Old Ideas Rehashed... Lets See if it Works

In college I worked on two projects about development. At the time there were about a million subdivisions popping up all over the Chicago land area. The first project was dubbed 'The Edge of Development'; it dealt with new housing developments that were overtaking farmland and expanding the ever growing suburbs of Chicago. These images were created with a 4x5 view camera and offered a 360 degree view of the landscape. The other project was titled 'Replaced'; it was concerned with the redevelopment of the existing suburbs. Homes that were built in the aftermath of WWII were being torn down and replaced with new homes of intense magnitude and opulence. 'Replaced' questioned the aspects of our society that are wasteful and over the top using the symbol of the emerging modern American home.

Now things have changed. We are five years removed from those times but it might as well have been ten or fifteen. Because of the current economy which has been ravaged by two wars and the bust of the housing market and all that went with it; the production of new homes has all but ground to a halt. Sites of future development five years ago have now become symbols of failure and over extension. What once promised to be the next new neighborhood now stand all but vacant.

Reading List;

Finished-
The Pioneers- James Fennimore Cooper
The Pathfinder- James Fennimore Cooper

Waiting for-
The Prairie- James Fennimore Cooper

Picked up-
The Old Farmers Almanac 2010
Great American Short Stories- From Hawthorne to Hemmingway


More to come.

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