Home

10%

American Landscapes

And 21st Century Americans

By d’Jurnet Tarryall Productions

The American Flag

American Landscapes and 21st Century Americans tells a complex story about land, its

relationship to people, and the ways in which icons are used to sow and implant faith. That faith,

in turn, creates an existential narrative unwavering in its devotion to an idea. In this story, icons

become so important that they are preserved and secured to lifeless and withering bodies that

long deserved a proper burial.

My lens serves both as a metaphor and an extension of my own eyes. Optically, it organizes the

images within a specific focal length and predetermines an emotional logic and shape. This

approach to storytelling is “insidious, because it allow[s] destructive ideas to sneak in underneath

the petticoats of right [or wrong] thinking endeavors.”

I would be disingenuous not to acknowledge the obvious: I have my own point of view. Yet your

interpretation develops a theme of its own, whether allegorical, metaphysical, performative, or

annoyingly trite-boring-redundant.

Before we continue, let’s be honest with each other. Your subjective point of view is shaped by

personal biases—tutored by your family, an educational background administered locally, and

your personal experience. It is your perspective, not my lens, that ultimately determines the

moment. The images exist as they are; they’re not contrived—except for two: the Flying Time

Machine posed before Mt. Rushmore, and a solitary ranch in a vast valley flying both

Confederate and American flags. These two icons foreshadow a towering white cross and, in the

foreground, an ominous rusty 1970s American sedan behind a barbed-wire fence.

Do both images petition for an optimistic future?

Mt. Rushmore South Dakota

American Landscapes and 21st Century Americans evolved from random shoots into a project

showcasing the uneasy intimacy of rural America—an America that uneasily coexists with the

endless contradictions of urbanization, despite their long and tangled shared history.

Over the past 7 years, I set out across the Midwest, the high plains, and the mid-Pacific coast.

I also managed to capture a fleeting New York City moment.

My companion was a Subaru Outback that carried me along rural U.S. highways, state and

county roads, local streets, and off-roads tracing the U.S.–Mexico border.

Across all of it, one theme recurred: an unrepentant patriotism on open display,

irrespective of geography or demographics.

The American flag—or any rendition of it—appeared again and again as an unrelenting icon that

justified “the spirit of the time” and a “contemporary ethos,” encouraging grand interventions

and reinforcing myths that have undermined collective security in rural America. History shows

how often the flag has been used as a rallying cry for unity while simultaneously subjugating

memory, clouding purpose, and obscuring responsibility for the conditions on the ground. It has

become, perhaps unwittingly, an anodyne for the pain poverty has inflicted on rural America for

over 250 years. Symbols often carry unintended consequences.

Despite their sacrifices and pride, rural Americans have been historically anesthetized,

discouraged from questioning the deeper myths that animate the rallying cries of special

interests. In this way, the flag persists as a rigid, unrelenting paradox—both a patriotic upshot

and a hardened commitment to country. Evidence of this is scattered across the countryside:

random and organized, proudly hoisted, well-dressed stars and stripes.

Colorado

As I traveled backroads, I witnessed the intricate relationship between people and their land,

their neighbors, and the unseen forces shaping contradictions in socio-economic and cultural

life—and their enduring nemesis, the urban elite.

The more I observed the disparities between the two nations—the haves and the have-nots—who

fly under one flag, the more I struggled to imagine any hopeful reconciliation. The structural

imbalances are so off-center that it seems inevitable a tipping point will come when society

breaks down.

There is no magic silver bullet to vanquish the bad guys, no masked Lone Ranger to win hearts

and minds. (Tonto rode off alone toward the sunset long ago.) If there is any path toward

solutions, it begins with reason: listening, compromising, and accommodating. It’s a two-way,

potholed highway. The convention of unyielding attitudes—“my way or no way”—is a

polarizing disaster in which, in the long run, no one wins. We’ve reached a moment when finger-

pointing has become too expensive.

Time to roll up our sleeves and do some heavy lifting, folks.

Colorado 2022

Colorado 2024

Colorado 2024

Colorado 2024

South Dakota 2022

South Dakota 2022

New York City 2025

South Dakota 2022

South Dakota 2022

South Dakota 2022

Colorado 2024

Colorado 2022

Colorado 2022

Kansas 2022

Kansas 2022

Colorado 2021

Oregon 2024

Iowa 2023

Arizona 2023

Colorado 2024

Iowa 2023

Arizona 2024

Iowa 2023

Kansas 2022

Nebraska 2022

New Mexico 2023

Wyoming 2022

Colorado 2021

Colorado 2018

California 2023

Kansas 2022

New Mexico 2023

Montana 2022

Colorado 2023

Iowa 2023

South Dakota 2022

South Dakota 2022

South Dakota 2022

Iowa 2023

Kansas 2022

Colorado 2024

New York City 2025

Iowa 2023

Colorado 2022

Kansas 2022

Montana 2022

South Dakota 2022

Montana 2022

Mohave Desert, CA 2021

Colorado 2018

Arizona 2023

South Dakota 2022

South Dakota 2022

Colorado 2021

Footnotes

This is the first in a continuing series examining America from behind a lens.

FootNotes

This is the first in a continuing series examining America from behind a lens.

© 2026 d’Jurnet Tarryall Productions

Au Revoir Les Enfants

Le Monde Est Petit

American Landscapes

The Road & Other Road Side Attractions: Midwest - Southwest - West Part 2

American Landscapes

Midwest - Southwest - West - Part 1

Early 21st Century Americans

The world is little, people are little, human life is little

Silenced Horizons

Life on the Margins

A Slice of the Big Apple

South Bronx - Harlem - Midtown / Upper East Side

Loading, please hold on.