Debi Cornwall - Model Citizens - 2024

Model Citizens considers the US as a case study into a global phenomenon: how have staging, performance, and roleplay come to inform thinking about citizenship in a violent land whose people no longer agree on what is true?

The last in a trilogy of books on the American condition, Model Citizens includes photographs from US Border Patrol Academy training scenarios, “Save America” rallies, and history museums. Jarringly juxtaposed images from these apparently unrelated sites illuminate systems that reconcile, justify, or distract from the harsh realities of life in a polarized, militarized society. The design accentuates slippages: images flow across French-fold page turns, just as Cornwall’s practice questions the role of documentary photography in an era of splintered realities.

The Model Citizens project was awarded the 2023 Prix Elysée, a biennial juried prize for mid-career photographers, sponsored by the Photo Elysée Museum in Lausanne, Switzerland.