Matt Black’s Photos Capture ‘American Geography’ Left Behind

Moments come when we see clearly. Sometimes it’s the moment our eyes fall upon a photograph.

In August of 2005, many people who lived outside the United States found themselves struggling to reconcile their image of America with the pictures everywhere in the news. A hurricane had swamped New Orleans, but what shocked foreigners was not so much the floodwaters as the poverty of the neighborhoods being inundated. They had had no idea that anyone in America lived like that.

What if we know our country no better than a Dane does? Anyone who’s ever been ambushed by a mirror understands the role of self-delusion. We prefer to see ourselves at certain angles. So the eye flicks away from the shock, and the mind gets a moment to pull itself together. It’s not that we do not recognize unguarded reality. We just prefer not to see it.

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