Home About Articles Essays Media Contact
Published on

‘There’s No Way Like the American Way’: The paradox of the American Dream and its indiscernible barbed wire.


Since moving to California I cannot help but admire its extensive beaches and palm trees. Those alone make people move to America however the standard of living is questionable.

America systemically fails to address its high costs of living and the effects it has on homelessness. Even worse, the country poses itself as the greatest nation, but yet even its exceptionalism cannot salvage its people from the consequences of unattainable living standards.

Considering this, I manipulated Margaret Bourke-White’s World’s Highest Standard of Living to comment on this crisis. Pictured during the Great Depression, the photograph serves as a visual critique of the American Dream and its juxtaposing nature reinforces the impossibility of achieving such a dream against America’s hard capitalist malice

Embedded image


The positioning of the billboard overlooking the queue of Kentucky flood victims creates an ironic tone which is heightened by the billboard’s patriotic message by advertising the white American nuclear family. I combined the tents and billboard [scene] in order to encompass the same tone of ironic patriotism that Bourke-White’s photo exudes. I chose this particular image because I believe the tents stand as an incorporeal embodiment of the flood victims and highlight “the ‘real’ American way” that jeopardizes the livelihoods of its people.

I made the billboard scene appear deteriorated to reflect on the degradation of the American Dream and how its unattainability has disproved the exceptionalist belief of America’s ‘high’ standard of living. Nearly 70,000 people are reported as homeless in California alone yet the American government blames their misfortune on their ‘laziness’ or ‘inability’ to work and thrive under a capitalist society like other housed Americans.


Ultimately, I believe my manipulated image comments on the death of the American Dream and further highlights the decrepit reality of the modern American standard of living.


Citations are in order of appearance