Enid Crow: American Values

Enid Crow: American Values by Aline SmithsonJuly 5, 2026

This is a self-portrait photograph from the series American Values. A sexy woman in a patriotic bikini is posing on a beach with the letters "U.S.A." drawn in the sand in front of her. A quote from Pastor Dale Partridge below the photo reads, "I don't think we should repeal the 19th Amendment because I don't love women. I think we should repeal the 19th Amendment because I love America and American women and want to protect our nation from their suicidal empathy."

©Enid Crow, Self Portrait, American Values: 19th Amendment

Sometimes the best way to tell a story is to act out all the characters yourself, just to make sure it’s done right. Artist Enid Crow has a legacy of self-portraiture, using her humor and theatrical sensibility to speak to issues of our time. In her series, American Values, she focuses on the the symbols, performances, and contradictions of contemporary American nationalism. Through a series of meticulously staged self-portraits, Crow transforms herself into an array of recognizable characters—from gun rights advocates and patriotic enthusiasts to aspirational social climbers draped in red, white, and blue. By inhabiting these personas, she exposes the ways identity, ideology, and patriotism are constructed, performed, and consumed.

Drawing on her background in theater and a decades-long practice of character-based self-portraiture, Crow uses humor, parody, and exaggeration as tools of social critique. Like an actor moving through a cast of roles, she occupies multiple viewpoints while maintaining a critical distance from them. The resulting photographs are both playful and unsettling, inviting viewers to consider how national myths are shaped, who benefits from them, and what values are revealed beneath the surface of patriotic display. In an era marked by political polarization and resurgent nationalism, American Values offers a timely examination of the stories Americans tell about themselves and the identities they choose to perform.

A conversation with the artist follws.

©Enid Crow, Self Portrait, American Values: Bomb Pop

American Values

American Values is a series of self-portrait photographs that probes, pokes fun of, and protests American values and nationalism. In the ongoing series of 50+ photos, I take pictures of myself as male and female characters dressed up in red, white, and blue outfits, the colors of the American flag. In some photos, Jan Peterson has assisted.

The series is influenced by vernacular photos, photojournalism of election conventions, Nikki S. Lee’s self-portrait projects, and Suburbia, Bill Owens’s 1973 photojournalism book that documents the lives of middle-class Americans. In Owens’ series, he uses quotes from the subjects of his photographs to explore American life. In my series, I use quotes found in social media posts, blogs, newspaper articles, academic journals, and other sources to supplement my pictures and paint a picture of many facets of American culture.

This is a self-portrait photograph from the series American Values. An aggressive looking man in an American flag shirt stands near railroad tracks. A quote from an article below the photo reads, "Calls for women to “get back to the kitchen” and to “repeal the 19th” peaked shortly after the election then dropped. Meanwhile, mentions of “your body my choice” continued rising, driven by cross-platform amplification, often by those pushing back against it."

©Enid Crow, Self Portrait, American Values: Certain Men

Enid Crow, b. 1968, Auburn, NY) is a New York City based conceptual artist. She makes staged, self-portrait photographs as costumed characters and short videos. With humor and parody, her character-driven photos address social issues such as the rise of American nationalism, unfair labor practices, the environment, phobias, and equal rights.

Examples of Crow’s projects include American Values (a quasi-documentary of American nationalism and values), Happy Workers (self-portraits commenting on labor), Action for Endangered Mollusks/Insects! (self-portraits impersonating endangered species), and Disasters (self-portraits as characters observing undefined disasters off-screen).Crow began taking pictures of herself in the 1980s as a teenager enrolled in a modeling school known as the Wendy Ward School of Charm. Later, while studying acting in college, she started posing as characters in her photos.

Crow is a former artistic fellow of A.I.R. Gallery and BRIC Arts Media. She has had four solo shows (NYC, Portland, Geneseo, and Lamoni, Iowa) and regularly participates in group shows. She holds a B.A. and M.A. in theatre/performance studies from the State University of New York at Geneseo and Northwestern University, respectively, an M.Ed. from the University of Florida, and a J.D. from the New York University School of Law.

