Throughout his career, Gregory Halpern has investigated the elusive and shifting idea of “Americanness” — a subject both complex and essential, particularly in a time of political uncertainty. Travelling through the American heartland, often associated with the Bible Belt and shaped by its prairie landscapes and pioneer histories, he continues to return to this question in search of its layered meanings.

His photographs from Omaha, Nebraska, present a fragmented and plural vision of the United States: a place marked by contradiction, where adolescence, uncertainty and a distinct form of hypermasculinity coexist with landscapes that seem to lead nowhere and an atmosphere of suspended time. Domestic spaces and everyday scenes reveal a quieter, often unsettling underside to American life.

Made over fifteen years, Omaha Sketchbook gathers this ongoing exploration into a lyrical and unresolved response to place. Structured like assembled sketchbook pages, the work embraces dissonance and unexpected connections, balancing attraction and unease. Ultimately, it becomes a reflection on America itself — on its men and boys, and on the dynamics of power, aggression and inadequacy that run through it.