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Doug Rickard, #104.573110, Lovington, NM (2008), from A New American Picture, 2009, archival pigment print, courtesy of the artist and Stephen Wirtz Gallery
Photographer Doug Rickard (b. 1968) creates images of some of the nation's poorest cities and towns. In his series A New American Picture, Rickard employs images from Google Street View to create a portrait of Great Recession-era America. Rickard carefully selected the images in this series to bring to light the American landscape and its economic segregation. Motivated by the histories of race and class in the United States, Rickard used Street View to survey significant cities and locations in the history of the Civil Rights Movement, such as Selma and Birmingham, Alabama. As the series developed, he deliberately chose places identified by realtors' websites as "bad neighborhoods," "areas to avoid," and other codes for places inhabited by the poor and underclass.
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"HE STILL DREAMS THAT HIS CHILDREN WILL SOMEDAY JOIN THE MILLIONS WHO HAVE LOST THEIR ACCENTS, GOTTEN GOOD EDUCATIONS, AND FIRMLY ACHIEVED THE AMERICAN DREAM."
Anthony DePalma, "Fifteen Years on the Bottom Rung," in Class Matters, ed. Bill Keller (New York: Times Books, 2005), 144.
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I was pretty successful in high school, in terms of being a good student; but because we were an immigrant family, we had no idea about how to get me into good colleges. We were living in California, so it seemed as though the UC system would be fine for me. If we were more savvy, I'm sure that I could've attended a small liberal arts college like Skidmore; but that just seemed like a fantasy for rich people, at the time that I was in high school.
Classless Society Stories Project
I think about people who come to America, come to the United States, who still place great faith in the opportunity to work and to save and to kind of look toward a better life for a future generation. And I end up, as I get older, just feeling a great deal of sadness that what seems to have happened is that we've found a way to exploit that dream, as opposed to enabling it.
Classless Society Stories Project
I WAS PRETTY SUCCESSFUL IN HIGH SCHOOL, IN TERMS OF BEING A GOOD STUDENT...
I THINK ABOUT PEOPLE WHO COME TO AMERICA...
I THINK THE CLASS ISSUE IS COMPLICATED BY THE FACT THAT I MYSELF AM AN IMMIGRANT...
(0:35 min)
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I DO BELIEVE THAT AMERICA IS ONE OF THE FEW COUNTRIES WHERE YOU CAN CHANGE CLASSES...
(1:04 min)
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I HAVE BENEFITTED FROM A RACIST AND A COLONIAL AND IMPERIALISTIC SOCIETY...
(0:53 min)
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