An outsider's eye, an instant camera and America seen anew
Through the lens of an instant camera, through the eyes of an outsider, oft-neglected corners of America take on a very different cast.
There is beauty in the swing ride at the Mississippi State Fair, seats suspended against an azure sky. There is humor in the giant statue of a hotdog alongside a highway in Lesage, West Virginia. There is desolation in a street scene in Cairo, Illinois.
Photographer Maye-E Wong was part of an Associated Press team that drove the backroads during the run-up to the 2020 election. She illustrated stories about currents of racial tension that still ripple through towns that once expelled Black people, about how claims of a gentler political culture in Utah turned out to be far more complicated than the folklore, about people in coal country who were isolated from COVID-19 and race issues and so much more.
But Wong, raised in Singapore, also brought along an Instax camera that made prints immediately, without the complications of her professional equipment. Fully in the moment, she used that camera to compile a visual diary -- “a collective portrait of a dysfunctional family,” as she describes it.
Youths play basketball at an outdoor court, Tuesday, Oct. 6, 2020, in Meridian, Miss. (AP Photo/Wong Maye-E)
A Confederate flag hangs in the window of a home of a young Black woman in Shawnee Ohio, on Tuesday, July 28, 2020. Confederate flags have become a symbol of a certain America: white, often rural, sometimes southern, normally conservative. This time, though, it turned out to be a young Black woman who was flying it. She said it was her way of "giving the finger" to everyone, including white Southerners who believe they control the flag and its symbolism. (AP Photo/Wong Maye-E)
A mural of Breonna Taylor is among the painting of portraits painted on the facade of a building, Friday, July 31, 2020, in Louisville, Ky. Taylor was shot and killed by police during a botched raid at her home in Louisville on March 13, 2020. (AP Photo/Wong Maye-E)
Tasha Lamm, 30, kisses her girlfriend, Alicia Mullins, 22, in front of their home in Bidwell, Ohio, on Monday, July 27, 2020. "It sucks being poor," says Lamm who is raising her two sons on public assistance. A high-school dropout, she has been promising herself for years that she'd get her equivalency degree. (AP Photo/Wong Maye-E)
A banner urging citizens to vote is displayed on the side of a street in Jackson Miss., Sunday, Oct. 4, 2020. (AP Photo/Wong Maye-E)
People spin around in an amusement ride at the annual Mississippi State Fair, on Wednesday, Oct. 7, 2020, in Jackson, Miss. (AP Photo/Wong Maye-E)
Children watch a pig race at the annual Mississippi State Fair, on Wednesday, Oct. 7, 2020, in Jackson, Miss. (AP Photo/Wong Maye-E)
There are photos of the many people they met, from the Mississippi man whose wife had been put in a medically induced coma to the unemployed casino workers in Las Vegas struggling with poverty. Some supported Donald Trump and some didn’t, and so many opened their arms to the visitors.
But the Instax photos -- tangible, color-saturated art-on-the-spot -- also capturing slices of American life and the American landscape: Boys playing basketball on an outdoor court in Mississippi. A pig race at the state fair. Women collecting water at an old trough in Ohio.
Exquisite images of a Mississippi cotton field and bison grazing in Utah give way to shots that are less so -- a Dollar General in Kentucky, abandoned cars in Meridian, Mississippi. There is irony in a Superman statue, usually a favorite spot for tourists to pose in Metropolis, Illinois.
In these pandemic times, there is no one around. And Superman wears a mask.
