A young African-American couple hug in a garden on Independence Day in the District of Columbia; Yakima fishermen mend their nets by the Columbia River; and in Columbia, Alabama, an 8-year-old white girl receives her “God’s Little Princess Bible” from her family. These are a few of the faces from America By Another Name, my photographic exploration of American freedom and cultural diversity. The name Columbia, America’s erstwhile poetic nickname, and a name once synonymous with liberty, frames this ambitious project.
The 80 to 90 color photographic plates peer into our cultural silos and, without judgement, gather our diversity into one book. America By Another Name also includes words and images recounting some of Columbia’s history as both synonym for the nation and symbol of national liberty. This inclusion opens the book’s market to lovers of American cultural history. Further still, this history emphatically contextualizes the book’s photographic subjects, and its readers, as inheritors of this American liberty which Columbia once symbolized.
My travels and studies show me that American liberty is far from evenly distributed. By virtue of my upbringing in a Connecticut art colony, my Vassar art history education, and internet-deliverable magazine work, I’ve created this book from my considerable store of freedom. May America By Another Name model freedom to others, and inspire affection for our diverse fellow Americans.
As I craft America By Another Name into its final form, I welcome a publisher’s input so this story of American liberty and cultural diversity may reach its greatest potential.
All the best,
Francis Smith
Learn More: http://francissmith.net/