Instagram: @enidcrow

©Enid Crow with assistance from Jan Peterson, Self Portrait, American Values: Racetrack,

Tell us about your growing up and what brought you to photography….

In the mid 1980s, when I was about 13, I attended the Wendy Ward School of Charm in upstate New York. The School wanted the students to get headshots done at a glamour photo studio chain, but my parents said no because they thought it was a money-making scam. So I took my own glamorous headshot with a Pentax K1000, a shutter release cord, and a studio I made in my basement with a bedsheet backdrop and a desk lamp for the studio light. I had braces and a bad feathered haircut and I tried to pose like sexy ladies in Breck Hair Spray ads. Those were very (unintentionally) silly pictures and I try to carry that silliness forward in my self portraits today.

This is a self-portrait photograph from the series American Values. A woman in a sweatshirt that says "Feels awesome to be American" stands in front of a store that says "Economy Financial" with an arrow pointing down. A quote from Ralph Waldo Emerson below the photo reads, "America is another name for Opportunity."

©Enid Crow, Self Portrait, American Values: Awesome of be American

Did you start your photographic journey with self portraiture?

I’ve almost exclusively done self portraiture since I was 13. After the Wendy Ward School of Charm, I studied theatre/performance studies in undergraduate and graduate school and I continued taking pictures of myself. My self portraits grew out of play-acting, wearing/making costumes and sets, and inventing stories.

This is a self-portrait photograph from the series American Values. A middle-aged blond woman in a red, white, and blue country-western shirt stands in horse farm. smiling at the camera. Below the photograph, a quote from the Pew Research Center reads, "The gender pay gap -- the edifference between the earnings of men and women -- has barely closed in the United States in the past two decades. In 2022, American women typically earned 82 cents for every dollar earned by men. That was about the same as in 2002, when they earned 80 cents to the dollar."

©Enid Crow, Self Portrait, American Values: Gender Pay Gap

What first compelled you to begin American Values, and why did self-portraiture feel like the right vehicle for this exploration?

I lived in the Japanese countryside for three years. During that time when I was far from home and other Americans, I wondered what it meant to be American and what is an American identity. I wanted to explore that question in this series. I use self portraits as a vehicle for documenting parts of American life because it is fun making up and playing characters.

The American Values series is influenced by Nikki S. Lee’s self portraits in American subcultures and, even more so, by photojournalist Bill Owens’ book of pictures of California in the 1970s called Suburbia. Bill’s intimacy with his subjects was great. I particularly love the quotes from his subjects that he included under his photos because they added so much context. I love how his photos are simultaneously earnest, funny, curious, and critical of American suburban life.

This is a self-portrait photograph from the series American Values. A middle-aged blond woman in a red, white, and blue shirt stands in front of a vintage restaurant picking food out of her teeth. Below the photograph, a quote from the National Hot Dog and Sausage Council reads, "During peak hot dog season, from Memorial Day to Labor Day, Americans are expected to consume 7 billion hot dogs."

©Enid Crow, Self Portrait, American Values: Hot Dogs

Your photographs reference vernacular photography and Bill Owens’s Suburbia. What draws you to the visual language of the everyday, and how does it strengthen the work’s critique?

Even though vernacular photography is not uniquely American, it is such an important part of American life. Vernacular photos tend to be straightforward, familiar, and relatively easy to understand. Often the subject is in the middle of the picture, and the subject is more important than the composition. Sometimes, these photos are goofy and bizarre. In American Values, I didn’t want to distract the viewer with composition or artistry, so I borrowed the center composition, goofiness, etc. from vernacular photos.

This is a self-portrait photograph from the series American Values. A man in a shirt that says "I help people get jobs" stands in front of parking lot in Brooklyn. A quote from ABC News below the photo reads, "Americans work more than anyone in the industrialized world. More than the English, more than the French, way more than the Germans or Norwegians. Even, recently, more than the Japanese. And Americans take less vacation, work longer days, and retire later, too."

