Mick Hartley: Looking for America

More from British photographer Mark Power - previously here, here, and here - on his ongoing project Good Morning, America, in this Magnum interview:

“A man went looking for America. And couldn’t find it anywhere…” ran the tagline on the posters for Easy Rider. Originally, a countercultural riposte to the mainstream American Dream, the film soon became absorbed into the world of Americana; its more troubling thought-provoking aspects overlooked as it became the archetypal road trip movie, synonymous with the exceptionalist idea of America as a place of frontier freedom and possibility.

The tagline came to mind while listening to Mark Power discuss his ongoing series Good Morning, America (2012-) with Dr Yasufumi Nakamori, senior curator of international art (photography) at London’s Tate Modern, in February. Collected in the first two volumes of a five-book series, Good Morning, America is a compelling, unflinching yet meditative examination of the country, far beyond the image it projects to the world. Growing up in a relatively monochrome Britain, Power has set out to see if he can find the technicolour America promised in his youth via television, films, music and advertising. What he finds, and how he finds it, is much more complex, troubling and revealing than he expected.

Hachita. New Mexico. USA. January 2020. © Mark Power | Magnum Photos