The Homeland Project

““Homeland” is a Wet Plate Collodion photo essay documenting the collapse of the American economy by focusing on the people who are re-envisioning and rebuilding life within it. By documenting grassroots efforts across the country, this project aims to connect disparate communities and individuals into a national movement with common ideological threads.

... These grassroots practices are being sought out because of my belief that they constitute a cohesive counter-movement to major social and economic failures of globalized American capitalism. I also believe that the individuals who live in the areas of this country that have been most neglected by industry and investment have been more able to adapt to decaying infrastructure with visionary spirit. It is within this context of renewal within collapse that I situate “Homeland”.

What I’m trying to do is show that in some ways a Utopian world on a mass scale is really not possible. But what’s happening on a small, almost neighborhood, scale or the small communities that are creating these alternative worlds, that’s significant and that poses a viable alternative to whatever people envision. Like a radical shift in the future. It puts the responsibility on the individual instead of waiting for bureaucracy to change. Bureaucracy will probably never change and it’s up to you to want to envision your own world, and you should be empowered to do it. That’s really why I think it’s an important project. I don’t know if other people see that.”