I always think to Diane Arbus when I consider the American flag. Maybe due to the era of when they were taken they seem more authentic to me. Maybe the earnestness in the portraits gets to me.

Yes thinking about the flag today when our political landscape is changing rapidly.

 

This one by photographer Mary Ellen Mark is perhaps more poignant.

Dennis Hopper plays with an American flag, “Apocalypse Now”, Pagsanjan, Philippines, 1976

As I felt inclined to record in the post math of 9/11, “Nostalgia is undoubtedly more comforting to the mind than reality.”