In Andre Wagner’s single image of a Black child gripping a small, wrinkled American flag in one hand while the other rests pensively on her chin, Wagner tells the complicated story of America. That Star-Spangled Banner is crumpled, as if it has been rolled up in a pocket, tucked away, its usefulness uncertain but nonetheless protected. This child, with the decorative beads in her cornrows, is dwarfed by the adults who stand on either side, by the enormous backpack, by the meat counter in the background. Her expression is sober, as if she’s considering weighty matters. A child with the brooding demeanor of an adult. A complicated child. An American child. A Black American.
When Tailyr Irvine was at the Standing Rock prayer camp in South Dakota she noticed that many of the other photographers there — who had come to photograph protests against the Dakota Access Pipeline — were concentrating on people on horseback or those wearing headdresses. While many of the photographers were well meaning, she said, they relied on overly dramatic visual clichés that gave a distorted view of native people like her.
