Jay Giampietro is a writer, director, actor and musician whose short films have played the New York Film Festival, BAMcinemaFest, and the Montclair and Maryland Film Festivals. His short film Hernia won the 2015 Hammer to Nail Summer Shorts contest and he made his acting debut in the feature Stinking Heaven, which was distributed by Factory 25. His street photography capturing the eccentric denizens of New York City has been praised by The Village Voice, British GQ and The Guardian and is the subject of Joe Stankus’ short documentary I’ve Never Been A Fisherman. His most recent short films are Quarterbacks (2018) and Unpresidented (2017).
The streets were mild on Election Night 2018, and the lack of anxious Democrat screen watchers in Times Square forced me to spend most of my time a few blocks east, in the holding pen outside of the Fox News studio.
With jittery spotlights careening between the clouds and the tall buildings on 6th Avenue, security personnel nearly outnumbered the shallow crowd, who were waiting for something to cheer about as they jockeyed for position in the background of the anchor desk inside the building in front of them. MAGA hats were in surprisingly short supply and there was a tired energy to the trolling routine of the few costumed Trump supporters wandering around the pen.
I find Trump’s America to be extremely tweaked, overwrought, slyly amusing and grotesque. Hopefully these images reflect that.
