Working Neighborhoods

In 2009, I began photographically examining different neighborhoods that are typically stereotyped as working class. These are neighborhoods in which owning property and an affordable home is possible for those of modest means. The interlocking of the work and home within these neighborhoods is so complete that within society the word “working” is even used in the labeling of these neighborhoods. The home environment is meant to be a peaceful space where one can escape from the public and their place of work. I investigate how the separation between the industrial and the domestic can become indistinct, when railroads and trucking companies become the next-door neighbors, storage containers become backdrops for serene parks and playgrounds, and electrical towers frame the home. The exteriors of the houses that populate these locations can show a tenuous balance between pride of place and the moments when that pride is lost. Although the industrial environments that populate these neighborhoods can at times seem to be ominous, a quintessential optimism is evident through the ability of the residential and industrial environments to find some small way to peacefully co-exist.