Searching for the Soul of America

I have been rather surprised by the reaction I get when I share the name of my latest project. ‘Searching for the Soul of America’ did not seem to me a particularly provocative title when I first began, but it sure does stir people up. For me, it merely described the work I do and what this project would be. I saw it as the next step in the work I have been creating for almost twenty years — searching out soul spaces. But instead of creative people’s homes, I would be searching for the hallowed spaces and places in the history of the United States. At the time, in 2017, it felt necessary. It would be my contribution to help lessen the rancor that was obviously bubbling in American society. I saw it as a patriotic act, but not a political one. And even though the political climate has definitely become more fractious since I first had the idea, my intentions remain the same. I see history, American or otherwise, as one human story after another. And visiting the places where this country’s history has been made, to actually walk in the footsteps of our history, I know will change how I understand this unusual democratic experiment of a country. It will deepen it. It will humanize it.  I hope it will remind us that our history — the good and the challenging, the inspiring and the painful — is something we all must carry as citizens together.

Searching for the Soul of America is an episodic documentary that will be released in 2026 during the 250th anniversary of the United States, followed soon after by a photographic book and traveling museum exhibition with images so vast and expansive that they become visceral portals into history, metaphysical entry points transporting viewers into another time and place. The documentary will follow me as I journey across America to capture the soul of the nation through the lens of its historical spaces, places, and the lives of the ordinary people who played extraordinary roles in shaping its identity.  It chronicles my creative process as I photograph my next book and exhibition, with each episode following my travels across the country to visit these hallowed spaces, each exploring a different aspect of America’s history.

As of late summer 2024, we are close to wrapping our pilot episode, which introduces the idea that historical spaces are more than just physical locations — they are vessels of memory, holding the collective history of the nation.