Temporary street sign in a bulldozed lot with a housing development behind.

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.

Temporary street sign in a bulldozed lot with a housing development behind.
Omaha, NE. January 22, 2022.
Three diamond-shaped signs signal the end of a roadway in front of a large bulldozed lot
Omaha, NE. January 22, 2022.
Sign in front of a snow-covered cornfield that depicts a person showing a couple a new Deer Crest housing development. Words read, "Let's build!"
Omaha, NE. January 22, 2022.
Road winds around a new housing development on one side and a large powerline cooridor on the other.
Omaha, NE. January 22, 2022.
Row of homes behind a bulldozed field.
Omaha, NE. January 22, 2022.
Posted on Posted in Urban Sprawl

4 thoughts on “January 17, 2022”

  1. Oh, yes. Go. Part of the tradition of “The New Topographic” movement, part of which started in Orange County years ago. By the time you are my age, Omaha will probably reach out a hundred miles. If we last. I’m formulating a couple of ideas for a Blurb book. One circles around “The Harvest,” a somewhat sardonic take on what greed has done to us. The other is “Alley Portraits,” images of objects found in alleys. Keep the faith, kiddo. Dan

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  2. Oh, yes. Go. Part of the tradition of “The New Topographic” movement, part of which started in Orange County years ago. By the time you are my age, Omaha will probably reach out a hundred miles. If we last. I’m formulating a couple of ideas for a Blurb book. One circles around “The Harvest,” a somewhat sardonic take on what greed has done to us. The other is “Alley Portraits,” images of objects found in alleys. Keep the faith, kiddo. Dan

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  3. I love these and the theme. I feel for the land that’s watching as the buildings approach… and what of the myriad of other beings. First came the farms, now the subdivisions…

  4. I love these and the theme. I feel for the land that’s watching as the buildings approach… and what of the myriad of other beings. First came the farms, now the subdivisions…

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