What does it mean to be patriotic?
Try finding words to answer that question. Try finding photographs.
Last March, more than 30 Marylanders answered New York photographer Bill Hayward's casting call for "Patriot Acts," a collaborative self-portraiture project. Among the 30 historic sites Hayward visited across the country was Fort McHenry, where he interviewed and photographed people and asked them to create their own backdrops using paper, scissors and paint.
"The project allows people to take a moment to step back and ask themselves, 'What do I really feel about patriotism?'" says Hayward, a former photographer for Andy Warhol whose portrait subjects have included Bob Dylan and Ronald Reagan.
At Fort McHenry, birthplace of "The Star-Spangled Banner," no celebrities were photographed - just folks with something on their minds.
"I always stress - I didn't paint anything or draw anything. This is all coming from the individual," Hayward says. "I was very taken with the variety of people who showed up."
Among those who'd read about his project and ventured to Fort McHenry were a mother and father whose son is a Marine serving in Iraq, volunteers from the fort, a firefighter, cabdriver, acupuncturist, Frank Sinatra fanatic, aging war veteran and a 5-year-old Baltimore girl named Michaela Sipes, who delivered a smile while holding a Texas-challenged map of the United States her father painted for the portrait.
"That was a Burger King smile," says Michaela's mother, Jennifer Sipes. "She was standing there and wasn't smiling. My husband said, 'If you smile, I'll take you to Burger King,' and she smiled."
Her photograph will be included in "Patriot Acts," which is part of Hayward's continuing "American Memory Project," in which people are invited to create their own declarations of independence, as he says. Hayward hopes to have the project's book, documentary and traveling exhibit finished by next year (to see more of Hayward's work, go to billhayward.com).
On Independence Day, we thought it fitting to debut seven of his portraits of patriotism from the local landmark:
Rosemary Robinson, 54, Scaggsville, telephone operator (photographed with her husband, James Robinson, in a bunker at Fort McHenry).
"Our son James - he's a Marine - was being deployed to Iraq from California, and we knew we would not be able to see him off. I remember asking myself that day, 'What am I going to do with myself? My son is going into a war zone. Where do I go today?'
"I read about Hayward's project in the newspaper. It was a bolt of lightning. That's where I have to be. ...
"We were allowed to take the paper we're holding home with us. We put it up on the wall in our family room. There it remained until this past Christmas when my son came back home. We had a party, but he was embarrassed by the sign, so we rolled it up and put it away. ...
"Until this past April 2, when he was deployed a second time to Iraq. Again, 'What I am going to do? Where do I go?' I went and got that paper and I unrolled it and I put it back up in the wall in the family room.
"It was a comfort again."
Elizabeth Kudirka, 19, Ellicott City, student at University of Maryland, Baltimore County.
"I always had a clear picture of what my dream home would be and this library I always wanted. So, I went and painted that. I still have the picture in my room. I like it too much I can't get rid of it.
"I lived in Ukraine for two years. While I loved it over there, I always considered the United States my home. Even if you move somewhere, it's your first home you have that tie with. ...
"You're patriotic to your home."
Michael Buck, 44, Boring, engineer; Fort McHenry volunteer
"That's the uniform I would wear at the fort for its Living History programs. It's actually a uniform lieutenants wore in the U.S. Navy in the War of 1812.
"'Presentness' is hard to explain, but I know what it feels like. This uniform is what they were wearing in their present moment. To us, the pose looks awkward, but to them it was perfectly normal. ...
"It would not work if it was a construction outfit."
Walter Salmon Jr., 87, Sparks, U.S. Army Air Corp (served 1941-1945 as tail gunner with the 98th Bomb Group; flew 35 missions); retired businessman.
"We were 'The Pyramiders,' named that because we were stationed in Egypt. We were the boys who saved the British from [Field Marshal Erwin] Rommel in the desert. We dropped our bombs on six German supply vessels. According to history, it was a turning point for the Germans. We received four presidential citations. ...
"Personally, I am not in favor of wars because they don't accomplish anything. But at that time I was defending my country. ...
"One day people will say, 'Let's try to negotiate this thing because there are no winners in a war.' One day people will say, 'Let's outlaw wars.'"
Michaela Sipes, 5, Baltimore. She was too shy to be interviewed. Her father, 33-year-old George Sipes, is a volunteer guard at the fort, and spoke for her - and himself.)
"People always ask me where I have lived. I really don't have a hometown. I've been all over because my father was in the Air Force. So, I drew the map of the places I lived.
"I was photographed for the book. But Michaela was holding up the map I made, and the guy got a picture of her. ...
"My wife was off to the side coaching her."
Deborah Rowan, 50, Hampden, acupuncturist.
"The photographer and I were talking about when patriotism becomes nationalism. There's no room for humility. Might makes right. But true patriotism should include humility. Admitting that you are not always right. It's not all 'might makes right.'
"It was sort of brave of me to stick my nose out like that."
Richard Wilson, 48, Baltimore. (For his photo session last year, Wilson drew a picture of his plot in a community garden. He spoke with The Sun that day.)
"I never thought that much about patriotism. It never crossed my mind.
"The project got me thinking about it."rob.hiaasen@baltsun.com