Connecticut Photographer

To Exhibit Flag Images

At Kent Memorial Library

KENT — Kent Memorial Library is pleased to announce that Darien photographer Robert Carley will have his photos displayed in the library’s gallery from September 1 through October 31 in an exhibit titled “America…Home Sweet Home: Photographs of Flag Houses Since 9/11.”

Mr Carley’s passion for photographing flags began the day he and his co-workers in Stamford witnessed the white smoke coming from the World Trade Center miles away across Long Island Sound. Soon after that day the American flag was suddenly everywhere.

“There were all these patriotic images and I thought, ‘I need to document this,’” Mr Carley commented. “I saw it as the resilience of the American spirit — the idea that we can overcome.”

So began a ten-year journey that has taken Mr Carley to many corners of the United States.

“My first flag photos were of a flag painted pumpkin in front of a Norwalk liquor store, a huge flag at a cemetery in Darien, and flag painted trees. The man who painted the flag trees told me about the flag house in Kent. Every time I took photos of something the person who created it would tell me about something else that they had seen. I have had no shortage of leads over the past ten years,” Mr Carley continued.

There will be an opening reception on Sunday, September 11, from 2 to 4 pm, at the library, 32 North Main Street. The program is free and open to the public but registration is requested; call 860-927-3761, send email to kmlinfo@biblio.org, or visit the library.