Social groups

Quite honestly, I don’t like the majority of these stereotypes. These aren’t social groups; most are labels pitted against each other, which feeds our prejudices against others. Most insulting are perhaps the depictions of the people from the southern part of America.

I’d like to temper the negative feedback above. Sure, these are stereotypes, but the mood of the piece is clearly playful. As a photographer, I throughly understand the desire to have a little fun with a subject.

Man, you guys are idiots. You take things way too seriously. Buddy, I thought it was fun to see such opposites together, making both beautiful in their own special way.

I’m not an artist or a philosopher. Just some guy who happened across the pictures, and I just want to say thanks for giving me something fun to look at

Nothing racist? The same message was even portrayed twice! (Black) Baptist churchgoer / White supremacist. (Black) Babtist pastor / KKK. The author couldnt get enough of the angelic, innocent blacks vs the devilish, evil whites. Where are the black panthers, the NOI member, the black death row inmate? Disgusting propaganda.

Wow John, which one were you? The KKK or the White supremacist?

The beauty queen is definitely missing a hand.

there is nothing racist or stereotypical about this. the fact that some of the people in the photographs are racist doesn’t make the pictures racist. Nor are they stereotypical. All these are are pictures of different people with captions underneath them describing what the people are. It’s not like there was some white guy dressed in blackface smiling with a caption underneath that says “black guy”… that might be racist. the most questionable picture was probably the southerner but even he was just a dude, I didn’t find that the picture portrayed him in any negative light, even though obviously not all people from the south look like him.

John, should there have been pictures of the black panther members just to even it out? does the fact that there was a picture of a white supremacist and the KKK make the pictures overall racist against whites? I think your comment about there not being a black guy on death row is telling… what would that even have to do with race? should the caption underneath him be “death row inmate” or “black death row inmate”?… obviously you are a racist, not the pictures.

Does this remind anyone else of Avedon’s In the American West?

Personally, I found more similarities than differences between the pictures listed above. When you think about the attitudes and behaviors of these social groups, you really come up with striking likenesses rather than differences. I really enjoyed this collection. Keep up the fantastic work.

Wow that was unusual. I just wrote an incredibly long comment but after I clicked submit my comment didn’t appear. Grrrr… well I’m not writing all that over again. Anyway, just wanted to say wonderful blog!