“These photographs were taken with a large format field camera while exploring the Western and Midwestern states of America in 2009. Exploring the areas outside of major cities, attention is paid to tourism, recreation, and nature. Documenting these ageing and dated places with only available light, they come to represent an antidote to a globalized culture. At once they seem to be in conversation with the chain-brand stores down the street, symbolizing a brighter time that is now past. Considering the humor and beauty in the subtleties of my photographic exploration, I set out to tell the incomplete and evolving story of what America looks like. I am attracted to tension between nature and the artificial and how that anxiety plays itself out in the American landscape.”