American Icons

A biker, festooned in ritual leather, astride a Harley. The New York skyline. A bison cow and calf shaking off the early Spring snow at Yellowstone National Park. The U. S. Capitol at dusk. The Pentagon from above.
These are just a few of the 145 enduring images that comprise photographer Steve Gottlieb's tribute to things that are quintessentially American, from hot dogs at the ball park to the somber vigil of Marine guards at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Arlington Cemetery. Photographed over a period of two decades as part of what Gottlieb unapologetically refers to as an "icon odyssey," the images are organized into eleven distinct sections that portray both the heroic and the ordinary, the quietly symbolic and the overtly patriotic. Embellished with appropriate quotations from some of America's most insightful commentators, from Alexis de Tocqueville to Bill Bryson, the collective force of the images brings unity to the idea of the American experience. American Icons comprises, in the words of the photographer, "the people, places, and things that have, by virtue of history, nostalgia, culture, taste, topographical beauty, or simple familiarity, come to symbolize our country."

Steve Gottlieb's previous work, Washington: Portrait of a City, features photographs that are on permanent exhibit at the National Building Museum in Washington. He lives in New York City.