Daniel P. Younger (Mt. Vernon, OH)

Selections from the series Civic Display on Main Street

  • Shop Window, Bellville, OH, December 2001
  • Barber Shop, Mt. Vernon, OH, November 2001
  • Leather Apparel Shop, Mt. Vernon, OH, November 2001
  • Picture Frame Shop, Mt. Vernon, OH, November 2001

Gelatin silver prints
11 x 14 inches
Courtesy the artist

Remembering September 11: Civic Display on Main Street documents Midwest, small town responses to the events of September 11. Seeking contextual meaning within retail spaces, a distinct conflation of patriotism and commerce is evidenced in many store windows and displays. The stars and stripes of the flag, the American bald eagle, and related symbols are found interspersed within the busy commerce of retail images and corporate logos. Photography and its frame encourage a considered reading of our national symbols as they are surrounded by the familiar rhetoric of the store window. What are the multiple messages of nationalism, capitalism, and common civic values and how do they intersect? Among the images that comprise the series Civic Display on Main Street are references to American memory and history (poignant reminders of the face-off of modernity and anti-modernity here at home), examples of the complementarity and overlap of commercial logos and national symbols, and evidences of the relationship of the flag to traditional values and the daily continuity of small-town America. With these images, I have attempted to "peer behind" the flag and other responses to September 11 to explore the fuller meaning of our public grieving process.