The American Experiment

The idea of America, and the American identity, has been central to this country’s cultural conversation and debate since its inception. America — past, present, and future — is an ongoing experiment in free will and liberty for all who reach its welcoming shores, plow its fertile soil, and raise their children to achieve that great promise of the American Dream. In The American Experiment, photographer Brandon Ralph presents an exploration of the patriotic symbols, the vast and varied landscape, and the tapestry of humanity that poses the question anew: What makes an American?

The result is a finely wrought collection of moments and Americans captured in time, separated by decades and by state lines, by events of national significance and by the invisible routines of day-to-day life. In Ralph’s starkly beautiful and unwaveringly sensitive images, there is a sense of timelessness that speaks to our collective nostalgia, our unflagging optimism, and our unending pursuit of freedom for all people.

Brandon Ralph is a photographer based in New York City. He often shoots in black-and-white, inviting the viewer to re-examine themes of patriotism, nostalgia, and change in stark yet emotive imagery. The American Experiment is his first book, the culmination of ten years of travel throughout the United States, a collection of photographs that explore the fundamental questions of American identity, symbolism, and collective consciousness.

Gail Buckland is an author, educator, consultant, curator, and authority on photography. She is the author or collaborator on fourteen books of photography and history, including The American Century and They Made America with Harold Evans.

Buckland is the former curator of the Royal Photographic Society of Great Britain and previously served ad the Benjamin Menschel Distinguished Visiting Professor at Cooper Union where she had taught since 1978. She has also held the Nobel Chair in Art and Cultural History at Sarah Lawrence College and taught at Columbia College, Chicago and Pratt Institute, Brooklyn. She currently resides in Warwick, NY.