In these photo galleries and photostories, I explore what it means to live in place and under capitalism. How does place work? How does capitalism work? How do place and capitalism work together? How do they work in opposition to each other? How do the contradictions of place and capitalism work in relation to the crisis tendencies of the world in which we live? Is the day approaching when humanity will no longer be able to live in place and under capitalism?
I consider these questions from a Marxist perspective. Some of you may find this perspective useful; others may not. Either way, I hope you will find the questions worth asking.
A word about the format of this website and my work process. The galleries are of places I have visited and photographed. They provide documentary material for the photostories which combine historical analysis, travel writing and personal memoir. The day after returning from a trip, I will start editing the photos and uploading the best ones to this website. On those rare occasions when the muses are smiling, I will compose the story in my head while on the shoot or on my way back home. Most of the time, however, my pictures will have to simmer in the slow cooker before I'm ready to write, and even then some might never make it into a story. Experience has taught me that the addition of even one photograph can change the way I see others, so I make it a habit to scroll through the archive every few months in search of visual patterns and connections that may have been missed the first time around. If I'm lucky and something jumps out, I will work the material into a new photostory.
I plan to visit more places, take more pictures, add more galleries and compose more photostories. Stay tuned for updates.