A product of the Commission on Reimagining Our Economy from the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Faces of America: Getting By in Our Economy is made up of images and quotes that capture life for working people in the twenty-first-century American economy.

Faces of America seeks to redefine typical images of the economy. Rather than focus on the very rich or the very poor, the Commission engaged four photographers—Adam Perez in Tulare County, California; Caroline Guzman in Williamsport, Pennsylvania; Maen Hammand in Dearborn, Michigan; and Cindy Elizabeth in Third Ward, Houston Texas—to capture what it looks like to try to get by in the United States today in communities that fall around the national median income ($70,784 for a household in 2021). The photographs capture Americans in these communities at work, at home, and volunteering to help their neighbors.

This project also features quotes from the Americans featured in the photographs and from participants in thirty-one listening sessions organized by the Commission around the country. Participants were people whose perspectives are not typically central to economic policy. The Commission believes they should be.