Americans Parade – George Georgiou

British photographer George Georgiou traveled across a very different United States, his itinerary dictated by parades, both national and local. He too photographed the Macy’s Thanksgiving parade, but also many lesser-known annual gatherings such as the Mermaid Parade in Coney Island, the Cranberry festival parade in Warrens, Wisconsin, and Marion County Country Ham Days Pigasus parade in Lebanon, Kentucky. From the off, his plan was not to capture the spectacle of the parades themselves but rather the more intimate theatre of the people lining the streets.
The result of his road-trip through 24 cities and 14 states is the photo book Americans Parade.

“I have always been interested in looking at the politics of the street and how we use and interact in public- The difficulty in the U.S. is that, in so many towns and cities, the streets have so few people on them, the country is really designed around the car. The communities are invisible.
But when parades take to the streets, that’s when communities come together. It becomes visible, and many of the preconceived ideas that you may have of that community disappear.”
(George Georgiou)

Americans Parade is a parade of Americans. Georgiou’s images show Americans as they stand on the side of roads across the country, waiting for and watching street parades — from Independence Day parades to Mardi Gras or Thanksgiving processions building up a picture of Americans in the United States in 2016, the year Donald Trump was elected, a year when Americas division have never been more pronounced.

About the author

George Georgiou was born in London in 1961.
He received a BA honor in photography, film and video arts from the Polytechnic of Central London (University of Westminster) in 1987.
In 1999 he joined Panos Pictures in London and began to work exclusively on his own long term projects.
He has photographed extensively in the Balkans, Eastern Europe, and Turkey, living and working in Serbia, Greece, and Istanbul, Turkey from 1999 to 2009.

His work has been published in most of the world’s major magazines and exhibited in many countries. Awards include The British Journal of Photography project prize 2010, two World Press Photo prizes in 2003 and 2005, Pictures of the Year International first prize for Istanbul Bombs in 2004.
In 2010, his book ” Fault Line/Turkey/East/West” was released and exhibited internationally.
This work was included in the prestigious “New Photography 2011″ exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art, New York
His book “Last Stop” photographed across London was self-published in 2015
Georgiou’s work is collected by several institutions and private collectors, including the Museum of Modern Art, NY and the Elton John collection.