Aaron Patton(Michelle Tyrene Johnson)Photographer Aaron Patton is on a cross-country trip to photograph Americans in every state, including Kentucky. The project is called “The Americans.” He stopped in Louisville earlier this month.Patton, from Kansas, talked to LPM’s Michelle Tyrene Johnson about his aim to have a book and exhibition that documents the black-and-white photographs and the oral histories he has collected. During this leg of his trip to Kentucky, he also plans to visit West Virginia and Tennessee.This excerpt of the conversation has been edited for length and clarity.Michelle Tyrene Johnson: What do you think is the big purpose of the project?Aaron Patton: There's a lot of layers to what we're going for here. I think it's a really fascinating project for people to see other people across the country. But the bigger value to the project, I think, will be in 50 years' time, where there's this archive capsule of what America was like during its 250th year to look back and see just who we were as a nation at this point.MTJ: Why is this especially important now?AP: There's this portrait series done back in the 1920s in Germany by August Sander, and that's what kind of inspired this project in the first place. It was called “People of the 20th Century.” He was photographing German people up and down the social strata in the Weimar Republic.And then Nazi Germany came into power not too long after that. There was a big changeover in how the public was meant to be seen. The Nazis didn't believe in categorizing people in that kind of strata, everybody was the same that ideology, and so they shut Sander’s project down. But I was kind of thinking, not that we're in a similar time in that way, but we are in a similar time of tumult and discord.And I kind of want to show, I'm not trying to make this project about unity in America or about discord in America. I'm just trying to say this is America, and so that whatever happens over the next few years with the rise of AI and the degradation of American identity through our roles and jobs. As we look back on that, years from now, we can kind of see maybe what we lost or what has changed. And so I think that's really the reason that right now is so important.MTJ: Why black-and-white photos?AP: I'm a big minimalist in my personal style, and a lot in some of my photography as well. I've told a lot of people that throughout my entire career for the last 19 years, if I just had a white background and a person, I would be happy forever.I like to strip away extraneous context, and because I want people to really focus on the person and the image, I think black-and-white helps with that. You're not distracted by color patterns; you're just looking at texture and the person and the context they bring with them into the image.MTJ: How many states have you had a chance to go to so far?AP: This is our 20th state here in Kentucky.MTJ: What theme have you noticed despite where you go?AP: People aren't that different everywhere I go. That's not entirely true, but by and large, people want to share their story. They want to be seen. They want to be remembered.You know, I've been in the most politically diverse places you could imagine, and I've been warmly received everywhere I've been. If you go out looking for division, you'll find it. If you go out looking for unity, you'll find it.What is the quote? If you want to hate America, watch the news. If you want to love it, drive across the country, and I tell you what, everywhere we've been, there is that sense of just wanting to have a place here.MTJ: Wanting to have a place in America?AP: In America, in history, in just the collective memory. I've photographed a lot of people who are in their 80s and even into their 90s, and they just want someone to remember them. I'm getting more and more of that in younger people as well. Like they don't feel seen, they don't feel like they're being noticed by anybody. And so when I get to sit there and spend five or 10 minutes talking to somebody, it’s maybe the first time for a while they've been heard.That's not true for every single person, of course. But, you know, it's really really powerful for me to get to be the one doing it, and so I hope the same thing happens for the people who get to be a part of it, and then for the people who get to see it at the end of the day. I mean, I think one of the things that I want people to know is that you're worth photographing. You're worth being remembered. I've gotten so many people like, "Oh, my job isn't that exciting. I don't want to, you know, you don't want a middle manager from a multinational conglomerate.” I'm like, yeah, I do though, because this is called the Americans. It's not called the American extremes. Everybody has their part to play, and I think that's a really important thing.MTJ: What are you most looking forward to?AP: I get asked a lot what success would look like for this project. And for one, completing the project will be a big milestone. Getting to all 50 states, and Alaska and Hawaii, is going to be quite a trip. I'm excited for that part, but really, the thing that I'm most excited about isn't so much the book that we're working on or the future exhibitions and all that stuff. That's going to be really a lot of fun. It's just the fact that once I'm done with this, I can go anywhere in the country and not be very far from someone that I've gotten to talk to. I think that's going to be really fascinating to be driving through Alliance, Nebraska, and thinking, Oh, right, there was that brewery there that I got to talk to the owner for 20 minutes about this, or if we get to Pensacola or wherever it happens to be, I'm not going to be far from a familiar face. ...read more read less