Foreclosed Dreams

Over the last five years, I have been working on a project photographing inside foreclosed houses. The work, " Foreclosed Dreams," explores the ongoing foreclosure crisis that is affecting many Americans. Owning a home was once the American dream. Now that dream, like those homes, is being foreclosed upon. More than one in ten American homeowners are either behind in their mortgage payments or in foreclosure. The resulting empty homes and foreclosed dreams are powerful symbols of lives shattered and families devastated. After the foreclosure and before the houses are cleaned up and returned to the market, there is a fleeting moment when the ghosts of the one-time owners are all that are left. The remaining signs of life that I photograph during this period of time echo the voices and footsteps that once filled these newly emptied houses. Marks on the wall, property left behind, etc., all remind us of what, and who, used to be there. The photographs are an open-ended canvas where viewers can project their own ideas about home, America and family, into the empty spaces of the houses. I started the project in April of 2009, with the goal of understanding the economic upheaval we are living through. I initially photographed in the Central Valley of California, an epicenter of the foreclosure crisis. I have also focused on Rhode Island, which has a foreclosure rate very similar to that of California. Recently I have photographed in other states including Connecticut, Florida, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, North and South Carolina as well as Pennsylvania.