“I was frustrated with the way Americans are seen from the outside, especially from a European point of view.”Americans emerge as complex individuals with hopes, dreams, fears, and a capacity to endure
From the untold stories of Americans to the broader art of documenting reality
Robin de Puy is a Dutch photographer and filmmaker, internationally known for her portraits that range from public figures such as Bernie Sanders or Marina Abramovich, to the inhabitants of a remote Dutch island, to Randy, a boy from Ely, Nevada who de Puy has been photographing since his youth.
Robin de Puy’s most recent work is American, a collection of audio, film and photographic portraits created in the US between 2022 and 2024. The project, realized in collaboration with WePresent, the arts platform of WeTransfer, consists of 25 episodes in which de Puy captures the stories of ordinary people she meets in her journey across the states. The site can be explored both chronologically, following an index, or visually, wandering through the digital map made up of people and pictures. The photographs, stories and testimonies that make up American have been published in a photobook by Hannibal, available worldwide from 2025.
American: a collection of ordinary people
American features 25 episodes in which de Puy tries to capture the stories of US citizens she comes across along the way. Most of the people were approached randomly, a few she had previously met during her first trip across the US in 2015, the result of which is the book If This Is True, I’ll Never Have to Leave Home Again, published in 2016. When asked about what prompted the project, de Puy stated
“I was frustrated with the way Americans are seen from the outside, especially from a European point of view. Often there is this stereotypical idea of ignorance mixed with political values that is detached from the human aspect of people. I have been going regularly to the US for over fifteen years now and have created meaningful connections with a lot of people I met there. Some of them I even consider like family, and I wanted to show who they are. I wanted to focus on what is relatable, what is recognizable and similar to the human condition in toto”.
American is rich in its variety of characters: from twins Derek and Quentin, who live a fragile and hazardous life camped in a tent in Elkhart, Indiana, to Damaj, in Clarksdale Mississippi, who dreams of opening a tire shop – the stories are a mixture of pain, resilience, vulnerability, humor and heartbreak. Alongside images and videos de Puy included written thoughts to each story, an aspect that adds a deeper layer to the visual elements. The written part is often a personal reflection or a recollection, in which the encountered subjects merge with de Puy’s personal past, or emotional present. Her own thoughts penetrate the visible image of the different subjects, delivering a level of comprehension of the other that is profoundly layered.
Additional concretization to the project was brough by the idea of printing some of American’s protagonists onto billboards, displayed along Nevada’s historic Route 50, commonly known as ‘the loneliest road in America’. As de Puy explains: “A couple of months ago I had the thought of displaying the people I photographed on billboards. Instead of the well-known icons, we could finally look up to real heroes by placing them on a pedestal. Where? Wouldn’t it be great if we could celebrate and unite these icons on the Loneliest Road in America”?
The American dream: political perspectives
American landscape being the background and simultaneously the very core of the project, it is inevitable that the current political climate is inherent to the stories of the protagonists. 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 will experience.
I asked de Puy if she sensed a shift passing through the country after more than ten years.
“The past few years, my experience has changed. This is partly due to changes in the country, but also because of my ‘aging.’ Where I used to move through the country more easily and carefree, I now see more and more problems. Young people I photographed ten years ago, who had big dreams back then, are now often falling through the cracks, much like their parents, and are primarily focused on surviving. As a middle-class individual, it is difficult to stay afloat. Someone once told me, “There is no ceiling here in America; you can grow indefinitely. But there is also no bottom. If you fall, you fall infinitely deep. Take the motel industry for example, they are emblematic to the US. Now, the motel industry is mirroring society in its transformation. It is slowly decaying, big corporations are changing roads and viability, so travelers do not pass through small towns anymore. This generates crisis in motels, which loose clients and are deteriorating without funds”.
