Crisis Actors: Performing Citizenship

"Photographs can be evidence, yes, but evidence of what? My project, Crisis Actors, examines the staging of reality and the performance of citizenship in the United States, a militarized country whose citizens cannot agree on what is true. I started this inquiry in my second book, Necessary Fictions (Radius Books, 2020) by photographing military wargames. Now I’m casting a wider net, making photographs more elliptically related to my topic, from institutional staging and roleplay to the performances we play out communally, consciously or not."

Extract from Debi Cornwall – Crisis Actors: Performing Citizenship, Editions Photo Elysée, 2023.

The result of a partnership between Photo Elysée and Parmigiani Fleurier, the Prix Elysée is an award that supports production in the field of photography.

Published by Photo Elysée, eight publications present the projects of the eight nominees of the Prix Elysée 2022-2024: Vincen Beeckman, Debi Cornwall, Siân Davey, Nicolai Howalt, Khashayar Javanmardi, Alice Mann, Gloria Oyarzabal and Virginie Rebetez. Designed by the designer Ramon Pez and printed by L'Artiere Edizioni in Bologna, each of these booklets promotes the work in progress for the Prix Elysée and offers an original entry into the personal world of the eight photographers.