Nordic Spirit

While it is important for us to think of ourselves as Americans, it is also important to remember the nations and the places that have inspired America's strength and unique diversity. Nordic Spirit, the first in a series of photo essays entitled the American Spirit, celebrates Scandinavian-Americans—those whose ancestors came from Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden. The stoic, yet warm, nature of these people is a cultural trait that has impacted the American culture. The photographs in Nordic Spirit highlight the individuals who might otherwise get lost in a sea of faces. As facets of each subject's personality are captured on film and page, one begins to understand what Danish philosopher Søren Kierkegaard meant when we said, "Ordinarily, we human beings are sensual and, therefore, as soon as it is a gathering, the impression changes—we see something abstract, the crowd, and we become different. But in the eyes of God, the infinite spirit, all the millions that have lived and now live do not make a crowd. He only sees each individual. Nordic Spirit is about the individuals who make up America and about remembering that all people come from somewhere and bring traits of their heritage with them into American culture—it's about the differences that become part of the whole.