Greta Pratt
Photo by Greta Pratt
I’ve been meaning to put this up for a while. Greta Pratt is easily one of my favorite photographers around. I first encountered her work at the Mass MoCA, where her portraits of multiple Lincoln imitators were included in the “Ahistoric Occasion” show. They really grabbed my attention and I immediately contacted her for an interview and wrote an article for the paper.
Greta’s interest lies in Americana and the use of history in everyday life, particularly in advertising. She’s also very attuned the symbols of patriotism and how they are co-opted for various purposes. These days, she’s working on a project called Flag A Day, in which, for a year, she offers a photo a day of the American Flag in some setting that she has found. This project is due to end on June 14.
So I contacted Greta again in order to talk about this project and catch up with her own brand of photographic sociology.
JM: Looking through the project, the flag begins to come off as a subliminal message — it’s everywhere you look!
GP: Exactly!
JM: Do you think the prevalence of the flag in signs and packaging and clothing devalues it? Or fetishizes it? Or both?
GP: I think it is a subliminal message used to create a false sense of patriotism. If something has a flag on it whoever is selling it must be patriotic or American.
JM: I find something charming about the American flag - in this day and age of slick graphics, it’s such a nice throwback to a clunkier age - what are your thoughts about that?
GP: I used to have some charming antique flags that I would put up on the Fourth of July but I got rid of them all because I have become so disgusted by the hijacking of this icon for messages I do not agree with.
JM: Do you find the flag splashy or garish? If so, what does it say about our psyche as a country that we embrace a flag like that?
GP: It is an interesting phenomenon. I don’t find the flag itself splashy or garish but the use of it on the side of a truck or a mailbox or a sack of potatoes can certainly be garish but more so ironic. When you realize the US Flag Code, the rules governing the use of the flag enacted by congress in 1942, explicitly prohibits the use of the flag for advertising or on any article of merchandise or receptacle for merchandise or for carrying or transporting merchandise.
It is extremely ironic that in 1968 Abbie Hoffman was jailed for wearing a flag shirt and in 2005 Joint Chiefs Chairman Air force Gen Richard Myers wore a flag shirt to the Rolling Thunder bike rally in Washington DC.
JM: What does it say about us that we will wear pants with the pattern of our flag on it? Is this the sort of thing people do in France or Japan, do you think?
GP: If I had to guess I would say America would be the winner in a flag apparel wearing contest. America is colorful, garish, overstated, big. Partially I think it comes, as many myths and adages do, from the beginnings of the country. The vast open space was ideal for the creation of Paul Bunyan and Babe the Blue Ox. We have the largest Buffalo and the largest Prairie Chicken, the Green Giant.
JM: How much travel is involved? Do you just wander around hoping to find something with a flag on it, or is it more structured than that?
GP: I photograph them as I go about my daily business. Occasionally I go out looking for them but for the most part I do not have to. They are everywhere so I keep my eyes open for them. I see them on the way to and at the grocery store, taking the kids to basketball practice, walking the dog, all the regular things that people do. Which is the point that they are everywhere and you do not have to go anyplace in particular to find them. They crop up in the most unlikely places.
JM: A bit of the work seems on the fly, very documentary - is that the sort of photography you prefer to do? And how do you plot the structure of a photo when you’re working that way?
GP: I like working on the fly. I worked for the wire services for years and learned to see quickly and compose the elements needed to communicate the intended meaning. Documentary is a layered word. What exactly does it mean? Is any photograph documentary or is it a creation displaying the thoughts and ideas of the maker?
JM: Do you explain to your subjects what the project is - and, if you do, what kind of reactions are you getting?
GP: I tell them I photograph flags and post them on my web site Flag A Day. As soon as I say I photograph flags they think I am very patriotic and that I must be all right.
JM: Considering the scope and environment of the project, I wonder if you end up talking to a lot of strangers - and what you’ve learned about people because of it.
GP: I do talk to strangers. I am always interested in people’s stories. Most people displaying flags think it is patriotic to do so. Some have relatives in the military. Some feel they are supporting the country after 9/11. I think a lot of people just buy the stuff because it is for sale and looks cute and patriotic at the same time.
JM: What is your ultimate aim in doing this project? Are your ideas being confirmed, or have you been surprised by what you have learned?
GP: My aim is to call attention to how the flag is used as a subliminal message, by whom, and question what that means. Using the flag’s image everywhere lulls people into a false sense of patriotism
I was excited recently when I had a show of the first six months of Flag A Day up at the Gordon Galleries in Norfolk, VA and the viewers where surprised and overwhelmed to see how prevalent the flag image is. People continually tell me they see flags everywhere after viewing my photographs. Before you stop and think about it you don’t notice how inundated we are. The disturbing part was how many of my students now think I am very patriotic but I guess that confirms my thoughts also. For some reason if you use the image of the flag, no matter how absurdly — as long as it is not upside down or burning — you are deemed patriotic.
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