best contemporary visual representation of what writer Bret Easton Ellis had called, speaking of Los Angeles and the United States, "gleaming nihilism."

Text by Marta Ciccolari Micaldi - Author and journalist specializing in North American culture

This project won the Perimetro Public Award 2024, has been featured by Der Greif and See Zeen magazine, and exhibited at Four Corners Centre for Photography in London and at Format Festival (Future Now). It was also longlisted for the Artphilein Photobook Award (Utopia).

© Irene Ferri - Image from the No other country but America photography project
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“The US is as much a geographical state as it is a mental state.”When I was a teenager, all I wanted was to move to the United States. There was no other country I dreamed of going to. I had my own American dream, shaped by endless movies and expectations.Over the years, I realized how much we have projected onto the United States, and how much we keep doing it.

© Irene Ferri - Image from the No other country but America photography project
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I can’t pinpoint the exact moment when I fell out of love with the United States. Maybe because, deep down, I’m still in love with part of it - or with the idea of it.The Trump administration nd the targeting of trans people played a big role in the distancing I felt in my heart. But it wasn’t just politics. It was the constant presence of the flag - flags eveverywhere.

© Irene Ferri - Image from the No other country but America photography project
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How many people have died in the name of the United States?Black, Latino, Asian, Native American, Middle Eastern and immigrant communities have served, fought, and died under the same flag. A large part of the U.S. military still comes from these backgrounds.But protection and dignity are not always returned, especially under the current Trump administration.

© Irene Ferri - Image from the No other country but America photography project
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Reflected in this photograph is my first home in the U.S. Finding a place on UCLA’s Westwood campus felt like a dream. Looking back, those were some of the happiest months of my life.Ten years later, I returned to the same house and found a denture placed inside a car parked in front of it - as if past and future had collapsed into a single image.

© Irene Ferri - Image from the No other country but America photography project
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When I enrolled at university, I couldn’t believe I was suddenly surrounded by actors and directors from all over the world. We made Oscar predictions, crashed parties, and carried enormous dreams.One night, at one of their birthdays, they put out all their cigarettes in the cake. That image never left me. It said more about them than their résumés ever could.

© Irene Ferri - Image from the No other country but America photography project
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In recent years, California has experienced a significant population decline, while states like Texas have seen rapid growth. Many people have relocated due to the rising cost of living.The “Californian Dream” has fractured under the weight of the housing crisis, high taxes, and the recurring wildfires.

© Irene Ferri - Image from the No other country but America photography project
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Los Angeles has one of the largest unhoused populations in the U.S., but, at the same time, the city pulls in dreamers from everywhere: filmmakers, writers, artists.In this image someone, likely unhoused, collapsed over a table while writing. I’ve always had a home, but I know the kind of exhaustion that comes from just trying to exist in Los Angeles.

© Irene Ferri - Image from the No other country but America photography project
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I was lucky to attend Burning Man in 2019, just before the pandemic hit.There is a saying in the Burning community which is “you don’t get the burn you want, you get the burn you need”.With that in mind, it was devastating to witness the wildfires in California just a few years later.

© Irene Ferri - Image from the No other country but America photography project
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In the US we project freedom, hope, queerness, art, and most of all space.But what we imagine the US to be is often just that: an image. A pale ghost of what actually is.

© Irene Ferri - American loneliness is real, and strange. Life happens in cars, in big ambitions, everyone is always busy chasing something.
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American loneliness is real, and strange. Life happens in cars, in big ambitions, everyone is always busy chasing something.

© Irene Ferri - Image from the No other country but America photography project
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I’ve always been fascinated by Psychic shops, that in the US are quite common. I’ve photographed many throughout my career and my many trips to the US.Probably because I use Photography like a medium or a psychic uses tea leaves in an empty cup, or coffee grounds.My photos tell me things even before I’m aware of them.

© Irene Ferri - Image from the No other country but America photography project
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When I first moved there, I became obsessed with roller skating. I didn’t take classes — I started skating with the Venice Beach roller skaters, then found myself in rinks across the States.I wanted to live my 80s dream, have fun with almost nothing, try and try again - and learn how to fall without breaking too much.

© Irene Ferri - Image from the No other country but America photography project
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One night I walked into a bar in Texas. By then, my disillusionment with the United States was already high.I saw these two boys leaning in, whispering something to each other. I never knew what they were saying.But when I look at this photo now, in my head it’s always the same line:“Can I tell you a secret? America is really fucked.”

© Irene Ferri - Image from the No other country but America photography project
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I’ve often asked myself, walking into American supermarkets, why there is a need to produce that much food.They are ten times bigger than European ones, and restaurant portions are often double or triple the size.I’ve caught myself thinking, again and again: why? What is all this for?

© Irene Ferri - Image from the No other country but America photography project
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People often say Americans are friendly but fake. That you can’t build real friendships with them, that they’ll disappear easily.Still, some of the people I feel closest to today are friends I met in the United States. Warm people who invite you into their homes, introduce you to their parents within weeks - not like in Italy, where becoming friends can sometimes take years.

© Irene Ferri - Image from the No other country but America photography project
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This difference between Italy and the United States has always made me smile. In Italy, people ask and ask and ask from the state. It is always the state’s fault, and more support is constantly expected from it.In the U.S., the opposite often happens. Many people want less government, not more, as communities like Slab City show. They want to be left alone and build their own rules.

© Irene Ferri - Image from the No other country but America photography project
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After moving back to Europe, I began to notice how different our relationship with consumption is compared to the US.Shops are generally smaller, purchasing habits are more restrained, and the sense of “hunger” (social, financial, and sometimes even literal) feels very different on this side of the ocean.In the US, capitalism and consumerism seem deeply embedded in the country.

© Irene Ferri - Image from the No other country but America photography project
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In the U.S., social classes feel much more extreme than in Europe. The distance between wealth and poverty is visible, almost physical, and you never really know which side you might fall on.At the same time, the idea of “making it” is everywhere. People are taught to believe in their shot, to bet on themselves, even when the odds are clearly uneven.

© Irene Ferri - Image from the No other country but America photography project
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One day I was doing a photoshoot for a family and, at the very end, they asked me, “What do you think about Hillary Clinton?”She was running against Trump at the time. It was a trap question. They were strongly right-wing and I hadn’t realized it. I suddenly felt cornered, extremely uncomfortable.

© Irene Ferri - Image from the No other country but America photography project
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What's left of my American Dream, now?What’s left of my American Dream now?I still have high hopes for this country, but I am not a fool anymore. I grew up and I see things more lucidly. I’m grateful to be in Europe during the second Trump administration.At the same time, I cannot stop thinking that I should have never left, that I belong there.

No other country but America by Irene Ferri

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