AMERICAN — Robin de Puy’s portrait of a divided nation

What does it mean to be an American? A gargantuan country, both in geographical size and in population, it is an ever-shifting behemoth that remains as beguiling as it is near impossible to capture. 

Beyond globally-renowned celebrities and politicians whose voices and opinions we are privy to, what are the thoughts, concerns and dreams of the largely unheard people of America?

Dutch photographer and filmmaker Robin de Puy dedicated years in the US, speaking to as many regular, often under-represented people as she could, to try and gather puzzle pieces that would later make up an honest portrait of a nation.

The result is “AMERICAN:” a collection of audio, film and photographic portraits, created in the US between 2022 and 2024. In this series, de Puy invites us to look closer at, and listen to, the stories of a cross-section of people who make up one of the world’s most powerful, extreme and divisive countries, at a politically turbulent and poignant time.

The project, envisioned by de Puy in collaboration with WePresent, consists of 25 episodes in which we meet an extraordinary collection of people and hear their stories. The last nine episodes were newly captured in the summer of 2024, in the lead-up to one of the most tense elections the country has experienced. Through de Puy’s lens, Americans emerge not as stereotypes or abstractions, but as complex individuals with hopes, dreams, fears and a remarkable capacity to endure and inspire.