The element of American lies in the multiplicity of perspectives, a deep and rich pool of sentiments that range from gratitude to fear, from acceptance to hope, in stories that are both origin and consequence of the country’s political bias. Issues of class, gender, addiction or poverty are intrinsic to any capitalistic country, but specifics of US laws penetrate the series with poignancy: from long rooted issues of gun policy (Jeffrey, episode 13) to the more recently revoked abortion rights and questions of gender (Savannah and Logan, episode 6) or the pursuit of the American dream (Harpreet, episode 25), the project is a cross section of sociopolitical America anno 2025.
Colonialism of the gaze: who is looking?
Documenting reality through the faces of living people is a hard task. A photographer has to be aware of the fact that he or she is projecting a specific vision onto someone, a plethora of cultural assumptions or beliefs that are rooted in each and everyone’s social, economic and political background. Why am I photographing this specific person, what is it that I find interesting about her, and how is it perceived from the outside are pillars questions of any representational art form.
Photography, however, makes of these aspects the forma mentis of the discipline itself. The orientalization of the other and colonialism of the gaze, especially where there is great difference in class and privilege between the artist and the portrayed subject, is something to be aware of.
De Puy’s photography manages to deconstruct this vision by positioning herself as a participant instead of a viewer. She does not look from outside in, but from inside out. This is concretely achieved not only by actively talking and trying to understand when her subjects are physically open, but also by assuming a vulnerable position. De Puy sets herself bare in front of the subjects in the same way they do with her, in an exchange that is pure in its genuine curiosity towards the other.
“There are different things that I consider while working with people, and some distinctive things about myself that facilitate a connection. The fact I am a woman helps. It delivers a sense of care that often helps people to feel at ease. Also, I have always suffered from a severe anxiety disorder, this makes me aware of other people’s feelings. I am assessing whether someone is okay, if we are still “working together,” and if we are still on the same page. I can hardly do anything other than become a part of someone else. It feels intimate, vulnerable. What separates my world from their world is a fragile line, and I try my best to constantly check and see if we are doing something together”.
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. The inclusion of her written thoughts in the last project is a perfect example of the photographer’s vulnerability, of this give and take that shapes the ground of her practice and that follows her in every work.
The genre of the portrait and the fragility of exchange: Rescuers at sea (2024), Randy (2016 -)
The interest towards the other is imbued in the genre of the portrait. De Puy’s work is thus centered on capturing people: many of her encounters are fleeting and document stories of sociopolitical relevance, such as in the series Rescuers at sea, created for the Maritime Museum on the occasion of the celebration of200 years of the Dutch Sea Rescue Institution (KNRM). The exhibition highlighted volunteers of the KNRM, showcasing wide printed portraits of them alongside written personal stories. In some other projects, as with Randy (2016 – ), those same transient experiences blossom into profound and enduring relationships. Regardless of which ending they have, de Puy’s photographs are always imbued with a sensitivity and timelessness that encourages a slow gaze on the human condition. Her images are chances for genuine human connection, and through sharing with them with the world, allow us to take part in such moments.
When asked about her work, the idea of capturing one’s identity and the attempt of getting to know herself in the process, de Puy simply answered “who am I if I can’t see the other”?
Robin de Puy
Award-winning photographer Robin de Puy (b. 1986, the Netherlands) sees the camera as an aid to understand the deeply personal traits and histories of each of her subjects. Many of her encounters are fleeting; a heartfelt glance into the life of someone else before time resumes its frantic pace. De Puy sees the camera as an aid to understand the deeply personal traits and histories of each person, and how in turn they reveal something about herself.
De Puy studied at the Fotoacademie Rotterdam and has been exhibited internationally at a wide range of some of the world’s most highly regarded institutions and galleries. Among numerous other awards, De Puy was the winner of the National Portrait Prize in both 2013 and 2019. Her work is held and displayed in major public and private collections worldwide.
About WePresent
WePresent is WeTransfer’s Academy Award-winning arts platform, acting as the company’s cultural torchbearer to a monthly audience of approximately three million in 190 countries. Collaborating with a wide range of creators -from emerging young talent to renowned artists, such as Marina Abramovic, Riz Ahmed, FKA twigs or Solange Knowles-WePresent showcases the best in art, photography, film, music, literature and more, championing diversity in everything it does.
