““In the end we agreed to disagree, and I remain vigorously against everything they believe in, but that doesn’t change the fact that we were able to exchange a lot, communicate, share really long talks and I am really grateful for that moment.””

— Anna Hahoutoff

Interview by Kylie G Bryant

For this project Americana you traveled to more than thirty states. Can you share one of your most impactful memories from these travels?

In 2017, we were staying in different airbnbs every night and that was just a few weeks before the presidential election. We would voluntarily choose to stay with people rather than having individuals flats in order to share discussions with all the hosts that wanted to talk with us.

We would meet city after city and state after state all kinds of different people with different opinions, lifestyles, political views, it was really fascinating. One of my favorite and most impactful memory is of an evening and morning discussing with a family in Texas. They were pro-Trump, pro-guns, anti -immigration, amongst other things and we would disagree on pretty much anything we could think of. However we shared really long talks, in a respectful atmosphere and we would try to really understand the other’s point of view, and where it was coming from. In the end we agreed to disagree, and I remain vigorously against everything they believe in, but that doesn’t change the fact that we were able to exchange a lot, communicate, share really long talks and I am really grateful for that moment.

You mention in your project statement that this project is influenced by the dichotomy that is intrinsic to the way our country is divided, and that you try to find the gray areas within these divides. Has your view of this project or the gray areas changed since 2018 or been affected by recent events?

Not really. I don’t believe much has changed. It got a worse obviously, for many people and for many reasons, but this idea of extreme opposite still remains very strong I’m not sure why but as a stranger it is really strange to witness. To go back to my previous answer for instance I find fewer and fewer people that are willing to discuss no matter their background, temper are high and society is dividing itself more and more which only makes it weaker in times like the ones we are living right now.