Batting Cage, Near Zion, IL (2007)

This body of work is a reflection of the cultural landscape; specifically the areas between my former home in Tennessee and my current in Chicago. The deliberate use of color coupled with unique perspective, subjectivity, and the traditional documentary style captures the passage of time within the contemporary American landscape, as well as the people that created it. In these photographs grandiose monuments and picturesque landscapes must yield to the ordinary, which truly defines a culture. In fact, these subjects are so commonplace, that with a glance, many disregard their importance. Places: familiar, overlooked and underappreciated, are finally awarded the attention they deserve.

Collectively, these photographs give the viewer the feeling that the places are simultaneously everywhere and nowhere – the images are less about a specific place and more about interaction and interpretation of their environs. Additionally, by emphasizing the objects that may remain unseen or may not be considered beautiful, questions the very nature of beauty. Many of the photographs carry a sense of melancholy that speak of failed expectations of the American dream never brought to fruition because of urban and suburban expansion and the interstate system. The intention is to help bring focus to these places from the larger, collective, social radar and give the viewer the opportunity to discover the beauty in the mundane.