Young Man Yell
The night before every home game, the Texas A&M Aggies hold a Midnight Yell, in which a group of cadets leads 25,000 fans in a romp of male cheerleading, kicking off an All-American celebration of College Football. In Kyle Field, a defunct yet deeply embedded strain of American Idealism plays out in the safe structures of athletic pageantry.
Captured in 2019 and presented in the context of a divided, post-insurrection nation, these images document a youthful rehearsal for an imagined life, where conflict and violence are delivered with a handsome face, a strong arm, and a charismatic yell.
Under these stadium lights floats an air of cultural truth. Young men adorned and decorated with the rose-tinted nostalgia of military achievement, an alluring experience of power. Cadets neatly arranged into hierarchies of power, ready for a world where America fights and wins. While their youthful torsos may shimmer like plastic, these are not Ken Dolls, they are Action Men, dressed in camp farmer outfits, reporting for duty.
These Young Men. In all of their tender, awkward possibilty. Waiting be the hero, to help bring home the win.
Yell, Young Man, Yell.
Captured in 2019 and presented in the context of a divided, post-insurrection nation, these images document a youthful rehearsal for an imagined life, where conflict and violence are delivered with a handsome face, a strong arm, and a charismatic yell.
Under these stadium lights floats an air of cultural truth. Young men adorned and decorated with the rose-tinted nostalgia of military achievement, an alluring experience of power. Cadets neatly arranged into hierarchies of power, ready for a world where America fights and wins. While their youthful torsos may shimmer like plastic, these are not Ken Dolls, they are Action Men, dressed in camp farmer outfits, reporting for duty.
These Young Men. In all of their tender, awkward possibilty. Waiting be the hero, to help bring home the win.
Yell, Young Man, Yell.
Texas, 2019
