Young Americans Series

Sheila Pree Bright is a Fine Art Photographer who is known for her photographic series Young Americans, Plastic Bodies and Suburbia.  Her large-scale works combines a wide ranging knowledge of contemporary culture, addressing commentary on American beauty standards, Patriotism and portrayals of urban and suburban themes. Recently, Bright took the Young Americans portraits to the streets of Art Basel Miami this passed December, wheat pasting eleven images in the Coconut Grove neighborhood on building and abandon homes that are often unnoticed in the urban landscape.  Bright revisits the series which exhibited as a solo show at the High Museum  of Atlanta in 2008, curated by Julian Cox, Founding Curator of Photography and Chief Curator  of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco. The work examines attitudes and values of Generation Y as American citizens. The series shows diverse young Americans, who are new to the voting system, and exploring ideas of what it means to be American. The sitters expressed their perspectives in a statement and posed in their chosen stance with the American flag.

With much success of launching her wall portraits in Miami, she is traveling the series to other cities in 2013. Her most recent stop was in Chattanooga, TN on Glass Street in collaboration with Glass House Collective and Keif Schleifer as curator. Bright states, “I want to engage with communities nationally after observing the major divide during the most recent Presidential election. I am passionate about re-framing these images by giving  communities an open forum and empowerment.” Bright’s goal is to  encourage public engagement and to create dialogue about being an American in the 21st century. 

Credit, Young Americans series courtesy of the artist.