Artist's Statement

Like so many parts of the United States, in rural South Carolina we find places that
are past their heyday, almost gone, but have not disappeared yet. These are places that
have lost their future but still retain traces of their past usefulness or glory. These sites
were once stops along our way to a destination - or destinations in and of themselves.
Now these locations are nothing but “places between.” The images show buildings
and businesses in their twilight, on their way to being razed. Some of the places
presented here have been literally bypassed by faster roads, and all of them, sometimes
quietly other times blatantly, have been left to suffer the injuries of time and neglect.
These places would have echoed with the potential for life even when they were
temporarily empty, once abandoned they become haunted by that lost potential. In
their abandonment they have become the memento mori of our times; they are neither
monumental nor purposeful. These forgotten places well befit our age of consumerism;
where we discard so much and willfully look the other way in the hope of convincing
ourselves that we will get the happily ever after we so desperately crave.