Page 7 - Demo

5PrefaceThis book project didn%u2019t start out as a project at all. Instead, it evolved%u2014rather slowly%u2014as a result of taking rides in the country. Throughout our marriage, my wife, Lynn, and I have spent much of our leisure time driving on back roads in various parts of the Midwest. For us, discovering something interesting and unforeseen around the next bend has provided a great deal of enjoyment. During many of our early years together, I didn%u2019t take a camera with me. Then, one day, I simply decided to put my camera in the car whenever we left home. So, we%u2019d head off for an afternoon drive, see a picturesque scene or building, and I%u2019d stop to photograph it. For a long time, both the driving and the photography were quite random. After a while, I found that I was photographing more and more machinery, buildings, vehicles, and man-made structures that were decaying, worn-out, or abandoned%u2014objects that were once the pride of their owners and their age, but were now well past their prime. Upon seeing some of these images for the first time, a friend asked %u201cWhy are you taking so many pictures of things that are falling apart?%u201dAt first, I couldn%u2019t answer her question. But I soon understood that I was recording on film more than the visible, physicality where lives had been lived. I was being drawn to the energy of the individuals whose lives had once been intertwined with the buildings and other objects. So, for me, there are people in these images%u2014it%u2019s just that they can no longer be seen. As a result, I believe my photographs are more than simple snapshots. They are memorials, tributes, and monuments to the lives of the people who moved on%u2014the homeowners, equipment operators, builders, employers, employees, families%u2014those who have left some of themselves in the remains of their now-cast-aside possessions. I often wonder about these people. What happened to the women who raised their families, canned vegetables, and sewed quilts in that now-empty farm house? What about the men who worked