In the 1970s, when I was a student in California, I was very inspired by the photographs of Robert Adams, Lewis Baltz, and Joe Deal.
These photographers, who came from the East, were appalled by the transformations going on in the landscape of the west. Their “fresh eyes” saw what had become nearly invisible to those living in the midst of it. Their photographs show the appalling conversion of natural and agricultural land into vast ugly suburban sprawls.
When I came East a few years ago, I was stunned by the urban landscape here. Instead of new and housing tracts and light industrial parks replacing open lands of the West, in the East the industrial past is just abandoned and left to rot and decay.
The evidence of this shows up in the places where people lived (‘Shelter’), where they shopped (‘Commerce’), where they worked (‘Industry’), and the systems they built to keep it all going (‘Infrastructure’).
Where is the outrage over the Industrialists’ indifference to cleaning up after themselves? How do they shirk responsibility for the aftermath of the depletion of shared resources they’ve consumed? These are the questions I hope to raise and the story I want to tell in this series of photographs.
These photographers, who came from the East, were appalled by the transformations going on in the landscape of the west. Their “fresh eyes” saw what had become nearly invisible to those living in the midst of it. Their photographs show the appalling conversion of natural and agricultural land into vast ugly suburban sprawls.
When I came East a few years ago, I was stunned by the urban landscape here. Instead of new and housing tracts and light industrial parks replacing open lands of the West, in the East the industrial past is just abandoned and left to rot and decay.
The evidence of this shows up in the places where people lived (‘Shelter’), where they shopped (‘Commerce’), where they worked (‘Industry’), and the systems they built to keep it all going (‘Infrastructure’).
Where is the outrage over the Industrialists’ indifference to cleaning up after themselves? How do they shirk responsibility for the aftermath of the depletion of shared resources they’ve consumed? These are the questions I hope to raise and the story I want to tell in this series of photographs.