See You At The Fair

(2018-Present)

Some of my earliest memories are of small-town carnivals, specifically Italian festivals that once occupied a corner of a block in the small southern Connecticut towns of my youth. Potato sack slides, Italian fried dough, Gravitron spins, rickety Ferris wheels, and the goldfish that die in a week. What began as a quest for the foods and joy I had as a kid has evolved into an exploration of the cross-section of America that comes together for carnivals and state fairs. There is no doubt that we witness an entirely more diverse American demographic as we hand in our ticket at the gate. We see the neighbors we know, and maybe more so the neighbors we don't know. In a country where our lines have become overtly political and economic, the release we look for, the memories we still covet, and the joy we wish to share with our new families the carnival or the state fair has become one of the last few places where we can and do show up for that experience. In this ongoing series, I am challenging the idea that times have changed. I think the only thing that has changed has been our access to extreme opinions. Ultimately, we all want the same things, perhaps just not in the same ways. However, knowing all of our neighbors could be a better option to cherry-picking just a few.