Greta Pratt

The Wavers

July 7-31, 2011

For this project, Greta Pratt has made photographic portraits of the “wavers”--day laborers--employed by Liberty Tax Service.  The workers stand on street corners, dressed in Statue of Liberty costumes, waving and dancing in an effort to entice the public into the tax offices.

Pratt was first drawn to the wavers, as everyone is, by the unexpected sight of someone dancing on an urban street corner dressed as the Statue of Liberty. But after hearing their stories Pratt became interested in them as individuals. Pratt found that all of those photographed were thankful to be working. Most of their prior job experiences have been in the service industry, from customer service at Wal-Mart to fast food cook to motel housekeeping. Some are disabled and at least one is currently homeless. All of their subjects are struggling to make ends meet, particularly in the current economic crisis.

To create these portraits Pratt asked them to adopt a pose that portrays them as an individual and not as an employee: “I photograph them in the location they are working and in their costume while using the urban streets as my backdrop.”

Greta Pratt is American photographer concerned with issues of national identity and American myth. Pratt is the author of three monographs, The Wavers (Blue Sky Books 2014), Using History (Steidl, 2005) and In Search of the Corn Queen (National Museum of American Art, 1994). Pratt’s work is included in major public and private collections and has been shown in Art in America, New York Times Sunday Magazine and The New Yorker, along with numerous books and catalogs nationally as well as internationally. She was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize and is a recipient of a New Jersey State Arts Council Grant.