From 2006 to 2010, I worked with a non-profit housing developer in northeastern Minnesota, overseeing the organization’s single family housing development. I carried my camera with me always, documenting potential sites, progress in the field and the homes upon completion.
In 2007, the economic downturn and collapse of the housing market pushed the organization to shift its focus from building new sustainable houses to redeveloping foreclosed homes. As the work shifted in response to the foreclosure crisis, my lens shifted as well. No more did I just capture the requisite before and after shots of structures, but started to document the very real story of foreclosure that isn’t being told: the impact that foreclosure has on the people inhabiting these homes. It is calling out in the coin wrappers, the refrigerator art, the family photos and other personal items left behind.
The reclamation project was created to document and share this story.
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I also blog about family, nature and craft at cloth.paper.string
