The American West is still expanding, but at what cost? In his acclaimed book from 1974, The New West, the photographer Robert Adams documented the anarchic suburban development from Wyoming to New Mexico: “building is monotonous, and life inside is frozen by anonymity and loneliness”. In this series of medium format photos taken with a 1951 and a 1965 Rolleiflex cameras, I photograph the rapid changes occurring at the frontiers of suburban landscapes in the San Francisco Bay Area, California. Fields are being eaten by new standardized million-dollar homes, which linger along busy highways. 

 

I use Kodak Portra 400 films to magnify my subject’s natural and smooth colors. I document fields receding to be replaced by charmless but highly profitable gated constructions. Is this what we want to call home? Are these the kinds of landscapes and lives we dream of? 

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The photograph "Dreamy Housing Project" (number 8 in this series) has won the first place award in the "Suburban" International Call for Art, New York Center for Photographic Art (June 2022) and was among the 20 finalists in the Life Framer international competition "Home Sweet Home" (May 2023). It will also be exhibited at the De Young Museum of San Francisco during the "De Young Open 2023" exhibit, Sep 30, 2023-Jan 7, 2024. Ten photos from this series have finally been selected to be a finalist at Photolucida Critical Mass 2023. 

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A zine on this series is available for purchase here: zine

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