early work

The textile mills that once lined the rivers of my native New England first caught my eye. These great brick structures still stood, though water power had become obsolete and the industry moved south. Inspired by the great documentarians of the 1930’s, I photographed mill villages and cities like Holyoke using a medium format film camera; making a record of what was being lost. When I moved south in 2006 I was hoping for Walker Evans, but instead I found suburban sprawl. Vowing to try harder, I gave myself a “sabbatical” before beginning a new job. For six months, armed with an atlas, I traveled the old roads, exploring my new state and discovered much. Rows of tobacco farms once marched across the landscape, a few remained; country stores stood at crossroads and empty churches were sadly abundant.  Many of the structures in these early images exist only in memory and photographs.