In late 2008 the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 injected $790 billion dollars into the collapsed economy. The Obama administration advocated for unprecedented levels of transparency in the disbursement of these funds and websites at all levels of government were created to achieve this end.
I used the information from these websites as a guide for making the photographs. The catalyst was the language provided by the grant recipients to help explain the need and/or use of funds. I was propelled by the idea of what America might look like if this language could be visualized and made tangible through photography.
I’m interested in the disconnects- between text and image- between paying your taxes and how those funds are spent. I’m also interested in what Pamela M. Lee calls "the open secret: a visible invisibility", and her claim that “the open secret actually governs the politics of information today." This project was in part about trying to manifest these very abstract processes on a scale more relatable to the individual.
Chad Ress: America Recovered, Andrew Hinderaker, TIME Magazine, New York, 2011 Show Me the (Stimulus) Money, Rebecca Horne, Wall Street Journal, New York, 2011
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