Todd R. Forsgren

Driving into the Sunset:
Photographs of the American
Landscape from the Trump Years 

In the summer of 2015 I became a father, Donald Trump began his political career, and my father gave me the 35mm camera that his father had given him. The camera was a Leica M2 that hadn’t been used since I was a toddler. Since then, that camera has been around my neck constantly, like a Rolleiflex was when I first fell in love with photography twenty years ago. 

Since 2015, I’ve traveled to 40 of the 50 states, lived on both coasts and finally found what I hope will be my home for decades to come here in Montana. I’ve driven over 100,000 miles by car, either criss-crossing the country in search of a new home or commuting to work. I’ve hiked miles of remote trails and walked even more miles pushing my daughter’s stroller around the neighborhood or teaching her how to ride her scooter. 

Today, our country is perhaps more divided than ever... Sliced into red and blue states, rich and poor, urban and rural, black and white. We’ve witnessed the rise and fall (?) of Donald Trump’s unlikely political career and the COVID-19 pandemic. But these photographs aren’t made to dwell on those divisions, but rather to try to create connections in this strange and divided country of mine. A country I love very much. 

I hope that I’ve come to understand America better through photography, fatherhood, travel, and teaching over the past five years. Today we are turning a new page in American history. And I’m turning a new page in my life (after all, I turn 40 next week). So I’m hanging up that Leica to start working on something new. 

Todd R. Forsgren
January 20th, 2021