A face mask decorates a large Superman statue in front of a building where tourists usually come to take photos, Monday, Aug. 3, 2020, in Metropolis, Ill. (AP Photo/Wong Maye-E)
A giant hotdog replica stands on the side of a highway in Lesage, W.Va., Wednesday, July 29, 2020. (AP Photo/Wong Maye-E)
Horses graze in a field, Thursday, July 23, 2020, in Athens, Ohio. (AP Photo/Wong Maye-E)
Two abandoned cars sit on the side of the road, Tuesday, Oct. 6, 2020, in Meridian, Miss. (AP Photo/Wong Maye-E)
A train track leads into a street next to silos in Mound City, Ill. on Monday, Aug. 3, 2020, (AP Photo/Wong Maye-E)
A sign reading "Cairo Chamber Commerce" hangs on an abandoned building, Monday, Aug. 3, 2020, in downtown Cairo, Ill.(AP Photo/Wong Maye-E)
Women collect water from a trough in Athens, Ohio, on Sunday, July 26, 2020. People have been using it for at least a century, since horses were watered and coal miners would stop by to wipe off grime and dust. They still come - some they think the water is healthier, or makes better coffee, or because their utilities were turned off when they couldn't pay the bills. (AP Photo/Wong Maye-E)
The Utah State Capitol building is photographed in Salt Lake City. Monday, Nov. 16, 2020. When it comes to politics, Utah has long claimed things are different here. Political viciousness is for other places, many politicians will tell you. Legislators are more polite, more willing to compromise. The deep conservatism, the folklore says, includes a powerful strain of compassion. (AP Photo/Wong Maye-E)
A house is dwarfed by a cotton field surrounding it in Yazoo City, Miss., Friday, Oct. 9, 2020. (AP Photo/Wong Maye-E)
Demarkio Pritchett, 29, hugs his daughter, Mariah Pritchett 8, outside his grandmother's home, Tuesday, Oct. 6, 2020, in Meridian, Miss. Pritchett, who said he was convicted as a teenager of drug possession "and some other stuff," can't vote in Mississippi for the rest of his life. (AP Photo/Wong Maye-E)
Trump supporters Roger Plott, 65; Bill Stevens, 76; Rick Warren, 65, and Jim Rainbolt 57, stand outside The Gunsmoke Club Tuesday, Aug. 4, 2020, in West Vienna, Ill. Their clubhouse is an old gas station which later turned into a convenience store and is now a gathering place for a dozen or so friends. It's part workshop, part bar, part informal store. (AP Photo/Wong Maye-E)
A man wearing shorts in the colors and design of the U.S. flag walks down the street, Monday, Aug. 3, 2020, in Metropolis, Ill. (AP Photo/Wong Maye-E)
Doris Miller 86, tends to her makeshift store selling Trump souvenirs in front of her home, Sunday, Aug. 2, 2020, in Vienna, Ill. This is a deeply conservative part of the nation - 77% of the county voted for President Donald Trump in the 2016 elections; only 19% went for Hillary Clinton. (AP Photo/Wong Maye-E)
Wearing a Black Lives Matter t-shirt and a knife on her hip for self defense, Mama Rose poses for a portrait, Friday, July 31, 2020, in Louisville, Ky. (AP Photo/Wong Maye-E)
The front of a Dollar General store is seen in this Friday, July 31, 2020, photo in Kentucky. (AP Photo/Wong Maye-E)
A couple carries prizes won in arcade games on Wednesday, Oct. 7, 2020, in Jackson, Miss. at the Mississippi State Fair, which is held every year in October. (AP Photo/Wong Maye-E)
The facade of a bar is decorated with a Confederate flag in Meridian, Miss., Wednesday, Oct. 7, 2020. Voters in Mississippi face a series of government-created barriers that make it, according to a study in the Election Law Journal in 2018, far and away the most difficult state in which to vote. (AP Photo/Wong Maye-E)
Bison graze in a field, Thursday, Nov. 12, 2020, in Orderville, Utah. (AP Photo/Wong Maye-E)
A tattered hat hangs on a fence at the Red Rock Canyon trail near Las Vegas Sunday, Nov. 8, 2020. (AP Photo/Wong Maye-E)
An abandoned fire truck sits in a field partially covered by overgrowth, Monday, Aug. 3, 2020, in Cairo, Ill. (AP Photo/Wong Maye-E)
A street sign points to America road, Monday, Aug. 3, 2020, in America, Ill.. (AP Photo/Wong Maye-E)
Text from AP News story, An outsider’s eye, an instant camera and America seen anew
Photos by Wong Maye-E