The Midlands folk who celebrate all-things American, shot beautifully by Tom Martin

Date
2 September 2015

Surely everyone likes something to do with America: burgers maybe, or Kim Cattrall, or the Grand Canyon, or prairie dogs. Catering to the needs of those with even the most casual of interests in the U S of A is a strange little celebration in Prestwold Airfield just outside Loughborough every year in July. The festival claims to celebrate anything American, for people who simply love “American things” – an aim so broad and bizarre that photographer Tom Martin felt compelled to document the goings-on.

“The Americana International festival has been running for years and years. I saw an ad for it on the internet I and was really intrigued, I think mainly by just how open ended the concept is,” says Tom. “It literally just caters for people who like ‘American things’ of all description. I decided I wanted to go and just shoot and see who these people were and what it was that drew them into this quite niche pastime.”

The images are wonderful: brash, but also so charming. The subjects dressed in red, white and blue celebrate all things American but with English teeth, and their infectious if perhaps confused enthusiasm shines through. “All the people in the photographs are English and mainly from the Midlands,” says Tom. “I talked to lots of people while I was there and mainly asked the question ‘If you like America so much why don’t you move there?’ which I never really got a proper answer to. But what I did find was this little community of family, people of all ages who’d created their own tradition of celebration all aspects of American culture, good and bad, every year in this little hidden pocket of the east Midlands.” 

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Tom Martin: Americana International

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Tom Martin: Americana International

Above

Tom Martin: Americana International

Above
Left

Tom Martin: Americana International

Above

Tom Martin: Americana International

Above
Left

Tom Martin: Americana International

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Emily Gosling

Emily joined It’s Nice That as Online Editor in the summer of 2014 after four years at Design Week. She is particularly interested in graphic design, branding and music. After working It's Nice That as both Online Editor and Deputy Editor, Emily left the company in 2016.

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