Urbanization
Metropolitan Phoenix is growing and continues to change for the past 70 years from a rural farming community to one that is emerging with business, residential growth and industry. Now reaching a population of 6.3 million the Phoenix metropolitan area is the 4th most populous city in the United States. Population growth continues to push the boundaries of the landscape converting it from farmland and desert into residential and commercial opportunities for the inhabitants. This series of diptychs intends to capture the industrial and technological growth alongside the traditional and rural community of farming and livestock.
This project is a linguistic concept telling the story of the development of a rural community into a suburban and developed area. The literal subject matter is the evolving landscape around the Phoenix metropolitan area in Arizona. The smaller cities such as Surprise, Queen Creek, and San Tan Valley Arizona are growing and are changing from a rural farming community to one that is emerging with business, residential growth and industry. The subject matter is rural life and industrial/technological growth in a community. Side by side imagery of lesser developed areas such as wide open spaces or rural roads contrasted against dense urbanization and concrete.
Capturing this industrial and technological growth alongside the traditional and rural community of farming and livestock in diptych photographs is the intent. The actual subject is economic and population growth has positive and negative implications. As we embrace convenience and new, we are forced to let go of the traditional and old. The intent is to show side by side what is being replaced by growth. This may be positive for a community’s economy, the convenience of the inhabitants and allows it to sustain and keep up with other cities. However, it is not without cost of replacing older views. While more than simply recording how these lands appear at this moment is a small component; more important is to communicate and create awareness to the continued removal of open space only to fill it with more buildings of homes, distribution centers and strip malls that look like every other corner in the metropolitan area. I hope the scenes push the project into social awareness. By contrasting the photos from one corner to the next will completely illustrate the process. Words cannot express the concept in such a powerful way as the idea of economic growth or personal convenience is overpowering. We can rationalize and justify the destruction and construction with our words but to visually see one landscape disappear and be replaced by another creates an undeniable accountability.
The genre chosen is lyrical documentary. While there is not a universally accepted definition of lyrical documentary, lyrical documentary is a social landscape. The aesthetics are a sharp focus of landscape. This series has been shot completely in digital and utilizing standard post processing procedures to push color with other basic adjustments. The images of the farming or open spaces use leveling while the construction and buildings use sharpening. This creates additional tension. All images have been shot from eye level as if the viewer were standing at the edge of the property. Additionally, the two images within each diptych have been recorded within eye shot to further illustrate that these changes are not miles apart. This photographic syntax keeps a realistic and consistent vantage.
Read MoreThis project is a linguistic concept telling the story of the development of a rural community into a suburban and developed area. The literal subject matter is the evolving landscape around the Phoenix metropolitan area in Arizona. The smaller cities such as Surprise, Queen Creek, and San Tan Valley Arizona are growing and are changing from a rural farming community to one that is emerging with business, residential growth and industry. The subject matter is rural life and industrial/technological growth in a community. Side by side imagery of lesser developed areas such as wide open spaces or rural roads contrasted against dense urbanization and concrete.
Capturing this industrial and technological growth alongside the traditional and rural community of farming and livestock in diptych photographs is the intent. The actual subject is economic and population growth has positive and negative implications. As we embrace convenience and new, we are forced to let go of the traditional and old. The intent is to show side by side what is being replaced by growth. This may be positive for a community’s economy, the convenience of the inhabitants and allows it to sustain and keep up with other cities. However, it is not without cost of replacing older views. While more than simply recording how these lands appear at this moment is a small component; more important is to communicate and create awareness to the continued removal of open space only to fill it with more buildings of homes, distribution centers and strip malls that look like every other corner in the metropolitan area. I hope the scenes push the project into social awareness. By contrasting the photos from one corner to the next will completely illustrate the process. Words cannot express the concept in such a powerful way as the idea of economic growth or personal convenience is overpowering. We can rationalize and justify the destruction and construction with our words but to visually see one landscape disappear and be replaced by another creates an undeniable accountability.
The genre chosen is lyrical documentary. While there is not a universally accepted definition of lyrical documentary, lyrical documentary is a social landscape. The aesthetics are a sharp focus of landscape. This series has been shot completely in digital and utilizing standard post processing procedures to push color with other basic adjustments. The images of the farming or open spaces use leveling while the construction and buildings use sharpening. This creates additional tension. All images have been shot from eye level as if the viewer were standing at the edge of the property. Additionally, the two images within each diptych have been recorded within eye shot to further illustrate that these changes are not miles apart. This photographic syntax keeps a realistic and consistent vantage.
