Once in a while I’m capable of something that more resembles a traditional scenic. Found at Neale Woods outside Omaha after a fresh snow.
January at Neale Woods
Month: January 2022
January 15, 2022
“Ecotone” comes from the field of ecology and generally refers to a transitional area between two different communities. That word comes to my mind frequently walking in Omaha. An area of town north of Cuming street near Creighton University is a major conglomeration of ecotones. It’s an area in which old factory-turned apartment buildings combine with industrial areas, low-income housing, and cookie-cutter housing tracts that look straight out of suburbia. The photo below caught my eye on a cold January day exploring the area. I think it’s also a new addition to my series Omaha Gothic.
January 22, 2022
From a walk to downtown Omaha. The different shapes and pastel drab colors caught my eye in this one. A little snow is still hanging on.
January 17, 2022
It’s been awhile since I’ve worked on my Omaha urban sprawl project. Urban sprawl photography on the outskirts of Omaha feels like an important project, but I find it incredibly challenging and requires more driving around than I’d like. Yet this month, I felt this project tugging. There is something about snow and bright blue skies against bulldozed landscapes that were once cornfields, and before that prairie. I wonder, are cookie-cutter developments symbolize the so-called “inventively of progress,” or are they representative of something more sinister?
Yet, I remind myself my 1910-era home in Midtown Omaha was once on the edge of the cornfields and prairie. Bruce Springsteen sang in 1978, “There’s a darkness on the edge of town.” Interesting how that edge of town someday becomes the center. Still, walking among burned out buildings and impoverished streets toward the center of town, I wonder why we can’t take care of what we already have.
