Coming of Age Amid Patriotic Training

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/22/lens/coming-of-age-amid-patriotic-training.html

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Sarah Blesener spent most of 2016 at Russian patriotic camps and schools photographing teenagers learning military tactics and love of country. She had hoped her images would spark conversations about the polarization and nationalist rhetoric that marked the last United States presidential campaign.

They did not.

The overwhelming response from Americans when her photographs were published last year centered on Russian nationalism and the moral dilemmas surrounding militarization of youth. The most common reaction, she said, was that “other people are nationalists, but Americans are patriots.”

With that in mind, Ms. Blesener, 26, turned to exploring the myriad programs that teach patriotic values and military skills to about 400,000 American children and teenagers. Many were similar to the Russian programs, though she said there was less military training in the United States. She eventually settled on 10 programs, including Utah Patriot Camp, the Border Patrol Explorer program, Young Marines and the Junior R.O.T.C. program.

“They had different combinations of religion, love of country and military-style training,” Ms. Blesener said. “Some had only educational programs, but all focused on patriotism.”

Many of the programs teach positive values, she said, noting that among the 17 victims in last week’s Florida school shooting were three Junior R.O.T.C. cadets who died while protecting their friends. All three were posthumously awarded the J.R.O.T.C. Heroism Medal, and one was admitted to West Point.

Ms. Blesener’s images from the United States are currently on exhibit at the Anastasia Gallery in New York until April 1. Taking her time during the project, she said, taught her “to stay away from the more dramatic, but often less revealing, images with guns.” she said. The resulting photos deal solely with the young people and do not provide ready-made answers for the viewers.

In many ways, her project is as much an American coming-of-age story as it is an examination of patriotism.

“On one hand, there remains an incredible vulnerability of adolescence that I am drawn to: the wide-eyed optimism, the fear, the bewilderment, the gnawing need for acceptance, the lack of purpose and the open hands searching for it,” she wrote in a project description. “On the other hand, there is institutionalized militarization, there is patriotism, group identities, the stripping of traditional adolescent freedom, the talk of war and the play of war.”

Born and raised in Minneapolis, Ms. Blesener studied youth development and had intended to become a youth worker until she decided to move to New York and study photography. Teenagers have been the subjects of all her projects, including a long-term story on the friendship of four teenage boys in the South Bronx.

The programs she found in Russia were well known by the public and encouraged by the government. Here, Ms. Blesener said, similar programs go unadvertised and are difficult to find. She was surprised to discover that there were twice as many young people enrolled in these programs here than in Russia.

They gave a range of reasons for joining, including plans to seek a military career, parental pressure, following their friends or just wanting to learn to shoot a gun for fun, Ms. Blesener said.

“Patriotism permeates our politics, our culture, our everyday life,” she wrote. “As do accusations of unpatriotic behavior. Of course, the word patriot tends to just be code for someone who shares our beliefs. And Americans are incredibly patriotic people. But where a sense of pride, and love, of your country, your beliefs, your community — turns into a sense of superiority, to aggression — this is nationalism.”

Sarah Blesener’s project was supported by grants from the Alexia Foundation and the Catchlight Foundation, and in partnership with Reveal from the Center for Investigative Reporting.

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