GRAHAM BUDGETT: A BRIEF US HISTORY

Pre-digital, in-camera, photo-textual montages, 1985


MY FIRST STRIKE!

MY FIRST STRIKE was up the alley, Saturday-night. This is a game about as American as you can get; instant social acceptance if you play well and by the rules. Being a foreigner I didn't know them. I let go the ball and it careened down on those densely-packed pins - they didn't know what hit 'em! "Strike!" - someone said, and I remember thinking I'd won, but then the scattered bodies were cleared away and a whole new bunch stood in their place. I never could do it again. I tried a totally different ballgame.

Baseball is maybe more American than Bowling. Everybody loves a winner. Big rewards if you're good. I wasn't! I struck-out and missed. Three times that tiny projectile whistled past me. I didn't even make first-base and the whole team was wiped-out. Its not Cricket that's for sure!

_from the series: A Brief US History, 1985 [18 non-digital, single-frame, mu;tiple-exposure, performed photomontages]


A Brief US History

United Fruit Presents...

No-Choice - Abort

"'feel like I died and went to heaven!"

"The Ghost of 007"

My First Strike

Bikini

Star Warrior

Communications Corps

Body of El Salvador

The Happy Dissident

Contra Diction

Vision Over America

Satellite Image

Holiday Inn, Johannesburg

LA84

The Angel of History

A Brief US History

© Graham Budgett 1985