Early on in my first year (of three) in art school in Manhattan, I attended a mandatory discussion of the state of the US outside NYC, and the Rustbelt in particular, by a distinguished civic group. Students like me were allowed to listen but not comment. It was clear from the outset that none of these midtown worthies had ever ventured, physically or mentally, as far afield as Inwood, or the Bronx, Brooklyn or Queens. Staten Island, where I grew up, was for them the abode of dragons.
These were sophisticated minds that had no idea how ordinary people live or what they think, either in NYC or elsewhere. An untended but real eye-opener.
I decided then and there to start a photo project, now in year seven, centered on the everyday world outside the Manhattan bubble.
Most of my effort to date has been in eastern Pennsylvania, a region whose overall economy has still not recovered from the almost three-quarter-of-a-century ago floods that collapsed the underground coal mines that were its heart.
The town park in Canadensis (pop: 3000-) strikes me as a metaphor for the region as a whole. A quick glance as you're driving through reveals nothing special either about the town or the park. But if you park your car and look around a bit, you begin to experience the extraordinary beauty that quietly resides there, not overly concerned about whether strangers experience it or not.

















