Sally Stein lives in Los Angeles and teaches in the art history department at the University of California, Irvine (an hour south of LA). She writes about photography, mainly U.S. documentary of the Depression era, and in this season of self-flagellation she began to wonder if that remarkable New Deal operation known as the FSA (Farm Security Administration) might be revived as a loose network of Flag Surveillance Addicts, part-time of course.

It was while driving on the highways that the flags really got to her. She has yet to figure out if the drivers of beflagged cars actually exhibit more aggression or it is just an illusion of military signaletics. She is still trying to capture that sense of being flag-naked and surrounded by an indomitable flotilla of patriotic gas guzzlers.

In her spare time at the shutter of a point-and-shoot, she also photographs people talking on cell phones. She remains undecided whether there's any connection between non-stop pledging allegiance to the flag and the ostentatious display of private satellite communication systems. To sample some of her cell phone portraits, you can check out the cyber gallery at http://fixingshadows.org.