©Enid Crow, Self Portrait, American Values: Jobs

Your work balances humor with pointed social critique. How do you decide where comedy ends and discomfort begins?

I think comedy is powerful and it often provokes people to think about uncomfortable topics they want to avoid. I try to make pictures that are like observational standup comedy, where humor, critique, and discomfort overlap.

The title American Values can be read both sincerely and ironically. What does that phrase mean to you today?

As a prompt, “American values” lends itself to an expansive series because there are so many diverse values among individuals and small groups, and also collective values that emerge from trends, like how we spend our money and the laws we pass. There are about 50 pictures in the series now—I’ve been shooting it since around 2012. I hope to shoot the series for the next few decades.

This is a self-portrait photograph from the series American Values. A pretty brunette in heart-shaped sunglasses wearing a t-shirt that says "Just Here To Bang" in American patriotic colors stands in front of a Mexican night market. A quote from The Wall Street Jornal below the photo reads, "Travel agents are fielding questions about how Americans should behave and dress while traveling abroad."

©Enid Crow, Self Portrait, American Values: Just Here to Bang

What role does performance play in your practice? Do you feel transformed when you step into these characters?

All of my self-portrait photographs and series are driven by characters and performance—I start by picking out a costume and inventing a character out of the clothes and wigs. Yes, I do feel transformed when I’m dressed up. I play male and female characters that are extremely different from the way I present myself in every-day life. The last weekend of June 2026, I went to a horse betting race track dressed as a man—I would never go there as myself. It was freeing and so much fun. I felt like a spy.

This is a self-portrait photograph from the series American Values. A middle-aged red-headed woman in a red, white, and blue patriotic jacket and heavy makeup stands in front of a gas guzzling white and blue car at a gas gtation. Below the photograph, a quote from President George W. Bush reads, "We have a serious problem: America is addicted to oil."

Who and/or what inspires you?

I love clothes and hairdos and they inspire my characters.

My husband Jan Peterson, a photographer and retired director/cinematographer, inspires me. In the American Values series, he helped me take some of the complicated pictures that I couldn’t do with a tripod and a timer and he can help coach a performance out of me if I’m stuck.

I get inspired looking at all kinds of photographs and by music and writing; here are some I’ve been thinking of lately: At the Griffin Museum of Photography, in June 2026, I found a new book by James Traggianese called Plant Life, a vivid and clever comedic series about plants growing in a city, and I was introduced to Mari Saxon’s fantastic fairy-tale inspired self portraits. The Eugene Smith show curated by the incredible Momo Muroi at the Tokyo Photographic Art Museum in 2026 was moody, intense, and unforgettable. I loved discovering the self-portraiture of Alena Solomonova through Lenscratch.

This is a self-portrait photograph from the series American Values (with the artist's friend, Sonika Misra). Two pretty women in matching tank tops bearing peace symbols in American stars and stripes American stars and stripes stand in a suburban backyard. A quote from Harold Pinter's Nobel Lecture below the photo reads, "The crimes of the United States have been systematic, constant, vicious, remorseless, but very few people have actually talked about them. You have to hand it to America. It has exercised a quite clinical manipulation of power worldwide while masquerading as a force for universal good."

This is a self-portrait photograph from the series American Values. A middle-aged man wearing a red, white, and blue cap that says to vote for 1992 third-party presidential candidate Ross Perot, stands in his yard holding a rake. Below the photograph, a quote from a Washington Post editorial reads, "The zero-sum, winner-take-all dynamics of U.S. elections make it nearly impossible for third parties to gain electoral traction, despite survey data that shows fully half of Americans do not identify with any party and label themselves independent."

What’s next?

I retired from my job as a lawyer in October 2025, and I’m really excited to finally be able to work on art projects full time. For the next few months, I’m focusing on Action for Endangered Mollusks!/Action for Endangered Insects!, a series of self-portrait photos where I embody endangered clams and bugs as middle-aged women and men doing mundane human activities.