Model Citizens considers the United States as a case study into a global phenomenon: How have staging, performance, and role play come to inform thinking about citizenship in a violent land whose people no longer agree on what is true? The last in a trilogy of books on the American condition, Model Citizens includes photographs from US Border Patrol Academy training scenarios,“Save America” rallies, and history museums. The design accentuates slippages: images flow across French-fold page turns, just as Cornwall’s practice questions the role of documentary photography in an era of splintered realities.
The Model Citizens project was awarded the 2023 Prix Elysée, a biennial juried prize for mid-career photographers, sponsored by the Photo Elysée Museum in Lausanne, Switzerland. In addition to an exhibition at Les Rencontres d’Arles de la Photographie, the award includes a grant for a concurrent publication in English and French (Citoyens Modèles, Éditions Textuel, 2024). Both editions will be released to coincide with Les Rencontres d’Arles.
The exhibition is curated by Nathalie Herschdorfer and Lydia Dorner of Photo Elysée.
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