“These are the times that try men’s souls.” You may have read that quote and felt it particularly resonated with your life today, whether that be because of the pandemic, current political tensions, or the everyday acts of violence against people of color we see in our nation. Despite its resonance, these are the opening words to “The American Crisis,” Thomas Paine’s 1776 pamphlet written to persuade colonists to take up arms in the Revolutionary War.
This and many other lines in Paine’s work feel extremely relevant to issues of contemporary America, and because of this, I wanted to create work that combines the words of Thomas Paine with the imagery of today. Each image in this collection is a digital collage of photographs of people and places that have been impacted by the events of the past year and quotes from “The American Crisis.” I hope it becomes apparent through this juxtaposition that many of the issues our nation's founders faced still persist today.
