Support Documentary Expedition Across USA

The United States is a country dividing. We are a quarter of the way through the 21st century and what is America? What is an American? The tenor of our division reeks with misunderstanding. Misinformation is fueled by media sensationalism that exploits our lack of encounter with the groups we do not know, shoehorning us into an us vs. them mentality that compounds our ignorance and broadens the divide.

Our Future History is happening right now, unfolding across the landscape of the Nation. A national document, from the grassroots, is essential.

I am artist and photographer Daniel Eugene, and I am uniquely positioned to document this landscape at this moment in history. I am a racecar driver and a drag performer. Representing polar opposites in our political divide, I am simultaneously an insider and an outsider to both worlds, always observing one informed by the perspective of the other.

My mission is to travel across the United States to create a survey of contemporary national identity through the lens of local stock car racing and drag performance culture.

This double agency of seeing led me to my project titled Checkered Pride, which I have been engaged in since 2017. Checkered Pride is a documentary endeavor where I am using photography to cross-examine drag performance and stock car racing cultures, highlighting what I experience as sympathetic overlaps, just dressed differently—namely rebellion, flamboyance, freedom, and pride as prevalent essences characterizing both realms. Most importantly, I am documenting each environment on its own terms as distinct expressions of United States national identity.

This GoFundMe campaign is to establish a network of support to help me broaden the scope of Checkered Pride into a national focus.

I am currently enrolled in the Documentary Practices and Visual Journalism program at the International Center of Photography in New York City (through June 2025). My learning here is providing me with essential technical and psychological preparation for the work that this project will demand of me as a visual storyteller.

Initial funds from this campaign will support my tuition and living expenses while completing this program. The remainder will be catalytic, allowing me to begin preparations for my journey across America, creating space so that I can seek grants for the remainder of funds needed for a project of this scale (see estimated budget breakdown below.)

The Checkered Pride project will culminate as a photo-book—a visual narrative expressing the experience and discovery of my national journey.

While traveling, I will post regular snapshots via my Instagram story along with a weekly video blog as a window through which supporters can experience the journey with me. Throughout my travels, I will be exercising what I am currently learning at the International Center of Photography by reporting my observations from the ground. You will see what I see.

I am planning my Checkered Pride Documentary Expedition Across the USA from February–November, 2026.

Visit the Checkered Pride gallery on my website at: https://danieleugene.pixpa.com/checkered-pride

Watch a short biographical video where I discuss the experiences that inspired the Checkered Pride documentary project. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tdyWn0QWHpM&t=2s

Estimated budget breakdown

Tuition and living expenses: $10,000

Travel preparation and expenses: $15,000

Book production (250 unit print run): $10,000

Photo/Video equipment: $5,000

Miscellaneous and emergency: $5,000

Additional funds will be pursued through institutional grant opportunities, i.e., the Magnum Photographs Counter Histories fellowship and the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation fellowship.