In the housing boom of the past decade, the neighbors who owned land around my family’s Long Island farm have gradually sold and developed their properties. Now, when I visit, I can see new houses looking down at our fields from the top of the hill where the woods used to be. As property taxes continue to rise, my parents face economic pressures to sell our land and move farther from the suburbs of New York City.
Since 2009, I have photographed in mining boom towns and in ranching and farming communities across the western United States. Many of the people in these photographs live on the boundaries between small towns and wild roadless areas. It is not yet profitable for chain stores to move into the most remote communities. Jobs opportunities are also limited, and as ranching and farming become less lucrative, many families struggle to reconcile their fierce loyalty to the land with their growing dependence on mining industries that extract from the land.
My hope is that these photographs shed light on the people who have chosen to remain in the rural West while both the small towns and the wild areas they border continue to disappear.