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Aariona stands in front of a brick wall in Cleveland, Ohio, with her hands clasped in front of her. She looks into the camera with a pleasant, low-key, closed-mouth smile. Aariona has an Afro and wears a T-shirt that reads “Black and Proud.”

Aariona
Cleveland, Ohio

When I was growing up, my mom always had this fear that something would happen to me. I was very much an inside child. My mom had some really bad encounters with people who couldn’t quite accept the fact that Black people were moving into this neighborhood. So it made it difficult to really fit in. Once I started to come outside, and I started to see everything for what it was, I met some really interesting people.

It’s kind of poor here. We don’t really have a lot, but what we do have is unity. There are times when bills couldn’t quite get paid. Once, our neighbor happened to receive our bill, and he paid it for us. That made things so much better.

Photography

Portrait Of US

Photographs By Monica Jane Frisell, Interviews By Adam Scher • July 2023

Since July 2021 married couple Monica Jane Frisell and Adam Scher have been traveling the U.S. in their “nomadic photo ark” — a converted cargo trailer with a film darkroom and a living space inside. At a time when the country feels divided, they are attempting to find evidence of what we share by making large-format portraits of Americans from different states and recording short audio interviews with them. People have proven eager to talk, especially coming out of the pandemic, when so many were isolated or felt unheard. Frisell and Scher say they are humbled by the stories people choose to share, and they hope to continue the project for the next three to five years. The following photos and interview excerpts are a sample of their growing collection.