In 2008, when photographer Ryan Donnell and his wife were living in south Philadelphia, their nearest polling location was in a local Italian American social club. It struck Donnell as odd. A St. Louis native, he had grown up with what he thought of as fairly typical polling locations: Firehouses, schools. In Philadelphia, though, it seemed everywhere from a wallpaper store to a museum was a fine place to plunk down a voting machine and open for business. “When I started asking people, they were like, ‘Oh is this a strange place to vote?’” Donnell says. “And then they were like, ‘Well, yeah, I guess it is kind of weird we vote in a frat house.’”



Donnell, who was in between assignments at the time, had his next project: A years-long, cross-country look at the barbershops and dentists’ offices and pool halls where Americans vote. The range of locations, says Donnell, is testament to the diversity of American communities. It is also a glimpse into how, after more than two years of speculation and reporting and punditry on the election beamed out from Washington and New York, the most basic act of democracy still finds its way into American communities stretching across the continent, stitched into the most mundane corners of daily life.



Above, a lifeguard shack in Los Angeles, taken in 2012.

Ryan Donnell