“This term, flyover country, was one I’d heard my entire life but had never really thought about when it came to the condescension it implied. I felt that this part of our country had been ignored politically, socially and culturally for decades, with its obscurity creating a subtle but consequential vacuum that had implicitly added fuel to our national divisions. I knew that in order for me to find out what America is, I needed to travel its central corridor and see it for myself” photographer Richard Sharum writes in his introduction to Spina America, published by GOST Books.
Sharun is not the first photographer to travel the back roads and overlooked spots in America to see what this country is about. An he is not going to be the last. As long as there are cars and cameras, someone will put the two together and see where the road takes them, and what it can show them.
But America still has much to reveal to those who look and explore. The “spine” of America, as Sharum refers to it, is a 100-mile-wide swath down the center of the country, covering parts of the Dakotas, Kansas, Nebraska, Oklahoma, and Texas. It encompasses many distinct parts of the country, both geographically, politically, and culturally.
It is home to people with all manner of cultural roots, all of whom have become part of the great melting pot that is this country. They are mechanics, police officers, farmers, ranchers, prisoners, exotic dancers, politicians, field hands, nudists, Mennonites, Lutherans, white supremacists, Republicans, and Democrats. All of them play their part in this country and have a role to play in what America is, and will become.
In his travels over three years through the corridor, Sharun spoke to more than 4000 people, and in the process took over 14,000 photographs. As he writes “Spina Americana is not merely a study of a region and its people, but an attempt at documenting this commonality, combined with the hope of providing a mirror in which the American can gaze, see who they are, and where they might fit in this current historical moment.”
America currently finds itself at a crossroads, caught between competing forces both of which look to take the country in very different directions. Sharun spent several years and miles documenting the lives of these populations who often make a difference in the American election, as was the case a few weeks ago. Issues like immigration, tariffs, taxes, and inflation will have major impacts on the livelihoods of those who live and work in the center of the country.
Is it today possible for the divisions in the country to heal? Is it possible for the two sides to come together? Can America be whole again? “As Americans, our duty, I believe, is to always remember that in the end, the only thing holding the line between our honor and the windblown dust of a collapsed empire, is us,” says Richard Sharum. “My hope is that this work and the work that is to come, will serve as a call-to-action for individuals convinced they are powerless against the forces actively opposing this very kind of national cohesiveness.”
Spina Americana is published by GOST books. It can be ordered though the GOST website here.
