American Value is an ongoing photographic project shaped by a belief in the enduring significance of place. I did not begin the work with a fixed thesis, but came to understand it through my upbringing in Detroit between 1983 and 2007, years often framed through narratives of decline. Raised in a city widely defined by crisis, I learned to read landscapes differently: to recognize persistence alongside loss and to see ambition in aging facades.
Beginning in 2017, the project expanded to towns and roadside communities across the United States. I photographed the built environments of everyday commerce and travel. These places reveal not only active commerce but also traces of past lives, where architecture, typography, and signage hold layers of effort, belief, and adaptation.
Working within public policy, where regions are often reduced to economic indicators or political shorthand, I became increasingly aware of how lived environments resist simplification. Rooted in vernacular photography and typographic language, American Value approaches these places with affection rather than irony. Bright color renders them visually compelling, asserting their worth while acknowledging continuity alongside change.