“Always remember, you are soldiers of God. And nobody in the entire history of the world has ever been as free as you are right now,” are the opening words from Utah Patriot Camp, a place in the United States where children learn how to become the best American patriot.
In these patriotic camps and clubs around the country, roughly 400,000 American children are taught annually, often with military subtext, what it means to be an American. Serving children as young as eight years old, these camps range in specialization from Young Marines to training future border patrol agents.
Documentary photographer Sarah Blesener’s ongoing work, entitled The Making Of A Patriot and currently exhibited at Anastasia Photo in New York, examines the interplay of religion, love of country, and military-style training in the teaching of “new Americanism” among youth across the United States.
Over the last year, she photographed patriotic clubs and camps in twelve states to discover this renewed embrace of the centuries-old theme of American exceptionalism and manifest destiny. Here, in this microcosm of a changing nation, youth straddle the vulnerability of adolescence and the simultaneous stripping of individuality. Blesener’s aim for the series is to open a dialogue around the nuanced and complicated ideals instilled in the future generation of Americans.
Sarah Blesener, The Making Of A Patriot
February 20 to April 1, 2018
Anastasia Photo
143 Ludlow St
New York, NY 10002
USA
