Photos from a walk just north of downtown Omaha on July 23, 2022.
Chair
Vents
Photos from west Omaha. June 26, 2022. Seems like the housing market must be hot when foundations are selling adjacent to huge power lines.
The Sky is Falling
Earlier this week, I made a somewhat impromptu trip to the LA area to visit family. This provided the opportunity to explore the metro area with my Great Uncle Dan on a photography expedition. We paid a visit to some old haunts including the industrial area around Wilimington near Long Beach: certainly not the touristy parts of LA. I feel a lot of gratitude for being able to see these areas of the city with Dan, who’s lived in the area for more than 50 years. Long enough to see the metro completely swallow the basin.
The industrial areas we explored seemed bleaker than they felt in the past for some reason. Perhaps that is a reflection of the place the country is in today. Our failures to provide affordable housing and address climate change being a few of them. The writing on a dumpster beneath a refinery (?) seemed especially poignant: “the sky is falling.” Not sure there is much arguing with Chicken Little today.
May 29, 2022
I carry a relatively large camera, and often in places where people aren’t used to seeing one. As I walked through a new housing development on Omaha’s outskirts, a man standing on a lawn with his family asked me, “what are you taking pictures of?” Maybe he was a little creeped out by me.
“The housing development over there,” I replied, waving toward a new development, which was largely just a bulldozed field.
“For fun?” he asked quizzically. “Yeah,” I replied.
“Yeah,” I replied.
Up until the last part, none of that was a lie. Photographing sprawl on Omaha’s outskirts isn’t particularly fun. It’s mostly frustrating and a lot of work. The subject matter is depressing. It requires a lot of driving around and a lot of fairly uninteresting views before any pay off. Speaking of that part, I don’t get paid for any of this. Yet, I keep going out.
In truth, I’ve never found photography particularly fun. Any of it. And this is probably the activity in which I am most passionate about. What gives? I do find it rewarding and exceedingly challenging. Most importantly, I don’t have choice in the matter. I have to do it. The chase for that elusive frame that can tell an engaging story is a truly addictive one. And it gets worse the more I do it.
Photographing the sprawl on Omaha’s outskirts feels like an important project and something I can’t turn my back to. I don’t anticipate my work will sway any hearts and minds about land use. I’m a pretty terrible self-promoter, so people probably won’t even see these images. But I want there to be some sort of record. For the people that do run across them, I want people to think about these landscapes: what they were; what they’re becoming. What they will be. Who occupies the land? Who gets to decide what happens to landscapes and their inhabitants? Not fun stuff, by any means, for myself or the viewer.
That all being said, I present these images from west Omaha.
May 27, 2022
This field next to the North Omaha power plant caught my eye. The juxtapositions with the stands and the power infrastructure is a fun juxtaposition, I think. And the seat colors are lovely. The second photo here was initially the one I thought was stronger, but now I’m leaning toward the first due to the colors and leading lines.
May 7, 2022
Shopko
April 23, 2022
April 10, 2022
Three vignettes from Nebraska City, NE.
March 26, 2022
A vacant lot, tractor trailer, and some seemingly vacant buildings. A pale blue sky that isn’t sure it’s winter or spring. A lonely tilted light pole sits amidst the pastel hues. “Relationship equipped,” reads the trailer.
