“A Quiet America”

From late July through early August I drove from Brooklyn to Los Angeles. My goal was not to photograph simply landscapes - as in part these are, instead my desire was to photograph traces of humanity, the things we add to the environment to make our lives and economy continue. What are these things like when we are not using them, are they useless? To me they pulse with the energy of things past and things yet to come.

I am interested in people, although on first glance one might think the opposite, as my pictures do not have people in them. I try to document them after they have gone home, by looking at what’s left behind.… I am interested in the way things look when they are at rest.

With this current group of photographs, I’ve tried to document America at rest, “A Quiet America”. While traveling back roads through the middle of the country, I took pictures of rural places with less traffic than I’m used to in Los Angeles or New York, but places in which the footprint of humanity is still heavily present.

Quiet America, Gallery Ocho March, 2008