I definitely wanted to comment on an idea that would be present to my entire generation, so ideas such as the crippling student debt that many college attendants face, to the “embarrassed millionaire” complex, to even the division within the United States down party lines came up. However, I settled on the American Dream and it’s state in contemporary culture to show how America has really evolved.
Coming from a relatively privileged area of the world, and even of the United States, I think that its important to be aware of things outside the sphere in which I grew up. Throughout middle and high school, one of the biggest ideas taught to me in terms of the culture of the United States was the idea of the “American Dream”, and how America was and is a land where anyone can achieve anything. However, given the contemporary culture of “everyone for themselves” and the presence of late stage capitalism that seems to strangle and poison the United States, I thought it fitting to show the true state of the American Dream in my eyes; on its last legs, dying alone and un-cared for.
I think I was able to make the American Dream seem in a decrepit stage, slowly fading from existence. However, if I were to do it again, I would try to digitize it first, as to add color and add even more context of the Dream’s isolated death.
Derek Zhang's Blog 