By Ania Hull
May 22, 2026
“I think I was mistaken in thinking that democracy was a birthright,” Michelle Monroe says.
The co-owner of Monroe Gallery of Photography is sitting behind a large desk at the front of the art space, with her husband, Sidney Monroe. The two gallerists and curators are both warm and sharp and have no qualms about speaking their minds on the theme reflected in their latest show: America is in serious trouble.
The walls of the gallery that are visible from the front desk are filled with dozens of prints by photojournalists who’ve witnessed first-hand that "trouble" the Monroes speak of: they illustrate discrimination, racism, social and political violence, erasure of history, poverty, and the crumbling of one of the world’s oldest modern democracies. The prints are all part of America the Beautiful, a new group exhibition that opened earlier this month and runs through August 9.
The Monroes contend that some people refuse to see an unwashed version of their country — and also concede that it is difficult to look at photos that unveil the difficult, distressing, and ugly moments of American history. But the goal of this exhibition, the Monroes say, is to bring the issues to light in the hope that viewers will not turn away.
The exhibition commemorates the 250th anniversary of the birth of the nation and of the American experiment, doing it in a way that shows a beautiful America with gorgeous vistas but also reveals a side that viewers might be less comfortable seeing, the scenes of the United States of America hidden behind Old Glory.
“We were seeing exhibitions and plans being put into place for commemorating the 250th anniversary,” Sydney says, “and we’ve seen a lot of sanitization of our reality.
“One of the great benefits of representing photojournalists is that they document history,” he adds. “Their photographs are evidence.”
The photographs are from a range of eras, beginning in the 1930s up to this year, and reflect varying topics, such as protests, veterans, immigrants' rights, and symbols of poverty and other financial hardships.
And perhaps these images aren't the ones we want to see to inspire us to celebrate this national milestone but rather represent, the Monroes say, an opportunity to face our demons.
It begins with the flag
The Monroes keep a glass container on their front desk filled with individually wrapped whistles of the same kind anti-ICE protesters in Minneapolis used to alert their immigrant neighbors of an imminent Immigration and Customs Enforcement raid.
The Monroes share these whistles with gallery visitors. Last year, they gave out “Good Trouble” pins. This summer, Michelle says, they will distribute pins bearing an upside-down American flag, a symbol of distress.
A photo by independent photojournalist Tracy Barbutes in America the Beautiful shows an upside-down American flag hanging from El Capitan in Yosemite National Park. It was hung in protest of the thousands of federal job cuts that President Trump’s administration imposed early in 2025.
Many other prints in America the Beautiful feature various depictions of the American flag, many showing it as a symbol of identity, joy, and hope but also of oppression and violence.
“I suppose the American flag is like the crown,” Michelle says. “We formed against a monarchy, but we still needed a universal symbol, and the interpretation of the flag depends on who's holding it.”
In another print in the exhibition — the Pulitzer Prize-winning “Soiling of Old Glory” that Boston Herald American photographer Stanley J. Forman took in 1976 during an anti-bussing protest in Boston — the American flag is used as weapon: A white teenager, Joseph Rakes, holds it by its pole and thrusts it finial toward Black activist and lawyer Ted Landsmark, who’s being helped to his feet by another person.
In the 2006 photograph “Ty with Flags” by documentary photographer and filmmaker Nina Berman, young Marine Sgt. Tyler Ziegel stands on the porch of his house in the shadow of a large American flag. Ziegel was seriously wounded during his second tour in Iraq by a suicide car bomber. He died in 2012 of heroin and alcohol poisoning. This photo was taken the morning of his wedding, which ended in divorce that same year.
Berman says the photo of Ziegel and others in her series of veteran photos show the realities of war and the toll of the American flag on the bodies of soldiers who’d been sent to fight for it, often not even understanding what the conflict was about.
The atrocities continue through current events. Noted human rights photojournalist Ron Haviv's image in the show depicts a scene in Minneapolis on January 17 as anti-ICE protestors clash with ICE agents outside the Bishop Henry Whipple Federal Building. The American flag in Haviv’s photo obscures more than half of the scene but gives prominent focus to an ICE agent in full police-like uniform, with a bullet-proof vest and a mask reminiscent of gas masks from WWII. Behind him are other ICE agents in helmets and one in a makeshift mask made from a neck warmer.
Flags appear throughout America the Beautiful, often as a reminder that the American dream of freedom, equality, justice, opportunity is not a given.
“There’s a constant tension,” Sidney says, “between those who want to expand freedom and people’s opportunities, and people who want to restrict and determine who can be given an opportunity and who cannot.”
“You are not entitled to democracy,” Michelle adds, returning to her earlier remark that democracy is not a birthright. “It’s a responsibility. In the preamble of the Constitution, it says we must form a more perfect union. Well, now I understand that this is the responsibility of every single day. Just as a parent loves and nurtures a child, we must do the same with democracy.”
Photojournalist Ryan Vizzions’ photograph of a man standing atop a sign at the CNN headquarters in Atlanta during the May 2020 Black Lives Matter protest in response to the police killing of George Floyd symbolizes those who stand up against injustice and refuse to remain silent.
In the photo, the young man's sign reads “Black Lives Matter” in large letters. As he wields the flag, he tilts his face toward the sky, his mouth open, and he screams.
details
America the Beautiful
Opening reception is 4-6 p.m. Saturday, May 23; exhibition runs through August 9
Monroe Gallery of Photography
112 Don Gaspar
505-992-0800; monroegallery.com
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