Faces of the Republican Party is the latest series of images in my Chamomile Tea Party project, my effort to visually document the sorry state of American political discourse.
Americans have lost confidence in our institutions. These portraits document Americans, including national and state politicians, media personalities, lawyers, and citizens who’ve supported President Trump’s push to expand the Executive Branch’s power. He and his acolytes have ignored the Constitution, often disregarding judicial decisions. He was elected to a second term in 2024 on the promise of deporting undocumented immigrants convicted of violent crimes. Instead, he has deported or arrested people who are here legally, have no violent pasts, and even U.S. citizens, simply because of the color of their skin or the language they speak. Trump has given the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) extraordinary powers that are often unconstitutional. Over 30 people died while detained by ICE in 2025, including Reneé Good and Alex Pretti. When the President was asked whether he had a duty to uphold the Constitution, he replied, “I don’t know.”
Faces of the Republican Party is not a partisan body of work. The people depicted in these images are the partisans. Instead, these images present a visual history of the clash between our democratic governance—We the People—and the threat of authoritarianism. This work blends artistic expression and documentary. I tie each person’s likeness to their contributions to our dysfunctional political interactions. The text under each portrait offers a factual example of how these people have added to our country’s discord.
As someone recently told me, Washington, DC is the angriest city he’s lived in. People come here from all over the country to air their grievances—to be angry. These images reflect that. By contrast, the actual prints are beautiful, even painterly. This dichotomy mirrors the country we’re living in: the difference between the ideals of American Exceptionalism and the reality of our tumultuous experiences.
View all the portraits in Faces of the Republican Party.