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.
