Cannibalism…is the consuming of another’s life for one’s own private purpose or profit. -Jack Forbes
For “This Most Monstrous Food”, I’ve sought historical American violence and its relationship to the present. Unlike photographers such as Watkins & O’Sullivan—who forged a myth of the West—I hope to instead make visible that myths blind.
I’ve visited monthly-rate motels and former homes of Presidents, serial killers & cannibals. I’ve photographed dioramas & re-enactors staging half-truths & fictions upon stolen land. I’ve also followed the Donner Party’s migration.
In 1846, the Donner Party followed their Manifest Destiny westward. Waylaid by blizzards, they got stuck beneath the Sierra Nevadas. Before spring, half died. Survivors cannibalized the deceased. This event epitomizes U.S. history and—but for a change of course—foretells its future.
Historically, the U.S. has more cannibals and serial killers than any other industrialized nation. A Menominee tribal member once told me, “All Presidents are Serial Killers.” Indeed, Presidents have displaced & murdered—Genocided—the indigenous here. An archetypal psychopath sits upon the seat of American Power.
Like “Indigenous Figure with Swastika” (Image 20), I want to convey that the manifold stories of U.S. violence must also be told as a single, relational history. “At The Eisenhower Memorial” (Image 03), bronze figures flank a relief of Africa—the source of chattel slavery. Serial-killing cannibal Albert Fish grew up on this memorial’s site and bore witness from here to the birth of the Gilded Age.
Absent the Gilded Age, there would neither have been Lange’s Migrant Mother. Income inequality also reigns now. Can a mother in Casper, WY (Image 11) symbolize resiliency & hope while flanked by children whose birth lottery forecloses access to fundamental rights?
How many tourists “Panning for Gold” (Image 19) will connect their recreation to cruel deprivations borne by privatized resources, or to Genocide? How many have even been educated to do so?
I believe in compassion & the power of an honest reckoning with history. Many wish to know Truth, to cease enabling and reenacting deceptive & destructive—indeed, blinding—national mythologies. Photography compels me to commune with Others. This is a gift, for I’m reminded that most Americans are generous & gracious souls. They are reason enough to fight for a nation built on care rather than violence.
“This Most Monstrous Food” is my salvo in this existential fight.
