Friday, October 05, 2012

It's been a long time


This is the Sarasota National Golf Course. Unlike Augusta National, anyone can wander onto the premises unhindered, including feral hogs. 

This was the first time I felt fully justified carrying a hand gun while outside of the truck cab.
 




Most houses had at least some of their storm shutters in place, meaning that they are unoccupied or abandoned.



Even though it's a functioning golf course and a barely functioning housing development, the entrance has gone to seed.

Friday, May 11, 2012

Tornadoes, digital imaging, and beheaded pines

One the greatest things about working digitally is the immediacy, even when working in a large format. I took these pictures about 8 hours ago. This was the first chance I had to drive around the Harrison TN area that was hit on April 27th by tornado(es). I still can't process the emotion I felt but I sure as hell can process the images.

Sometimes I have to force myself to stop and make an image, and when I don't give in, it gnaws at me like guilt. I don't want to make these images, I had to make these images.

I made these two, and I was done. I may go back tomorrow, I may not.



Friday, April 06, 2012

the first volume of Alas, Babylon

After much haranguing, I have assembled the first volume of Alas, Babylon, chronicling the first year of the project. It's available as an EPUB file, which should be viewable on just about any book reading device. 
 
Download the EPUB file here.

or

Download the PDF version here.

As an aside, why are there no good EPUB publishing programs?

Monday, March 12, 2012

Parrish, Florida


Driving through Parrish really brought me back to the seeds of this project. Parrish is a typical inland Florida town; populated by maybe a couple thousand people, surrounded by farmland, and close enough to a big city that the farmland is slowly being suburbanized. I stumbled upon this development, Cross Creek. Six years ago, at the back side of the housing boom, some developer decided to built a multi-section development. They built playgrounds, parks, a community pool, a dog run and five model homes, and of course, all the infrastructure needed when these home where built. 

Six years hence, there's no sign of any additional building. We have encroachment back into the roads and parks. There where people out walking the streets on their daily walk, but they didn't live there. Plenty of people came to use the dog run, but none of them lived there either. No kids played in the playgrounds; no one visited the community pool. Even though there's no houses, the Peace River Electrical Coop still has to maintain the equipment; workers where out inspecting the entire development while I was there.

I spent the better part of a day exploring this space. There's so much I wish could be done, so much that could have been done, without creating what it now a blight on the map.









Tuesday, January 24, 2012

Botanica Lakes, Fort Myers, Florda


Botanica Lakes is another development slowly being built out. I had to do a little trespassing to get into the development, but once in I found plenty of creep into the natural world.


This is how my day ended, and pretty much sums it up. Two hours later and $200 lighter I was on the road again. I've expanded my road kit to include a short shovel, and plenty of long planks so I can dig myself out.


Monday, January 09, 2012

"A massive controversy emerged after a University of Iowa professor published a damning portrait of the state in The Atlantic. Here's an update and a look to how young Iowans are shaping the conversation using film and new media."