Trump Human Resources Office, Atlantic City
Today, September 24th, 2019 will be remembered as the day Donald Trump’s stolen presidency began to crumble. The president himself is holed up in Trump Tower — after his desultory appearance at the UN — as Nancy Pelosi announces the initiation of impeachment proceedings.
Just a short time ago I began photographing Atlantic City and Trump’s failed legacy. The pictures in my book describe a damaged urban landscape — extreme poverty and extreme wealth juxtaposed. The blame goes first to the politicians who concocted the casino gambling model as a way to save the crumbling resort city. It was never a serious solution. It was a kleptocracy disguised as a solution.
That’s where Trump came in — as a modern-day robber baron propped up by Russian mafia money. When he left his casino empire around 2014 to 2016, Atlantic City had a higher unemployment rate than it did when he arrived. It had fewer homeowners than when he arrived. Crime had worsened. Property taxes had gone up, and abandoned houses and vacant lots littered the landscape.
Despite the glaring evidence of his failure in Atlantic City, along with his clear obligations to shadowy foreign leaders, the American public — not a majority, but enough — voted for someone who would forever stain the honor of this country. They gambled away the American dream on a charlatan and a traitor.
I hope and pray you’re right, cause right now the Trump minions are rolling out the Biden This, Biden That, King Panzer Propaganda Obliteration Machine. And the Dems recent history of one step forward and eight steps back does little to inspire confidence. This requires a no holds barred, counter punching juggernaut of tenacity and ingenuity- they finally (finally!) gathered the courage to enter the ring, let’s hope the sight of their own blood somehow encourages and incites them to see it through…
Stan, I share your lack of confidence in the Democrats. They have been weak thus far. But I suspect we have entered new territory — and this morning’s “transcript” only makes things worse for Trump. We haven’t even heard from the whistleblower.
This quote below could apply to my feelings about photography as much as politics. There are no fixed points. Nothing is immutable.
Jared Yates Sexton on Twitter
@JYSexton
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We always make the mistake of thinking that reality is fixed and that it can never change, that the moment will just continue into infinity. But things change. The world changes. What we’re watching right now is a really, really volatile moment of infinite possibilities.
Working in the large format tradition of architectural photographers Thomas Struth and Andreas Gursky, Brian Rose shows us a city whose glory days are well in the past. It is a beach city nearly devoid of people, as if a nuclear bomb had been dropped and all that remained were the cockroaches and empty buildings. In the case of Atlantic City, the bomb that was dropped was a plague of vulture capitalism, the buildings are gaudy casinos meant for large crowds that never materialized or certainly did not linger. Whether the cockroaches are represented by the legion of stray cats that cruise the empty boardwalk or the politicians who circle the Oval Office is perhaps a matter of debate. But not really.