Richard Sharum
Richard Sharum is an editorial and documentary photographer based in the Dallas, Texas area. Mainly focusing on socio-economic or social justice dilemmas concerning the human condition, his work has been regarded as in-depth, up-close and personal. Selected exhibitions have occurred in Kyoto, Japan, Sao Paulo, Brazil, Reggio Emilia, Italy, and Dallas.
His work has been added to the permanent collection of the Witliff Center for Documentary Studies, as well as others. His commissions include those by The Meadows Foundation, Centers for Community Cooperation, Harvard Law School, Student Conservation Association, Children's Medical Center (Oncology), Childrens Cancer Fund. His publications include those by LFI (Leica International), British Journal of Photography, LensCulture, The Atlantic, Texas Monthly, Publico (Portugal), El Pais (Spain), Observer (UK), The New York Times Lens Blog, B+W Photo Magazine, Huck Magazine, Glasstire, PATRON, Creative Review, among others. Richard Sharum is represented by The Hulett Collection, Tulsa, Oklahoma.
Spina Americana
In this current political climate, where seclusion and division have gained the upper hand in the national psyche, it is my aim to find the unifying elements not only as Americans, but as a people. As a humanist, I still find photography to be the most efficient “visual mediator” between groups of people who will never speak to one another, either through distance or through lack of desire. I want to see if this region could hold the key to other Americans having a better understanding of who we are as a country, where we came from, and what remains of the collective hope we still have as a nation. This, I feel, can only be accomplished using a spectrum of long-term documentation, highlighting the overall complexity of what is generally assumed about this area.
I have carved out a 100 mile wide path of land, splitting the geographic center of the U.S. It runs vertically all the way from the Mexican to the Canadian border, respectively, traversing and creating a backbone over the land. This corridor spans a total of around 157,000 square miles. The commonly used expression for this area is “flyover country”, which I find highly demeaning to the millions of people living there, and presumes a land of unimportance- culturally or otherwise.
There is a vast spectrum of individuals and cultures that live within this “spine”, including Indigenous Americans, Mennonites, Mexican Americans and many others. In showing aspects of daily life, I plan on equalizing the positions of mechanics, surgeons, police officers, prisoners, exotic dancers, politicians, migrant laborers, and others, as all contributing factors to what defines this part of the country. I do this simply as an American who is witnessing a level of division not seen here since the late 1850’s, and as one who believes that through the power of observation, divisions can be seen for what they truly are- transitory and obstructive. I am not alone in this national anxiety.
It is my belief that we desperately need to get back down to the personal level, to find the emotional ties that bind us all- the ones that transcend all matters of race, language, nationality, socio-economics, and power. We are a social species, meaning we need that sense of community. Where technology and social media made promises of a more inter-connected world, we instead have seen rates of personal isolation, loneliness, tribalism, suicide, and murder go up in the last twenty years.
This book reflects my general philosophy towards photography as an anvil for activism, as well as my opening argument for a new direction in the hope for a more collective and persistent empathy.