When Donald Trump rode down his golden escalator in Trump Tower on June 16, 2015, to announce his candidacy for President of the United States, very few people realized the magnitude of the moment. In the decade since, America has been transformed in almost every way possible. Trump’s influence, or shadow, seems to hang over everything, and in the process, it has divided America almost in two. But there are still those who stand up against the rising tide in their own ways.
“The stories told in this book, the interviews, have everything to do with Donald Trump, and, of course, absolutely nothing to do with him,” photographer Andrew Lichtenstein writes in his new book This Short Life. “Within the deep polarization of the American political landscape, I wanted to search for Americans who were actively engaged in building a more open, inclusive, and equal nation. Something they had been engaged with long before Trump’s election and would be engaged in long after his departure.”
Lichtenstein, a documentary photographer, journalist, and teacher, has spent the last two decades concentrating on photographing stories about social justice across America. And while there have been numerous books published about America under Trump, and I am sure that there will be more, This Short Life stands out because of its use of extended text along with the photographs. It is a book to be read, not just viewed. It shows that people can talk to each other, and their stories add to the photographs, making them more powerful. And while this is not a new idea, it is something that has fallen out of fashion. It is a true series of photo stories in the vein of Eugene Richards’ Below the Line or Mary Ellen Mark’s Ward 81Voices.
“This work began because I was surrounding myself with so much negativity about the direction this country was headed in,” tells Lichtenstein. “Of course, I was ignorant of how bad things would get. But I was so inspired by the tens of thousands of people who marched up 5th Avenue to protest Trump’s election in November of 2016, and again by the Women’s March in DC after his first inauguration. I wanted to tap into that energy, the energy many Americans see around us, even as we recognize and witness its limitations.”
But Lichtenstein did not find it particularly engaging to photograph crowds marching peacefully and holding signs. He saw the protests themselves as an indication to look across America for those who are fighting against the forming clouds on the horizon. So he set out to let them tell their stories wherever they are though his photographs and their words.
The 12 stories are of personal struggles and dreams of a different society in a nation at a crossroads. The stories the men and women share offer hope for a different future despite what one reads daily in the headlines and sees scrolling though the vitriol of social media. There is more out there if one looks, and talks.
“Trump is the spark that ignited the spark that became This Short Life. First because all the people I interviewed, every single one of them, would be doing the exact same thing they are doing regardless of who is President of the United States,” Lichtenstein explains. “Second, and I know this is hard for all of us to remember, Trump is just representative of a side of American history that has always been with us, from the beginning. Not the only side, just a side. From the slave catchers to Chivington’s charge on the banks of Sand Creek, to JP Morgan, and the Vietnam War, we are not struggling against a man, but rather an idea.”
This Short Life is published by Jet Age Books and can be purchased through their website. The book is also available bundled with either an 8″x10″ or 16″x20″ signed print.
