Glory: Photographs by Robert D’Alessandro

Leo Koenig Inc., Andes is pleased to announce the opening of the exhibition GLORY: photographs by Robert D’Alessandro. Taken in the 1970’s, in the years leading up to the end of the Vietnam war, the images are a stark tableau that reminds the viewer in these contemporary divisive times, that the U.S. has been here before.

The Vietnam war instigated a profound crisis in American society. Public trust in Government deeply eroded. The Pentagon Papers exposed decades of misinformation from U.S. Presidents regarding the war. The draft, which forced undue burden on lower income and minority communities, sparked massive anti-war protests nationwide, including the one at Kent State where 4 young protestors were killed by their own government. Children wore the names of missing soldiers on their wrists in the form of a bracelet as a pledge to never forget them. By the end of the war, over 58,000 U.S. souls were lost, with many hundreds of thousands returning with severe injuries and PTSD. The massive death toll amongst the Vietnamese and allied forces left the living with the consequences of a failed moral dilemma.

During the conflict, the U.S conducted a psychological warfare operation called “Wandering Soul,” which used loudspeakers to play eerie sounds and altered voices to represent the spirits of the dead North Vietnamese soldiers, so as to undermine the enemy’s morale. The efficacy there was dubious, but here in the U.S., the flag (perhaps karmically), became a ghost of Glory, ubiquitous, and insistent, possibly more so because of the doubt that tore at the fabric of our identity. Vietnam was (and still is) …a reckoning.

So, throughout the 1970’s, at locations all over the country, Robert D’Alessandro captured a fading tapestry of a soon to be post-Vietnam America. His B&W photos depict subjects exposing the undergirding of the American dream: working class from diverse backgrounds, odd specialty stores, kids playing in streets. They all mingle with the scars and coping mechanisms of those who fought wars of questionable impetus, and even more questionable results. This is not a nostalgic look at the times. The faces, and landscape often reveal a timorous stance, where D’Alessandro’s eye has been a witness. The Flag remains central to every shot, immutable, but each iteration seen through an ever-shifting light. D’Alessandro’s images ask what values the flag represents to each of us. He compels us to think about what we want our country to be and become, and to acknowledge that America is our collective creation.

Glory was first exhibited in 1973 at the “Letters to My Congressman” exhibit in Washington, D.C. D’Alessandro’s work is included in the collections of The Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris; Center for Creative Photography, Tucson; George Eastman House, Rochester; Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.; Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C.; and the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis.

Leo Koenig Inc. Andes is open Fridays through Sundays 12-6pm. For more information please contact us at 212.814.5422 or email us at Andes@leokoenig.com