“When man inflicts himself on nature, disaster will result” – Benjamin Gibson

Photograph taken by Win Mcnamee / Getty Images

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/37535767/ns/us_news-washington_post/

“Undoubtedly, life will get a foothold,” he said. “The question is how different it will be.” – LSU Biologist Kevin R. Carman

I am hoping I can go document this tragic event sometime during my school break.  The arrogance with which man approaches the natural world astounds me sometimes.  My thoughts go out to all those affected by it, lives that were lost, ecosystems that may never be the same; and my hope is that those responsible will be brought to justice, tarred and feathered.  That seems like an appropriate punishment.

America Failed

One of the first images in a large series I am doing entitled “America Failed” in which I am attempting to illustrate the slow destruction of smaller towns and the Main St. mentality that has been with us since our country’s founding.  Due to corporate greed, big box retailers, micro economies booming and busting in the communities, planned cities/towns; this slice of Americana will rapidly start to disappear.

When a town was founded it always started from a court house or central strip of local businesses and spread out towards the farms and surrounding area.  Now we have cookie cutter cities that begin to all appear the same and have zero character or speciality.  In these pre-planned cloned towns and cities we get the same big box retailers in every single one.  Gone is the individuality and speciality that used to come from people honing and mastering certain trades that people would come from miles away to acquire these specialized goods and services.

With this comes a great loss of both of our history and some of the ideology this country was founded on.  I consider myself fortunate to be able to document and witness these great towns before they are gone from our American landscape.

Greetings All!

I decided to start a blog to share some of my photography work as well as a few other topics that interest me.  As I run across interesting articles, photography, quotes, news, films, music etc. I’ll give you a heads up and let you know what is influencing me and the world around me.

My hope is that you will gain an insight into what my photography means to me and why I chose to do it.

“I treat the photograph as a work of great complexity in which you can find drama. Add to that a careful composition of landscapes, live photography, the right music and interviews with people, and it becomes a style.”  Ken Burns