Artist Statement
I was fortunate enough to spend several years living in Washington DC. I was working at the time (2017-2021) in a local soup factory in Northeast DC. It is a truly unique and very beautiful city. But you must spend time there to perceive and appreciate what it is. Most people know only a DC they perhaps had to take a school trip to see. Others know the town strictly from the inner corridors of non-civilian life-executive, legislative or military-and rarely have the time to absorb the aesthetic brilliance and classical beauty all around. It is a city in which one must live as a day-to-day civilian to understand. I spent over a year simply observing before I started to photograph. And when I did start photographing it was over a period of two and a half years that I did. I roamed DC with camera, tripod(I rigged it in a sling designed to hold skis, over my shoulder like a quiver and arrows) and bicycle at all hours of the day and night in all manner of weather conditions. DC comes to life chiefly at night and the rare snowfall is something that must be seen to be believed-it's that beautiful. It is also a peaceful place. A peace which feels almost hallowed. But with this peculiar characteristic-and this makes DC so unique-it can explode into violence quite suddenly. There are around 15 different police forces at work daily. And as a street photographer I had to deal with quite a few of them. My experience in this regard was that the more genuine authority and law enforcement power they possessed the more reasonable and less intimidating they were.The secret service being the most respectful and respected in my book. I have stories from this two and a half year period that could fill a nice volume. I have made for the selection of this exhibit just the iconic buildings and places that fascinated me most. It's just a fraction of the overall work which encompasses the rich street life of DC. It would require at least 3 volumes to show them all. And it is a work I am very happy with indeed. I am not aware of any photographic work which quite captures the joyousness of the place, its street-life and its remarkable beauty in the way I have been able to do. It's a living breathing town with a sublime energy super-charged by its deep American grass-roots. And that life-force I believe you can see bursting through the photographs in this short exhibit. I had the unique opportunity to have taken these pictures when DC was shut down in the COVID years. This allowed me to photograph the National Mall in a state it has never been, and not likely to be again: completely empty of people. To get a shot of the Lincoln Memorial in all its lunar splendor alone without anyone present was an opportunity I feel blessed to have had. One final word about the titile of this exhibit. The phrase comes from Ronald Regan's farewell address. And he cites John Winthrop as its author, an early pilgrim who was describing "the America he imagined to be possible". DC is not on a hill(the Capitol is) and yet the eyes of the whole world are upon it. All look up to it for some sign or guidance. And the great grass-roots American spirit shines here in all its wondrous glory. I will cherish the experience of photographing DC as one of the happiest moments in my life.
Bio
I was born in New York City in 1964 and grew up in a small town in southeastern Pennsylvania: Reading. My father ran and owned a factory of about 100 workers in a nearby town called Sinking Spring, where I worked most summers as a young teenager. The rural beauty of the landscape and the kindness of the people I saw in Reading as a child, their simplicity and decency, made a strong and indelible impression upon me which greatly influenced my artistic vision as I grew up. I can still see and smell the lilac trees arching over the country roads and the rose bushes and flocks of sheep on the rolling hills and grazing horses and cows. I attended a Prep School in Connecticut: The Taft School and graduated with distinction as one of the top 5 students in my class in 1982. I attended the University of Chicago. But for personal reasons(my father went bankrupt in the recession of the late 1970’s) I was not able to continue my studies and with $200 in my pocket I left school and took a bus to California where I lived for 10 years. I ended up meeting during this time period every member of the Beat Generation with the exception of Jack Kerouac. I befriended his best friend: the poet Gregory Corso. He had a strong effect upon me in those difficult teenage years; both his character and his wisdom. I also became very close to the Greek poet, Nanos Valaoritas, a man whose mind heart and soul were divine. After living for a decade in the bohemian world of North Beach, San Francisco, I moved to the Lower East Side in 1992 with the intention of becoming involved in theater. I had the good fortune to meet and befriend a very exceptional human being, Lionel Ziprin, whom I consider the greatest poet of the 20th century. At both Ziprin’s urging, and that of a local mystic who wandered the streets of Manhattan, I went to see the Lubavitcher Rebbe one weekend and my life’s course changed in a completely different and unexpected direction. I attended a yeshiva for orthodox Jews in Crown Heights under the tutelage of the Lubavitcher Rebbe and became conversant in all 3 Torah languages: Sacred Hebrew, Aramaic and Yiddish(I have also studied literature and philosophy in Greek, Latin, French, German, Italian and Spanish). I married in 1998; have 5 amazing children; but I divorced in 2018. I moved to Washington, DC where I had a job working in a soup factory. I have crossed America 4 times by bus and once by train and traveled overland from Vancouver, Canada to Central America; and throughout the world as well. My pictures express just what it is I cannot say in words.
My recent photography projects have included a diverse range of content including Washington DC in the tumultuous times around and including Jan 6th, Baltimore, Pimlico Racetrack, Delaware and various places in Upstate New York.
I reside in Brooklyn, NY
More at americansiddartha.com
* This exhibition is available online only.
