Covid-19 & the USA

In 2015, Joe Patronite took to the road to start a long-term photographic essay, a contemporary view of the USA today. Inspired from the great book "The Americans" by Robert Frank (which Patronite had first seen in his 20's as a young newspaper photojournalist), Patronite who has gravitated back to documentary photojournalism in the last decades sought to create a collection of images of life in the USA. This journey, which is continuing today in 2021, has taken Patronite to all corners of the country. Looking for quirky, offbeat, yet normal moments of individuals at play, work, leisure, Patronite has assembled a collection which crosses Secular and Non-secular portions of the society.

Immigrants, new citizens, farm workers, election volunteers, and celebrants at holidays all take their place in our country's core. Patronite has tried to bring to the public a view of many differing ethnicities, religious choices and timely moments reflecting the status of this country now.

With a political divide so large, that mirror the great spaces of the Grand Canyon, sides refusing to believe in the democratic processes. The in the spring of 2020 Covid-19 pandemic hit this land. During the spring, summer of the year police violence, and the protests which resulted, also became important to add to this on-going essay.

This entry will touch upon all the above-mentioned situations. Political protests in Los Angeles, California, Proud Boys in Portland, thousands gathered (mostly without masks or PPE) in Sturgis, South Dakota- also the consequences of the pandemic at that event cause The Lakota Sioux nation blocking entry to their lands in South Dakota. Then, aftermaths of the fires which have destroyed most of the west of USA.

Again, this project continues.