Consuming the American Landscape
Land use and the changing land
Family at Badlands National Park, South Dakota 1990
Water Slide-Mountain, Texas 1986
Earthmover, Texarkana, Texas 1984
Landscaping Stone, Flagstaff, Arizona 1995
Earth Roller, Buckhorn, Pennsylvania 1985
Alaska Pipeline North of Valdez, Alaska 2001
Superfund Cleanup Site Willamette 2001River, Portland, Oregon
Discarded Debris, Montana 1990
Edge of a Landfill, Oklahoma 1989
Mine Tailings, Bingham Canyon Mine, Copperton, Utah 1990
Closed Mine, Climax, Colorado 1998
EPA Remediation Site, Leadville, Colorado 1998
EPA Cleanup Site, Noranda Mine, Colorado 1998
Toxic Coal Mining Pond, Pennsylvania 1989
Gold Mine, Valdez Creek, Alaska 2001
Nickel Mining Slag Remediation, Sudbury, Ontario 2008
Housing Development in Cholla Forest, Sonora Desert, Arizona 1999
Suburban Sprawl, Park City, Utah 1998
Housing Development, Southern California 1989
Golf Course, Sonora Desert, Arizona 1989
Land for sale, Tuscalossa, Alabama 1991
Golf Course Construction, Half Moon Bay, California 1996
New Mall Parking Lot, Southern California 1989
Sun City Development, Oro Valley, Arizona 1992
Lumber Mill, Livingston, Montana 1999
Logging Yarder, Old Growth Forest, Hoh Valley National Forest, Washington 1990
Hoh Valley Rain Forest, Logging in Olympic National Forest, Washington 1997
Clear Cut in the Hoh Valley, Olympic National Forest, Washington 1997
Log Landing And Clear Cut across a Mountain, Willamette Natl. Forest, Oregon 1997
Site of a Federal Timber Sale, Willamette National Forest, Oregon 1997
Cement Moose, Arkansas 1985
Plastic Cows, Buckhorn, Pennsylvania 1986
Fireworks Stand Near Fairbanks, Alaska 2001
Rockrimmon Subdivisions and Pike View Aggregate Mine, Colorado Springs, 2008
Roadside Signs, Former Site of a Petting Farm, Goodyear, Az 2008
Nickel Mining Slag Remediation, Sudbury, Ontario 2008
Nickel Smelter, Copper Cliff, Greater Sudbury, Ontario 2008
Consuming the American Landscape
The work on this site is selected from Consuming the American Landscape, published simultaneously in 2003 by Dewi Lewis Publishing in Great Brittan and Edition Braus in Germany. The book contains over 80 images and is the result of two decades of my work photographing land use in America.
The American landscape has been fertile ground for my photographic investigation of issues facing our society today. The dialectical processes involved in modes of production and resource development infuse the landscape with unexpected levels of interpretation that may cause the viewer to reflect on the geography of consumption and the effects of resource exploitation. The metaphors inherent in my photographs expand their scope beyond their immediate subject matter referring to the larger context of today’s environmental crisis and may also initiate in the audience the process of discovering a deeper level of empathy with
the earth.
If reverence for the earth is still possible, as called for by such thinkers as Suzi Gablik and Henryk Skolimowski it must happen in a world of diminished purity. It is my hope that the ironic beauty that I find in the altered or threatened sites that I photograph will create an opening for my audience to discover multiple layers of meaning in the landscape while maintaining a critical awareness of the environmental issues addressed in my photographic work.